Politics and Social Media

 

There has been a growing trend in politics lately with the increased use of social media as a means of projecting your campaign to a wider audience. Politicians and social media platforms have formed a new relationship; with the likes of YouTube and Facebook, reaching out to increased audiences and younger audiences.

The first person to use social media in his campaign was John Edwards, who announced his candidacy for President via an online video. This video was unique because for the first time in recent history a presidential contender didn't go through the normal channels of publicity. He had announced his candidacy not through mainstream media or during an interview with someone from a television network. Edwards' campaign was attempting to talk directly to the people that mattered through the Internet, but wasn't very successful because instead of posting the video to YouTube where the mass population is, he had posted his video onto his own website.

The most successful online campaign is that of Barak Obama's, who used the Internet as a tool for fundraising, persuasion and organizational activities.

Campaigners have used the Internet to post their profiles up on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many, many more. The benefits of using the Internet for political campaigns is that it can reach more people and engage more people than traditional forms of media. Social media can be accessed anywhere and at anytime, therefore allowing increased exposure for the candidates. However, there is also a downside to using the Internet for campaigning. Whatever you put on the Internet can be accessed by anyone, can be available for a very long time, other people can misuse it to create a negative image of a particular person. Especially on YouTube, where anyone can upload videos that can be made to embarrass or hurt your public image.

While I think that the Internet is great for many things, I also believe that tradtional methods should not be forgotten either. There are still members of the public that don't access social media as much as a younger generation and I also think that not many of the younger generations would be too interested in political campaigns either.

Germany, J. B. 2009, ‘The online revolution’ in D. W. Johnson (Ed.) Campaigning for president: strategies and tactics, New Voices and New Techniques, Taylor and Francis eLibrary, UK. pp 147-159