Information Era Of The American Electoral Politics Research

Represented by the Internet, the information technology and informatized media have been developing fantastically since the 1990s. So far Internet has become an indispensable part in people's daily life. In the United State of America, Internet and other informatized media not only inherit the political functions, such as agenda setting, information communicating and supervising organs of authority from the traditional media, but also overtake traditional media by means of technical advantages. In a word, the Internet is playing a more and more important role in the American political life, due to its features of openness and popularityIn the political area, Internet and other informatized media have their highlight effect on the elections. Since the 1990s, Internet has gradually got involved in American elections, it was first used as a tool to build up candidates'images, but today it can even affect the final outcome of campaigns. The internet's effect in the elections is proportional to the development of internet itself. Take the 2006 Mid-Term Election as an example, the voters'dependent level on internet, number of voters who use internet to participate in the election, the pattern of internet using in the election and the effect of internet in this election all made a new record in the American election history. Comparing with the statistical data, what can prove the changes of American election in the information age is the democracy innovation brought by the internet media. Thus, voters are offered more channels to be involved in the election campaign and a"white-box politics", as a result, has been coming into being and the democratization will be promoted as well.However, technology itself could not solve everything. The problems and defects existing all the way in the American democracy and American elections can not be resolved shortly only by Internet and information technology, either. On the contrary, new problems such as false information may keep emerging all the time, which requires more attention and more creative ideas or solutions. Nevertheless, the American Elections has been entering into the age of information, and the trend will remain.