Social Media Role in Modern World - Essay Example

Introduction Social media are set of websites and applications utilized for social networking (Sheedy 11). Nowadays, social media are said to have an effect on “public discourse and communication in society” (Stieglitz and Xuan 2). Specifically, social media are widely utilized in political framework globally and it is considered as legitimate means of political communication (Sauter and Bruns 7). For instance, micro blogging sites such as twitter and tumblr are studied to have potential in public’s participation on politics. Although twitter is an optimal media platform for internet users to disseminate information and political opinions, political parties and politicians have also started to utilize facebook groups or pages for the aim of introducing new conversation with citizens and facilitating more political dialogues. This paper aims to discuss how social media changed the global perception towards politics and communication. Social media and political communication According to Kaplan and Haenlein, social media refer to set of applications based on internet which created through the technological fundamentals of Web 2.0 which enables the formation and transaction of “user-generated content” (60). In the previous years, social media have demonstrated a speedy development of users and have been subject of experimental investigations (Larson and Watson 15). For instance, there are approximately 800 billion facebook members globally and 200 million twitter accounts all in all (Stieglitz and Xuan 3). The prevailing acceptance of social media application has modified the nature of disseminating information. Today, social media such as weblogs, micro blogging and social network services play a significant role in forming political communication in the United States, as well as different countries worldwide (Farrell and Drezner 17; Benkler 4). Social media are seen to have a potential in the framework of politics as they facilitate participation of individuals. Public participation refers to an action by which citizens’ interests, attitudes, and commitments are integrated into government’s decisions (Stieglitz and Xuan 3). This participation not only limited on this process but rather, it likewise utilized the internet in order to establish conversation between the candidates and the voters. This relates to Karpf’s idea of politics which can be assumed as the mobilization of internet’s reduced expenditure of transactions and its circumstances of information abundance with the aim of creating more participations and interactions on political organizations (68). Further, there is an increasing exploration with regard to the role of social media in terms of serious political discussion. For instance, the 2008 presidential election of United States has indicated that social media has progressively turn into a significant tool in political communication, as well as coercion. Likewise, the political revolution in Egypt has also shown the increasing and influential role of social media in gathering public opinions and sentiments (Sheedy 26). In this manner, it has become apparent that social media are capable of disseminating relevant information about the candidates, as well as facilitating conversations with individual or group’s grievances (Stieglitz and Xuan 3). The changing global perception on politics and communication The proceeding by which individuals coordinate and pinpoint groups of people with same activities and interests, the amount of information gathered from various sources, and the capability to seek and share judgments and beliefs across different subject matters have all experienced powerful change with the introduction of social media (Sauter and Bruns 2). Social media have changed the communication landscape which in turn changes the global perception. With the introduction of social media, communication is perceived to have developed from one-way message sending into a continuous flow of messages and conversations from many-to-many. Before, social media such as facebook were perceived as a tool to gain friends or build relationship. Today, with the users' unlimited accessibility to internet and the social media’s features such as free creation of accounts, pages and groups, social media have become the complete outlet for those who feel oppressed, want to disseminate rumors, or intensify inclinations. Since there is no legal policies against such activities, communication with the use of social media is perceived as free-flow of information from many-many which influences opinions and beliefs (Santoianni 7). Subsequently, the increasing pertinence of communication in social media entails a major change in conventional public communication which has commonly been solely introduced and handled by particular influencer like politicians (Stieglitz and Xuan 2). With the politicians’ utilization of social media especially twitter and facebook for political campaign, social media are now perceived as the valid political communication tools not only for the politicians but also for citizens who may support or have negative sentiments for politicians. Through free posting of statuses, tweets and comments, users can participate in public discussions about important events such as election. In political institutions perspective, it is essential for them to cooperate in the political communication with the utilization of social media specifically during election campaigns (Stieglitz and Xuan 4). Michaelsen argued that social media serve as an important means to measure public opinions and to develop community-based support for candidates (12). It can be noticed that in short period of time, politicians across the globe have actively utilized social media for inviting constituents and initiating forthright conversations with citizens and allowing clear political discussions. This led to the phenomenon known as public perception which can be described as the difference between infinite truth based on facts and the virtual truth powered by social media (Stieglitz and Xuan 4). Hoffman, Jones, and Young conducted a study to the 1000 randomly selected American respondents. The survey includes question whether individuals who participated in political activities, such as liking of the candidates’ facebook page or tweeting their opinions in terms of political platforms, see these activities as having an effect on the role of the government or just a plain communication with other people. While there are some who claim political participation mobilize people to become more active in politics, there are also argued that online political participation led people to be less participative to activities such as voting. In the study, it was found out that individuals have pragmatic assumptions of what they are doing during their participation in political activities via online. In addition, respondents perceived their online and offline actions like playing various political roles. Nevertheless, people implied not to be reinstating the conventional political participation with online participation. According to the respondents, they are not deceived into thinking that they can leverage the government by just participating online (Hoffman, Jones, and Young 2250). Moreover, those in the study who claimed that they are more certain in the government and their capability to have an influence were likely provoked in participating political actions online when they distinguish it as communication. This implies that when individuals perceived it as communication, the more they participate (Hoffman, Jones, and Young 2250). Conclusion Social media changed the nature of information-dissemination. Before, communication is seen as linear process or one-to-many. Today, communication is perceived as the continuous flow of information from many-to-many. Conversely, due to the popularity of social media, politicians have seen it as an important means of influencing public opinions. In line with this, social media are recognized as a legitimate political tool. With the social media’s features such as free creation of pages and groups and free posting of comments or tweets, people perceive that they are free to interact with other groups of people to share political beliefs and opinions. However, even if there is a difference between the absolute truth and virtual truth, people are not deceived by thinking that they can influence the government by just engaging online. Moreover, people are just more likely to participate when the political activities online are perceived as communication. Works Cited Benkler Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press: New Haven, 2006. Print. Hoffman, Lindsay, Philip Edward Jones, and Dannagal Goldwaite Young. Does My Comment Count? Perceptions of Political Participation in an Online Environment. Computers in Human Behavior 19.6 (2013): 2248-2256. Print. Farrell, Henry, and Daniel Drezner . The Power and Politics of Blogs. 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