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Political super branding through the use of social media technology : the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Technology: Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This study seeks to examine the exponential growth of social media
technology as a key component in recent American political campaigning, as
well as its use and impact on the larger disciplines of marketing and
branding. Adopting the approach of a case study with the focus firmly on the
current American president, Barack Obama, the study identifies the key
media and technologies used in the build-up to the 2008 American
presidential elections in order to unpack and understand how such media
channels, technological platforms and patterns were successfully utilised.
References are also made to the concepts of ‘branding’ and ‘super branding’
in the discussion, and to the myriad ways in which social media has helped
create
and
roll-out
what
has
since
become
commonly
known
as ‘brand Obama’.
To provide a framework for the discussion and in order to further understand
the rapid growth and proliferation of social media on the political campaigning
landscape, a comparison is made with the 2004 American presidential
election campaign. This, it is posited, will assist us understand the drivers of
new media technologies especially as they are used to create and impact
positively on the growth of political super brands.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:dut/oai:localhost:10321/946
Date05 December 2013
CreatorsPillay, Nadas Ramachandra
ContributorsVeeran, Naresh Denny
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format134 p

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