ABSTRACT
The social media element of the 2008 Barack Obama campaign became a global phenomenon, and inspired politicians and staffers around the world to engage with voters through user-generated content and interactive features. This chapter discusses characteristics of the US political system, United States politics, and the implications of these characteristics for the relations between the media and politics. The United States' influence in world politics has historical and political reasons, but also the media and cultural industries have contributed to making the US powerful. The chapter focuses on the theory of the incumbent advantage, which is one of the most well documented features of US elections. The reluctant use of Twitter features indicates that both campaigns aimed for accessible tweets as they serve the purpose of political marketing better than complex tweets. The avoidance of dialogue supported the clear-cut and unambiguous style preferred by marketing, and served the purpose of securing campaign staffers control of the account without time-consuming engagement.
