Millennial Makeover: Morley Winograd and Michael Hais Vocab:

PACsa. PACs are groups of people who get together to give money to candidates in order to help finance a campaign. b. In Millennial Makeovers, Winograd and Hais, explain that individuals in PACs such as the Warner Effort set out to aid candidates striving to do the majority of their campaigning via the Internet.

Netroots Political Activistsa. Netroots Political Activists are the growing population of people who are becoming politically active on line. b. Jerome Armstrong, a prominent member of different campaign teams, coined the term in his studies of online campaigning. Interest Groups a. Interest Groups are groups of people whom intent to influence public policy through politics. b. The Internet is a very resourceful use of getting candidates in touch with Interest groups in order to team up and bring policies to the table.

Summary:
In Millennial Makeover by Morley Winograd and Michael Hais, the two authors explore and inform the usefulness of campaigning on the Internet. They trace the rise of Netroots Political Activists and their online communities on how people meet, participate and interact on the Internet all involving politics. They dive into a story of two young men who ran for state legislature in New Hampshire using mostly the internet and social media and network strategies to game popularity and public eye. The authors target sites such as Facebook and Youtube for having the greatest impact on voters (mostly young) and politics. Now days it is not uncommon to see a campaign add on a youtube video or on a sidebar on facebook or twitter, this has all sprung mostly from the two young men who made such an impact with their revolutionary on line campaign tactics. Internet campaigning has opened up many possibilities that were not there before, it is a lot easier for candidates to get their names and their missions out without being over shadowed by long standing veteran candidates who have been doing it for years. Also, with the boom of Internet use by Americans so many more people are exposed to what is going on in the government and who they can vote for. It has been proven that the Internet has brought in many more new (typically younger) voters than anything before. The two young men running for state legislatures both were able to gain enough votes and plurality to be awarded a seat.

They both singlehandedly attribute their victories to their use of social networking and its ability to spread their name and message.

Evaluation:
Social media has had a great impact on all aspects of our lives and accepting it and using it to your advantage is key to being successful in the political world. The Internet can be such a useful tool when a candidate is running for office and with our country in its current state the Internet is the best access to all of Americas citizens. With sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitters user numbers rising exponentially the time to invest is NOW. Even 8 years ago when the two young state representatives from New Hampshire ran for office, they proved that the young primitive Internet could be utilized to help win elections and spread the word, the possibilities now are much greater. In the last Presidential election more ads were displayed on internet sites and social media forms than TV and print forms, which just goes to show that D.C is catching on to this snowball effect. Because of the people of todays desires to share and learn things through the Internet it is imperative for politicians to use the internet to reach out to them. More than two thirds of people who use the internet consider that their friends are their main source of learning information and hearing about current events, which just so happens to be very common things to share on line. Netroots activists are so much more likely to share opinions and influence others than average non-internet using citizens and due to the massive size of the current netrooting and internet using numbers, the communication of information, attitudes, and beliefs will reshape American politics for many years to come. The key of reaching modern citizens is clearly through the internet.