Abstract The paper begins with an acknowledgement of the fact that social media was a relatively new concept in American elections and offered unique opportunities to those who chose to embrace it. Thereafter, three theories are examined and they are then related to the Obama win. The first was the theory of hegemony which argues that mass media can dictate common views but these have to be done through consent. Additionally, the dominated class is often in a state of struggle. Obama won this election because he captured the inequalities brought about by the ruling class and marketed himself as a change agent through social media. The second theory was the media influence theory where advocates claim that mass media dictates the most pressing social and political items. The theory related to the Obama campaign because he was able to capture these pressing needs in his campaign and offered solutions to them by articulating them through social media. The third theory was semiotics which encompasses the creation of meaning through signification. The latter theory can assist one in understanding the 2008 election because through perfecting encoding and decoding of messages in social media, Obama was able to improve communication and to get his message across. All these aspects contributed to his triumph. Introduction President Barrack Obama was one of the most unconventional candidates to ever win a US presidential election and many reasons can be attributed to his success – one such reason is the role that social media played in his election campaign. The 2008 campaign occurred at a time when technology had been embraced as a real and relevant part of Americans’ communication strategies. Compared to the elections of 2004, social media in the 2008 election was no longer a reserve for teenagers or technology enthusiasts; it had become a crucial part of the day to day lives of Americans. In fact, statistics showed that seventy seven percent of the entire American population depended upon social media at the time of the election. However, the existence and popularity of social media may not necessarily imply that a candidate is assured of a win. There were still other social and political factors that came into play to catapult this Democratic Party candidate into victory and the best way to understand these factors is through theoretical analyses derived from mass media studies. (Cowell, 2009)The paper shall focus on three particular theories i.e. Marxist hegemony theory, media influence theory or media effects theory and semiotics theory and how these approaches interplayed or affected the election outcome. Literature review Antonio Gramsci was one of the pioneers of Marxist media theory in what he called hegemony. Hegemony refers to domination of one social class over another in the social arena, political arena and also in the way that class projects its views. Gramsci asserted that the dominated class usually accepts this method of living as being natural; however, this domination is never done forcefully in that the latter class must give consent to it. In fact, the process of seeking consent is what constitutes a struggle that is always a part of this system. (Chandler, 2005) After understanding what constitutes hegemony in a more general perspective, it is essential to look into this term with reference to media studies. In media studies,