The explosion of News Networks has also contributed to this minute by minute reporting. .
Jake Tapper is a Political Correspondent for the edgy Internet News site "Salon.com". He calls this type of journalism, "an entirely new form of media". He attests that this new technology, the Internet, "has allowed Salon magazine to appear on tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people's computer screens every morning." This online magazine has a following of 1.7 million readers a month. The Internet allows a journalist to be a bit more adventurous in their writing. In the words of Jake Tapper, "The edge provided by Internet publication deadlines - has allowed edgier writing and edgier issues to slice politicians with more than paper cut-size stings." The question that needs to be asked, "Is the Internet the campaign tool of the future?".
II. Citizen Involvement and Donations.
Another benefit the Internet has provided to society is citizen involvement. It is now possible for a citizen to volunteer to help on a particular political campaign. Simply by signing up on the candidate's web site, a volunteer can hold town meetings, distribute candidate literature, or instantly send in a contribution, via credit card. This is perhaps the largest motivation for a political candidate to have a Web site. Internet donations from the public can be an effective, quick, and inexpensive way for a candidate to raise funds. .
During the 2000 Presidential Campaign Primary, John McCain raised twice the amount of money from Internet donations than did Al Gore and George Bush combined. Between December of 1999 and February of 2000, the McCain camp raised over 4 million dollars online. In contrast, the Bush camp raised $350,000; along with the Gore camp, which barely went over 1 million dollars in online contributions. As shown in Table 1;.
Table 1 .
Candidate Online raised through 12/31/99 Online Contributions through 02/15/00 Total contributions through 02/15/00 Online Contributions as % of Total Contributions.
