Not a persuader yet

The question of the Internet as a persuasive tool has been discussed on the class blogs as well as in class. Although there has been debate on the issue, it seems to me that the Internet as a campaign tool is, as Bimber and Davis deduced in Chapeter 6, clearly a reinforcement tool and not yet a persuasive tool. This, however, is not to say that the Internet should not or even could not become a persuasive tool in campaiging, it simply has not yet taken on that role. Candidates have learned to use the other media outlets as persuasive devices. Now, they must discover how to effectively use this new medium to not only reinforce their supporters, as they are successfully doing, but to persuade undecideds. This medium has a great capacity to be used for persuasive purposes, it is up to the candidates to figure out how to best utilize that capacity.