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oai:openscholar.dut.ac.za:10321/9462025-03-07T22:45:17Zcom_10321_7col_10321_8

Political super branding through the use of social media technology : the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008 Pillay, Nadas Ramachandra Veeran, Naresh Denny Social media--Political aspects--United States Internet in political campaigns--United States Political campaigns--United States Mass media--Political aspects--United States A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Technology: Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 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. M 2013-12-05T06:05:02Z 2013-12-05T06:05:02Z 2013-12-05 Thesis 457767 http://hdl.handle.net/10321/946 https://doi.org/10.51415/10321/946 en 134 p application/pdf