On September 30th, Steve Clemons visited MODUL University Vienna to give a captivating presentation on "Electing the American President: Do New Media, Blogs and the Net Make a Difference?".

Mr. Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, which aims to promote a new American internationalism that combines a tough-minded realism about America's interests in the world with a pragmatic idealism about the kind of world order best suited to America's democratic way of life. He is also the publisher of the well-known blog "The Washington Note".

Prior to presentation, which was co-hosted by the Unites States Embassy, Prof. Arno Scharl introduced attendants to the university's Department of New Media Technology and outlined current research activities, including the recently re-launched US Election 2008 Web Monitor and Sentiment Quiz.

Mr. Clemons focused on how the Web impacts the funding of political campaigns, illustrating his arguments with examples of the campaigns for the upcoming US presidential election. In the second part of his talk and the ensuing discussion, Mr. Clemons shared his expert knowledge on how low-overhead forms of individual and collaborative publishing are changing the news media industry, and how think tanks can benefit from this development.