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New Media in Politics

New media allows politicians to convey their views more efficiently than before. New Media creates more opportunities for politicians to develop their fan base and show their constituents what their political agenda is. Politics are influenced by new media as more people use new media as a way to receive information about current events in their world. New Media changes politics in many ways. Since the news is online and there are various sites to choose from, people are more selective in choosing what they want to read. This is changing the way reporters craft their message across to users. People are also using social media to distribute news. Twitter users can share news they think is interesting which helps to quickly spread the message. People can also like pages to attract others' attention or use the internet to donate money to a charity or cause they support.

Social Media in Politics

English Defense League
White House Facebook page
Democrats vs. Republicans

Politicians have started to embrace social media as a way to get their views and political goals to the public. As more and more of the public embraces social media as a medium to communicate, politicians have seized this ripe opportunity to use social media to get the public's attention. Before, social media was not used by mainstream political parties, but by radical, extreme groups that found it difficult to voice their opinions in public. For example, radical groups, like the "English Defense Force" and "Occupy" were primary users of social media as they found that they were denied a mainstream voice and had to find some other way to express their views.[1] Now most politicians like to use social media to convey their views. President Obama was the first presidential candidate to use Web video to announce his run and he told people who he wanted as his vice president through text message.[2] The reason why politicians use social media is because it allows them to build up their fan base and convey information in an efficient manner.

Politicians use social media to engage with their constituents in a variety of ways. They can share their ideas on Twitter[3] or Facebook[4] so that they can gauge the reactions from people. Constituents can mark their approval or disapproval by thumbing up or down an idea that is posted. Politicians also use new media to help raise money for their campaigns. Using social media, politicians can raise millions by appealing to people online in addition to a traditional fundraiser.

One of the most useful ways that social media can influence politics is how people can lend their support to their representatives. Wendy Davis, who is a senator on the Texas Senate, wanted to filibuster a vote on abortion clinics that would decide whether or not they would be shut down. She needed the help of her supporters to get through the filibuster. She was able to successfully delay the process because her supporters were supporting her through a live online stream of the session.[5]

Social Media Influencers and Politics

People have influence over other people. Whether the topic is persuading people to use a certain make-up product or clothing brand, the same logic applies to politics as well. In recent years, influencers and politics have been going hand to hand. On instagram, people who have pages talking about make-up, or daily skin routines also have content where they give recommendations for politicians. These "advertisements" are sometimes paid for by political marketing firms who promote their candidates. The reason why this works is because of trust. When you trust someone to give you recommendations to put something in your body or on your body, it is not difficult to imagine believing in a political recommendation.

People may think that the huge influencers are the biggest problem, but there are people known as micro influencers. They are typically normal people who have day jobs and also social media presence. Through the recent elections, having micro-influencers who are well known to their own circle of followers will work because of the amount of trust that they have acclimated. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been cracking down on political advertising, but information still leaks through the tiniest of cracks. These micro influencers need to be manager so that people understand for themselves who they trust within politics through thorough studying and research. [6]

Influencer/Superstar got facts Wrong

Misinformation can be a dangerous thing in social media, Kanye west went on social media to broadcast 2018 that Democrats do not help people and in the fact, republicans freed the slaves in 1865. He was in fact partially right, but the problem is which republicans. During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s, the Republicans that freed the slaves in the 1800’s (Lincoln’s Republicans) switched sides and moved to the democratic party. This happened in part because of Harry S Truman, a southern democrat who decided he would launch a pro civil rights platform at the democrat convention. This defiant action was met with groups of southern democrats defecting to the Republicans. The Political landscape completely changed once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. While this was happening, the old Republicans that rose with Abraham Lincoln became the new modern-day Democrats that we see now. https://www.history.com/news/how-the-party-of-lincoln-won-over-the-once-democratic-south https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/civil-rights-movement

Howard Dean and Social Media

Howard Dean

Campaigning on the Internet took a great step forward thanks to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s bid for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United Sates. It was the first presidential campaign to use so many tools of new media. The discoveries his campaign made together with thousands of Americans who became active in the Dean's campaign during 2003 revolutionized online campaigning. Five innovations made by his campaign stand out: fundraising, “Meetups,” Blogging, Online referenda, and Decentralized decision-making.[7]In 2008, The New York Observer attributed Barack Obama's success in the 2008 presidential election to his perfection of the Internet organizing model that Dean introduced.[8]


Furthermore, in today's society, social media can be seen as an influential aspect in the campaigning and advertising aspect of politics such as seen in the first presidential election to use social media. For instance, Facebook is a leading competitor in micro-targeting prospective voters and both current 2016 presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, have admitted to using its vast power into reaching their supporters. In the Wall Street Journal article "How Facebook is Dominating the 2016 Election" by Christopher Mims, Facebook is one of the highest paid Internet sites for micro-targeting and search advertising. Both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are using Facebook as a means to gain awareness and micro-target supporters. Trump's digital director confirmed that Trump's campaign "sprayed ads at Facebook users that led to 100,000 different webpages, each micro-targeted at a different segment of voters ... [and] Hilary Clinton's campaign is using similar tactics" (Mims). [9]Therefore, social media sites such as Facebook and Google can play a huge impact in politics and is one of the most effective ways of spreading and transforming data.

The 2008 Obama Campaign

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The 2008 Barack Obama campaign was the first presidential campaign in the United States to heavily utilize social media to its advantage. By using different social networking applications, the Obama campaign was able to “raised money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns” and ultimately get the votes it needed to win. Therefore, by the time Obama arrived at the White House, he already had a database made up of millions of supporters he could instantly engage with. In contrast, while Bush was in the white house, he used voter lists, phone banks, and direct mail to communicate with Americans. [10]

An important aspect of campaigning through social media is that it is relatively inexpensive. For example, Obama’s spending on internet campaigning was significantly lower than the amount he spent on television advertisements. Obama was much more effective at creating an online presence than his rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain. For example, in early 2007, more than a year before he won the democratic nomination, Obama already had a massive Facebook following while Clinton was struggling on the platform. [11]

To maximize freedom is to maximize choice

Barry Schwartz, an American psychologist argues that "​The way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice. The more choices people have, the more freedom they have, and the more welfare they have​” (Schwartz, 2007). According to him, freedom and choice go hand in hand, the more freedom the more choices, more choices mean more freedom, and that’s how one ends up with more happiness. People have always made choices. No matter if it is small or big, they demand to make decisions every day. However, in today's society. For instance, if you go online to buy a simple skincare product there are so many options for you. All you need is just a simple moisturizing skin care product, but with the search on the internet, you find out that just a single website offers you hundreds of different products. They are distinguished by different brands, different effects, size and price. Overall, it makes you frustrated and overwhelmed with all the available options and leads to paralysis, or inability to make a choice. While it is true that more options are better for us, and we are more likely to choose the most satisfying option at the moment of making our choice, in fact, once we have made the decision, we feel more insecure, less satisfied with our choices, and less happy. Schwartz calls this the paradox of choice.

Choices can be toxic in a number of ways. Firstly, when there are excessive choices, it's hard for people to distinguish one choice from another and see it’s value. The more choice you offer to them, the harder for them to figure out a meaningful decision.Second, even if they make a decision, they will easily regret their choice. People often find themselves less satisfied with what they choose because they tend to think about opportunity costs. With all the options, they are more likely to imagine the one that they give up is the best. Lastly, the “escalation of expectation”, among all the choices available, increases their expectation, but this results in a decrease of satisfaction (Schwartz, 2007). It 's because they think they have not chosen the best of many choices. [12]

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Snapchat Lures Campaign Spending during Election 2016

Hillary Clinton Ad

Snapchat has no evidence or background records of being an influence in election advertising. It shares very limited data about its audience and caters to millions of young individuals who normally don't go out to vote. But, this election cycle have encourage political campaigns in "devoting more ad dollars to reach the millions of millennials who spend hours every week on the social-media app"(Cameron, 2016)[13]. Both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidate have begun to buy video ads that targets of millions of viewers and using the geographic photo-filter tools, images or text. A study was released from the Public Opinion Strategies that illustrates that two-thirds of millennials who use Snapchat are most likely to vote during this year's presidential election. As Tim Cameron says, "Snapchat has reached a point here in the U.S. where we can't ignore it anymore, and it's definitely earned a line on every campaign budget" (Cameron, 2016)[14]. It is highly important for both parties to focus more on spending their money on social media because it's inexpensive to promote your ads on social media and most of the demographics of young voters can be targeted through social media.

Trump's Use of Twitter During the 2016 Election

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Trump used Twitter a lot during the 2016 presidential election. This was a good marketing tactic by Donald Trump as it proved to help him reach various demographic groups such as millennials. Some voters found that Trump was an easy going person due to the fact that he used social media so frequently. Trump's use of social media did not just grab the attention of millennials but it also reached out to many other people who otherwise probably would have never considered Trump's vote. Trump's use of social media as a campaign tactic was effective because many people felt that Trump was being honest through social media as he appeared to "say it like it is". Trump gained popularity through his social media post as there was an increase of distrust of mainstream media and increasing amounts of false news. Since Trump had an official account, people believed that what he said was how he really felt whether it was nice or not. Many people also believe that Trump won the election because of his vast usage of Twitter when compared to his opponent Hillary Clinton.

Fake News and Social Media

The 2016 United States presidential election blew the lid on the controversy surrounding “fake news” and its powerful impact on the eventual outcome. Fake news as its name implies is the spreading of false and misleading information usually for personal self-interest. In the context of the election, it’s used to push ones political narrative and most importantly to sway undecided voters for a particular candidate. Some of the fabricated stories in this year’s election ranged from Hillary Clinton having Parkinson’s to the Pope officially endorsing Donald Trump. Both of these absurd stories were quickly debunked but still managed to convince some people.

False news during the election

Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter were in the forefront of this controversy since most of these false news stories were shared on their platform. Top investigators and independent researchers claim that outside players who have special interest in the outcome of the election were behind this concern with Russia being the number one suspect. [15] The Kremlin was accused of being against the idea of Hillary Clinton as president and much rather preferred Donald Trump in that role. Using sophisticated propaganda machinery which included paid human “trolls” and a network of right-wing websites, fictitious stories claimed Hillary Clinton was preparing to hand control of the nation to a small group of billionaires to her possibly being an extraterrestrial creature. [16] There is no telling for sure the extent of impact it had on the outcome but many experts believe it played a huge role. Facebook and Twitter both vowed to address this issue and even introduced new tools to combat this problem. Social media users were also asked to contribute on their part by reporting news they believed were false. [17]

An instance regarding fake news and its consequences occurred on December 4th, 2016 when an armed individual walked into a pizzeria restaurant to self-investigate a conspiracy theory he read online. Pizzagate as it was called, was a conspiracy theory that claimed the restaurant secretly operated child trafficking ring with the help of Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta. Like most of these stories, it was quickly debunked by the local police station but the fabricated story was shared widely across many right-wing websites and social media pages. This led Edgar Welch to walk into the pizzeria with a semi-automatic rifle and fire one shot before being arrested. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the almost tragic event put the spotlight on fake news and its potential consequences.

The Echo Chamber Affect

Social media is designed to be personalized to our interests. That's what makes social media so addicting, we can view content that we love for hours because there's always more similar to the last post or video. While this great for entertainment, it is not great for politics. Social media does that same with political content which leads to people being stuck in the "echo chamber". Users' political believes are always reinforced by posts that agree with everything they believe, this leads to being closed-minded. The worst thing in a political conversation is to be close-minded and social media is leading the close-minded movement.

Facebook ranks posts on users' news feed by posts that the user is most likely to engage with [18]. They are so good at suggesting content that it is actually harmful to politics. This type of algorithm could expose you to fake news and much propaganda. So social media could have huge power to influence political views if they could change their algorithm for political posts. However, this is unlikely to happen because they are a business looking to make money [19].

Citizen Journalism

With the creation of the 24 hour news cycle and the mass production of mobile devices with incredible cameras, citizen journalism has put news into the hands of regular people. Average citizens can record events on their phone and then distribute it through a variety of channels such as grassroots media, personal publishing, and guerrilla journalism. Chris Willis and Shayne Bowman of Hypergene, a media consulting and design firm, define the term as “public citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information" [20]. TechnoPedia defines it as "the reporting of news events by members of the public using the Internet to spread the information" [21]. During the Arab Spring in 2011, an uprising in the Middle East, citizens captured the chaos through camera phones and posted them on social media sites for people from all over to see what was happening in Tahrir Square. The effects of citizen journalism prove that anyone can share news and be relevant through their own forms of media. It also creates a stronger community and forces more action. The media often overlooks tragedies and graphic images, as it is not suitable for television. Similarly, the Occupy Wallstreet marches gained movement through social media uproar. While the traditional news sources were silent, protestors took action by posting footage of arrests and violence on YouTube. Updates were continuously posted on Twitter. Only after this did major news like Fox and CNN cover the action. Facebook, Instagram, and other outlets now offer a “live” feature which allows users to stream videos instantly. This holds incredible potential for citizen journalism in itself.

Criticisms

While citizen journalism adds more voices and perspectives to the mix, in some respects, citizen journalism was just as flawed as the one-way, newsroom-centered model of traditional journalism. As more citizen-initiated journalism surfaces, traditional notions of gatekeeping by professional journalists have all but vanished. But the citizen-created coverage that emerged in its stead was all too often fragmented, incomplete, and lacked objectivity. Given the gap in education, training, and ethical standards between citizen journalists and professionals, the information reported by citizen journalists may lack credibility and impartiality. It can also suffer from information overload. As there can be a big discrepancy in what is worth reporting, as everyone has their own idea of what is considered important. Citizen journalism tends to address private issues and concerns rather than anything related to building a more robust public sphere. [22]

Registering to Vote through Social Media

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Facebook and other social media sites have recently placed a badge encouraging their users to vote in the upcoming elections. Once the badge is clicked on by the user, it is linked to a website by the government that allows one to begin the process of registering in one's state to vote. [23]

Chris Hughes

PIcture of co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes

One of the founders of social media website Facebook spearheaded the Barack Obama web 2.0 political campaign. Using his experience at Facebook, with social & community interaction using an online presence, Hughes was able to adapt that same concept to the political forum bringing the notion of sharing and interaction to a new realm of cyberspace. This allowed the Obama administration's campaign to go to unprecedented new heights in politics allowing individuals to spread President Obama's message further than any politician or political activist could do by word of mouth before this time. The website he created "allowed Obama supporters to create groups, plan events, raise funds, download tools, and connect with one another". [24] This strategy would assist Obama in becoming elected to office. The site almost crashed shortly after inception as an extraordinary amount of people visited and joined the online portal.

Statistics

Recently, the Harvard Institute of Politics did a survey on what social media sites the two major political parties (Democrats and Republicans) in the United States like to use and what were the differences. Facebook was used the same amount by both parties at 87 percent. Democrats liked to use Instagram[25], WhatsApp[26] and Tumblr[27] more than Republicans. In contrast, Republicans preferred Pinterest[28] more than the Democrats.[29]

In the 2016 presidential election, 24 million people under 30 years old voted [30]. According to the study conducted by Achieve research agency which investigated how millennials’ cause engagement behaviors may change during an election year, millennials were 2.5 times more likely to share on social media their opinion on the election [31]. As the social media revolution continues to build and transform, more young people are engaged in politics through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and those social media sites must in turn support that.

New Media in Canvassing

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Political Canvassing is the systematic initiation of direct contact with voters during political campaigns. Campaign staff will knock on doors or make telephone calls to citizens in targeted areas in efforts to persuade undecided voters, increase voter registration and to identify supporters of the campaign or supporters of the opposition. Previously done by staff members using canvass sheets. New Media has improved the process by creating detailed voter databases. The upgrade has allowed campaigns today to replace paper sheets with smartphone apps. [32] The development of canvassing apps has given the ability of volunteers to easily coordinate with campaigns across the country. These applications provide canvass sheets, detailed scripts and allow for instant updates to campaigns. With the technology, a campaign can see that there are multiple undecided voters in a specific area and visit that area to win over voters. They could also see that a specific district heavily favors their opponent and decide not to waste resources in those targeted areas.

NgpVan

NpgVan.png

NGP VAN is a privately owned American company that created an app which specializes in helping progressive campaigns. [33] The company's services are utilized by clients such as the Obama 2012 and the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign,[5] The company was founded by Nathaniel Pearlman,[34] who served as chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

New Media Influence During The Arab Spring

Graph from Dubai School of Government depicting the Twitter usage in Egypt and Tunisia during the Arab Spring.

Although politicians use new media technologies as a form of communication with the people in order to benefit themselves, new media technologies have had opposite effects on politicians as well. The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of democratization spreading throughout the Arab World in the Middle East. It started in 2010 and is still going on until this day. New media technologies, primarily social networks and blogs, have played a vital role. The Rebels used social media to stay interconnected with one another. This allowed the rebellions to organize themselves to have proper protests and educate each other on how to peacefully protest. This also allowed everyone to stay updated on what was going on. The media allowed foreign nations to witness the rebellion and what was actually going on. Trends on Twitter and viral videos on YouTube all helped circulate information that may not have been seen by others. The Internet had such a huge impact that the governments at one point restricted the Internet for public use. The purpose of this was to disconnect the masses so they would become disorganized.

Throughout the course of the Arab Spring, Twitter and Facebook have played important roles in unifying the people of the Arab nations. For example in Egypt, the April 6th movement, was a youth movement that was founded in order to revolt against the Mubarak Regime in Egypt. The youth movement used social networking platforms such as Facebook to arrange a meet-up, to gather people for a protest and to spread news and announcements. Facebook and Twitter also provided information on hospitals and which places can be used as shelters and field hospitals in the event of a protest/riot.[35]

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks [36] is a site that has caused disturbance among the political spectrum. WikiLeaks, as the name speaks for itself, leaks private, classified, government documents on their site which is open to the public. It is a non-profit site and is solely for news, uploading documents, and journalistic purposes. These government documents are not only limited to the U.S government but to the government of any country. This site heavily influences politics and empowers a negative perception to the public about the government. This site also allows more whistleblowers to come out and encourages them more because it anonymously uploads files without any traceable data. [37]

WikiLeaks logo and slogan

WikiLeaks has many advantages over old media such as news reporting etc. One advantage is that it prevents bias because the information is gathered from documents and numerous volunteers. It is neither edited or modified to align with public interest or government interest, but rather to spread information, not bias.

Documents on Afghanistan War

In 2010, WikiLeaks uploaded numerous highly classified, U.S military documents onto their site. These documents were regarding the Afghanistan War and were called one of the biggest leaks in U.S military history.

The Podesta Emails During The 2016 Elections

During the 2016 elections, WikiLeaks released a series of emails involving Hillary Clinton's campaign and her campaign Chairman in particular, John Podesta. Mr. Podesta was an associate of the Clinton's and President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001. [38]

For example, Part 1 of the Podesta Emails included 2,060 emails and 170 attachments and focussed on Mr. Podesta's communications regarding nuclear energy, and media handling over donations to the Clinton Foundation from mining and nuclear interests. The full collection includes emails to and from Hillary Clinton. [39].

WikiLeaks' emails regarding Hillary Clinton influenced dramatically on the election and shifted many voters towards her opponent, Donald Trump, which won the elections.

Political Propaganda

We Want You Ad

Propaganda is a form of communication that in many contexts is misleading or false. It aims to make people believe in a particular interest, often times a political entity during war time or election campaigns, to win over public favor. Such an action was especially notable during the Great War and especially the World War II.


Political Satire

Late Night Television

Poltical 2.png
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert


A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show popular in the United States, where the format originated. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. The late-night talk show format was popularized by Johnny Carson with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC. Typically the show's host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while the guest is seated on a couch. Many late night talk shows feature a house band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience during commercial breaks and occasionally will back up a guest artist. Late-night talk shows are a popular format in the United States, but are not as prominent in other parts of the world. Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to be prime time in the United States[40]. Late-night television is a staple in American entertainment culture. Political satire has been popular within American culture since the 1700s as the colonists struggled for independence from Britain. Since many people at the time were illiterate, political satire, in the form of cartoons, provided important commentary against British rule [41].

In the 21st century political satire still provides commentary on the current political atmosphere; however, this is now primarily in the form of late-night television. This American tradition of late-night television has catapulted into today’s political realm. Although these late night shows principally focus on comedy and the humorous aspects of our government, it has an immense influence on the political opinions of the American people. According to Vox Media, late-night show hosts have become “Rock-stars” in today’s political climate [42]. From SNL to Jimmy Kimmel, to Stephen Colbert and likewise, late night comedians are playing a big role in how the public talk about politics today, using satire and humor. Yet, despite their satire and humor, these late-night comedians are doing a complete job in covering today’s politics, while major news networks have struggled to do so [43]. In locating the reason for this, one scholar on political humor states: "One's understanding of political jokes obviously depends on one's understanding of politics. At one level, politics is always a struggle for power. Along with persuasion and lies, advice and flattery, tokens of esteem and bribery, banishment and violence, obedience and treachery the joke belongs to the rich treasury of the instruments of politics. We often hear that the political joke is an offensive weapon with which an aggressive, politically engaged person makes the arrangements or precautions of an opponent seem ridiculous. But even when political jokes serve defensive purposes, they are nonetheless weapons." [44]. In many ways’ political satire mirrors politics in which news networks do not. Like actual politics, Late-night television’s political satire is very persuasive. Rather than simply being entertaining, these late-night television programs comment on the success and or failures of our political systems, influencing how viewers perceive the political climate.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM​. <references>

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