Social Media In Politics

Social Media in Politics

To many social media is just but another form of communication channel for the society to use.  However, a closer review of the uses that the social media has been put to, in the recent past, reveals that there is more to it than just being another form of communication and interaction for the public. Basically, the rise of the social media has had far reaching implications not only on the way the society communicates and interacts, but also on the way the local authorities have been and continues to interact with its stakeholders. The rise of the social media has ideally transformed the way in which the society works, socializes and communicates. Such effects of the social media have infiltrated in many of the state’s functions. In the recent past, the social media’s role in the local governments’ policies, procedures and elections has increased (Dadashzadeh 2010). Research reveals that scholars are in agreement with the social media’s impacts and implications on such states’ functions. However, the level of such impacts and implications on such functions remains the subject of debate, to many scholars. Therefore, this paper sought to review the effect of the rise of the social media on the local governments’ policies, procedures and elections in the modern society.

            The social media is defined as the use of electronic tools and platforms to publish, converse and share information. The social media usage has emerged as a compliment to the existing two-way electronic communication technique, which include emails and websites. In the recent past, the social media technology has emerged as a popular, rapidly growing and constantly evolving means of communication (Downey 2012). The technology has positioned itself as an increasingly important means of communication, not only for the public, but also for the authorities as means through which its staff communicates with each other, as well as engages the community. The readership and viewership of the traditional media such as print media, radio and television are slowly declining amongst the different demographic groups, specifically among the young people. On the other hand, social media usage is increasing rapidly, making it the most efficient way of engaging a wider public. Social media is an open channel of communication, meaning a wide variety of individuals can view, comment on, or share materials. The platform is designed to be shareable, meaning there are very little barriers for people to share back and forth on opinions with as potentially wide audience.

The rise of the social media in the modern world has transformed both local and international policy development context. Considering that policymaking is a political process that is affected by various social and economic factors, the social media is continuously shaping the social context through which the policies are being developed. In the past, the citizens would gain information on various policies and how they affected them, and the government would have difficulties, besides it was costly for the government to gain feedback on their various programs and policies. The social media, however, has eased this difficulty, increasing the interaction not only between the policy makers and the citizens, but also between the citizens themselves, a dimension that was not there in the traditional communication channels..

Social media usage by the public has enhanced transparency in policy development. The public is constantly using social media to push for transparency in both local and international policy formation processes. The social media provides a public interaction platform for the public to lobby for more transparency from their local governments in the way of developing policies that affect them. With the explosion of the social media technologies, the issues with privacy in governance are slowly becoming a thing of the past. With increased access to governance information, the enhanced communication and information circulation, the public can now share information concerning governance policies. The rise of social media has provided the community with an opportunity to engage and participate actively in discussions that are of national importance, interest and that are of concern to them at and increased extend and promptly than before.

            In addition, social media usage has gone beyond transparency demands in the public policy development processes into demands for increased citizen engagement in policy development. As result of the social media, government agencies have created active citizen participation in their policy development processes. Therefore, the social media’s promotion of public engagement has resulted better decision being taken regarding policy formation through better capturing of the public knowledge and opinion on the policies. The public engagement has not only enhanced the publics’ understanding of the policies, but also has increased the public support through legitimizing the solutions. Therefore, by enhancing transparency and public participation in the policy development process, the social media usage by the public is promoting accountability, which is one of the key elements of good governance.

            As a response to the increased public pressure from the usage of the social media, to push for increased participation and more transparency in the development of the policies that affect them, governments across the world are increasingly incorporating social media platforms in their day-to-day governance operations. The increasing social media integration in governance and community affairs has been a significant change agent in shaping the future democratic models. Social media usage has the potential of dramatically altering how the local government and the public interact, formulate solutions, and deliver services. Besides, the social media has offered opportunities to rethink the traditional boundaries that existed between individuals, the public, communities and the existing levels of governance. Social media has facilitated local reporting, whereby the public gets to highlight the problematic areas in their region, neighborhood, community or county. Social media has facilitated a platform in which such local reporting is used to inform the like-minded people or bring to the attention of the local authorities, enhancing speedy policy formation that is localized.

            In the recent past, the world has witnessed the rise in the use of the social media in political communication. It is evident from political dynamics around the world that Internet social media has profoundly transformed the way the politician engages with the electorate. Research has revealed that the social activists, non-governmental organizations, political campaigners, governments and the business communities are increasingly making the social media’s connective power to as a tool to mobilize support, disseminate information, produce knowledge, and deliver services and to engage with the stakeholders. There have been numerous incidences where the social media has been used as a tool in fostering the public’s support in fighting corrupt leadership. Perhaps one of the most recent applications of the social media was in North Africa, where the public through the use of the social media to mobilize public support to fight repressive regimes.  

            The social media is therefore known to draw in many people quickly through the network effect. Research has proved that the network properties of the social media can be a very powerful tool in mobilizing political support. Today, there are many politicians that are embracing social media in their political campaigns. Considering that most users of the social media, and preferably the Internet, are the youths, who forms the majority of the voting population, election candidate have realized this trend. Therefore, having discovered the effect of the social media on the election outcomes, politicians are increasingly using the social media to reach out to this section of the voters. In the United States, the biggest percentages of social medial sites are the young people aged between 18-30 years. It is also revealed that this section of the young people constitutes the biggest percentage of the American population. In the 2012 elections, the candidates, armed with such facts about the American society, adopted a campaign strategy that utilized the social media intensively. For instance, according to Twitter, more than 500,000 tweets were posted during the four presidential debates for the presidents and the vice presidents. Therefore, the role of the social media in elections is undeniably real and continues to grow each day. Therefore, the role of the social media in the American elections of 2012 was to facilitate the politicians to reach out to the American young voters.     

            Perhaps the most lasting impact of the social media in the American election is that, the social media platform has facilitated a 24-hour candidate scrutiny. With the social media use in elections, the public is able to put the politicians under a 24-hour spotlight, where the electorate is able to evaluate the policies, character, and all other relevant aspect there is to know about a candidate. Therefore, with the social media in place, there is no such thing as private comment or trail by the candidates.

            There is the shifting attention away from the media networks to the social networks. It has been revealed that today, majority of the American electorate obtains their election information from social media networks other than the traditional media networks such as newspapers. As much as the influence of the traditional media networks is still strong, the affect that social media use has on the undecided voters is significant, given that it allows for every individual to voice their opinion.

References

Bryer, T. A. (2013). Designing Social Media Strategies for Effective Citizen Engagement: A Case Example and Model. National Civic Review Vol. 102 Issue 1 , p43-50.

Dadashzadeh, M. (2010). Social Media In Government: From Government To eGovernance. Journal of Business & Economics Research Vol. 8 Issue 11 , p81-86.

Downey, E. &. (2012). Public service, governance and Web 2.0 technologies: Future trends in social media. Hershey, PA:: Information Science Reference.