Social Media and Politics

Price, Tom. "Social Media and Politics: Do Facebook and Twitter Influence Voters?" CQ Researcher 12 Oct. 2012: 865-88. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Social media, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, have become major battlegrounds in this year's elections.
Candidates are using the platforms to identify and organize supporters and raise funds. They bypass traditional news media to send their messages unfiltered to the public. They target niche audiences with growing precision, contact hard-to-reach voters, extend their influence as online supporters forward their messages and carry out many campaign tasks at much lower cost than before. The increasing ability of campaign strategists to collect and analyze information about individual voters has raised privacy concerns, and many worry that the social networks' insular nature contributes to political polarization. But social media's low cost, ease of use and wide reach also raise hopes that they can level the campaign-spending playing field. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

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Rainie, Lee, et al. Social Media and Political Engagement. 19 Oct. 2012. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew Research Center. Web. "The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many Americans. Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter... 66% of social media users have employed the platforms to post their thoughts about civic and political issues..." 13 page report on a national survey; page links to full report as well as earlier reports.