Betsy Lauren Cline

Major: Political Science Minor: Journalism

University Honors with Honors in Political Science

Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Meinhold

THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON TRADITIONAL

MEDIA IN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

In the last decade, the new media, i.e. campaign Web sites and blogs, e-mail, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, has fast become a staple of political journalism. As the role of new media has grown, it has become inextricably linked with traditional media outlets, especially the writings of opinion columnists. This study examines the development of new media in relationship to the presidential primaries of 2004 and 2008 and the years leading up to them. To examine the impact of new media on old media, I analyzed the works of four influential opinion columnists, Maureen Dowd, Eugene Robinson, George Will, and David Brooks, in the lead-up to and during the presidential primaries of 2004 and 2008. I catalogued each reference to the media in columns relating the presidential primaries. From my research, I found that as the role of new media increased in popular culture, its influence in the writings of op-ed writers also increased. Liberal columnists were more likely to refer to new media in their work then conservative columnists; the same is true for newspapers: the more liberal of the newspapers (The New York Times) had more references to the new media in the lead-up to the 2004 and the 2008 presidential primaries. The implications of such a study are relevant in today’s society because as new media continues to grow, its influence will be even more pervasive in traditional media outlets.