Obama's 2008 Election: Race, Civil Rights & Social Media
This paper examines the historic 2008 election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States, situating it within the longer arc of the American Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s onward. The paper analyzes how Obama's campaign transcended racial politics by appealing to a broad coalition of voters disillusioned with the Bush administration, and how it pioneered the use of social networking platforms and internet tools to mobilize supporters. It also considers political advertising strategies, the dynamics of the Democratic primary, diversity management, and the cultural significance of Obama's victory for a post-racial American society.
- Introduction: A Historic Election: Obama's election as cultural and political turning point
- Civil Rights History and Its Legacy: 1950s Civil Rights Movement roots of Obama's victory
- Political Advertising and Propaganda: Goals and methods of modern political advertising
- The Democratic Primary and Campaign Struggles: Obama vs. Clinton primary race and nomination
- Race, Social Networking, and the Obama Campaign: Internet and SNS strategy transforming 2008 campaign
- Conclusion: Toward a Post-Racial Society: Race, character, and Obama's lasting social legacy
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What makes this paper effective
- Effectively connects a contemporary political event — the 2008 Obama election — to a deep historical foundation in the Civil Rights Movement, giving the analysis both immediate relevance and long-term context.
- Draws on a diverse range of sources including academic journals, books, and news media, demonstrating broad research across disciplines (history, sociology, political science, and communications).
- Incorporates direct quotations from primary figures — Obama himself, campaign managers, and journalists — to ground abstract arguments in concrete evidence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses historical contextualization as a core analytical technique: by tracing the arc of American racial history from the 1950s through the Civil Rights Movement, it builds a framework that makes Obama's election comprehensible as a social milestone rather than an isolated event. This technique of embedding a contemporary phenomenon in its historical and sociological context is characteristic of effective research in political science and American studies.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a broad argument about the cultural significance of Obama's election, then moves through a historical literature review covering the 1950s and the Civil Rights Movement. It transitions to an analysis of political advertising theory, followed by a narrative of the 2008 primary campaign. The longest section examines the intersection of race, social networking, and digital media strategy. The paper concludes with a normative reflection on race in American society. This funnel structure — from broad historical context to specific campaign mechanics to forward-looking social commentary — gives the argument coherence and progressive momentum.
Introduction: A Historic Election
History was made in November 2008 — not just American history, but world history — as the United States elected its first African-American President. The election of a Black man as President, as unheard of as it might have been just fifty years ago, or even twenty-five years ago, was historic because it represented a national catharsis: a repudiation of the greed, avarice, and selfishness that had characterized American society for the preceding eight years. Obama's election was a referendum on a new America — a younger America with an optimistic, but not naive, view of the grave and serious problems it faced. It represented a dramatic departure from past politicians in that Obama stood for more open government, dialogue with international actors who might disagree with American policies, a standard of excellence and honesty that he himself embodied, and a genuine desire to change the way government is to how government "can be" (Glasrud and Wintz, eds., 2009).
Some have postulated that there was a racial dimension to the Obama election. In its most basic form, of course race was a factor — he is African-American. But rather than seeing that as the reason for his election, it is more accurate to say that Obama spoke to the electorate in new ways and engaged younger, more vital voters through the use of technology and social networking platforms (Franklin, 2009).
It was not the Black vote alone that put Obama in office — only 13% of the electorate were of African-American descent. Nor was it just liberal Democrats. Rather, it was a broad coalition of Americans who said, upon exiting the polls, that they had "had enough" of the way the Bush administration had treated them. They wanted someone who, to paraphrase John Locke, would offer a social contract granting the people of America the ability to pursue their own inalienable rights to freedom, justice, and self-actualization. Additionally, this campaign, like no other before it, utilized social networking tools to put the candidate in direct contact with constituents. For the first time in history, a candidate was more than a voice on television — he was accessible, he commented regularly, and he was "just like the rest of us" (Ifill, 2009).
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