How Has Social Media Affected Political Campaigns - Research Paper Example

How has Social Media Changed the Strategies within Political Campaigns to Improve Voter Turnout? Introduction There is no denying the fact that social media tends to be an integral aspect of the varied facets of the contemporary societies around the world. Social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have accumulated much popularity, mass following and a marked ubiquity over the years. A considerable chunk of the online communities in the developed democracies does subscribe to social media and this is fact that simply cannot be ignored by the political parties and public opinion makers (Leuschner, 2012). Social media has facilitated the masses and the political campaigners with a ready platform where they can readily communicate with each other and can share the relevant information, ideas and data (Dugan, 2012). Actually speaking, social media is a space populated by an array of opinions, ideas, posts, visual element and videos ranging from heated discussions pertaining to local and international political issues, informative and propaganda driven videos and informative data, allowing the political campaigners to engage, interact with and influence voters in a variety of ways and formats (Dugan, 2012). The biggest aspiration of a campaign manager is to have access to a viable pool of people who could be exposed to an array of ideas and information so that they could be converted to the political vision of the affiliated political party or contestant. Thereby, social media has added a new dimension to political campaigning by making it possible for the political parties to readily approach and influence the prospective voters in the virtual space. Social media has quickly become a vital campaign platform, allowing candidates to establish and maintain direct relationships with potential voters that have heightened political activity, increasing voter turnout. The Augmenting Ubiquity and Relative Penetrability of Social Media One can readily understand the keen interest of the political campaigners in the social media and the willingness of the political contestants to accommodate the nuances and peculiarities associated with social media in their campaign format and planning by the increasingly augmenting ubiquity and penetrability of the social media platforms. If one takes into consideration the accessible statistics pertaining to social media, one could readily conclude that social media is a public space that is not only ubiquitous in its scope, but is also more easily penetrable as compared to other aspects of public attention. The political campaigns are increasingly accepting the fact that social media is becoming a habit with the people. Social media is the number one activity people engage in on the web and more and more internet platforms are coming into existence to accommodate this augmenting social traffic (Cooper, 2013). The other particular thing about social media is that it allows the political campaigners to approach voters on an array of platforms going by the fact that almost 189 million subscribers of Facebook happen to be mobile only (Cooper, 2013). Besides, social media is the avenue that is dedicatedly adhered to by the most convertible and important of the voter segments that are adults aged 18-35. In fact such is the ubiquity of social media that it is making the political parties shed and alter their views regarding the reach and power of the conventional media platforms like the TV and the press. For instance, consider the fact that YouTube is more approachable by the adults age 18-34 than any cable network in the United States of America (Cooper, 2013). Thereby it is quite understandable that a political contestant interested in approaching this voter segment stands a better chance with relatively affordable and readily accessible YouTube than launching a costly TV campaign. Moreover, the soaring usage of smart phone has further expanded the ubiquity and appeal of social media, enhancing its appeal to the political campaigners. The other special aspect of social media is that it is a public space that could be penetrated more easily and economically as compared to other public spaces and platforms like the TV, press, public gatherings, public places, etc. Hence, the political parties simply do not afford to not to incorporate social media in their campaign strategies and to alter their political planning in consonance with the nuances and peculiarities of social media, going by the pervasive ubiquity of social media and the relative ease with which social media could be penetrated and pervaded by the political campaigners. Hence, no political party could ignore the fact that social media websites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook do allow them to communicate with an influence millions of voters without investing a penny (Bohannon, 2012). Besides, social media allows the political campaigners to reach the voters easily by circumventing the costlier traditional media like the TV and the print media. Thereby it is but pragmatic and practical to expect the political parties to alter and mould their campaign strategies and planning in consonance with the requirements and dictates of the social media as it happens to be the most pervasive, accessible and penetrable public space. Onus on the Political Campaigns to be more honest and above board In an ideal democracy people do expect the political contestants to be realistically honest and above board in their campaign communications and interactions with the prospective voters. However, the irony was that going by the innate scope for stage management and manipulation inherent in the traditional media, the political contestants hitherto did afford to be incorrect and circuitous in their political communications. In that context the positive thing is that social media by its very open and reciprocal nature is poised to make the political campaigns more open and above board, there by restoring the trust and faith of the prospective voters in the democracy, translating into augmented voter turnout (Rainie, 2012). This is easy to understand. The primary attribute of a viable democracy is that it accords a direct say to the people in the elections and the actual functioning of a government. There are political pundits who extend the argument that social media has enhanced the ability and capacity of the political parties to manipulate and influence voters by facilitating a platform through which they can readily approach and influence voters. Yet, the thing that needs to be understood is that social media facilitates a two way communication (Rainie, 2012). Through social media people can communicate with and about the prospective political candidates. Thereby, going by the open and reciprocal nature of social media that allows the people to respond to, comment on and directly question the strategy adopted and vision disseminated by a political candidate, it has become vital for the contemporary political campaigns to be genuine, truthful and authentic (Conway, Kenski & Wang, 2013). Social media is fast changing the way elections are contested and political campaigns are planned and managed. This platform not only facilitates an easy communication and interaction between the political contestants and prospective voters, but rather creates a two way street where the constituents can readily communicate with and respond to the assertions and claims being made by the contestants (Rainie, 2012). The thing that needs to be understood is that the extent of participation and say that social media facilitates to the voters in the political campaigns was unthinkable in the traditional media like the TV and the print media. The traditional media accorded a more or less passive status to the voters, with the voters’ responses either being subservient to the space accorded to them by these media, or limited to being eventually expressed through the ballot. In contrast, the social media has made the elections healthier, not only allowing for a dynamic exchange of information and ideas between the campaigners and voters, but also allowing the voters the power to influence and have a direct say in the political campaigns, which was not that feasible in the traditional media. The free and two way flow of information made possible by the social media has placed the political campaigns under onus to be more direct and honest (Conway, Kenski & Wang, 2013). In fact it has become more urgent for the political campaigns to consistently adhere to an honest voice, unlike they did in case of the traditional media. While in case of watching and listening to a candidate on the television created a sense of distance between the voters and the candidate, perusing and reacting to the messages posted in one’s Facebook stream, corroborated or challenged by posts from friends and relatives, gives way to a level of direct intimacy and honesty between a political candidate and the voter (Rainie, 2012). This certainly leavens and improves voter turnout. These salubrious and healthy attributes of social media has not only made political campaigns more honest and above board, but has also manifold augmented the power of a political candidate interested in conveying an authentic message to the voters in an affordable format (Lahner, 2013). For instance in the 2010 Presidential campaign, the Obama campaign successfully resorted to a three time exploitation of Cascino’s Thunderclap application, exploiting the potential of Twitter to solicit and enhance voter participation by disseminating a campaign message that was direct and honest (Houston et al., 2013). Social Media making Political Campaigns becoming More Inclusive and Broad Based The lacuna inherent in the conventional media dominated political campaigns was that they pursued a one size fit all approach towards all political constituencies. This was because conventional media like the TV and press did not allow the political contestants to address the diverse populace constituting the voters in terms of their specific political aspirations and expectations (Takaragawa & Carty, 2012). Thereby either the political campaigns pursued a monolithic approach towards voter interaction and communication, expecting to address as many voter segments as possible within the available media format or choosing to conveniently bypass or ignore the marginalized voter segments or minorities, in favor of soliciting the support of more dominant voter segments by allocating to them more time, space and attention (Takaragawa & Carty, 2012). The problem with this approach was that it diluted the interest of the minority voter segments in the mainstream politics and compromised the overall voter turnout. Certainly such approach towards political campaigning could hardly be deemed to be authentically democratic in its vision and approach, as it ignored or bypassed a significant section of the society in favor of pragmatism and political sagacity. However, the positive thing is that the social media driven campaigns have done away with such political selectiveness and has made the mainstream political campaigns more broad based and inclusive. The IT revolution has enabled the political campaigners to accrue the relevant data about the voters like their ethnicity, race, political concerns, social affiliations, age group, economic status, family status, ethical leanings and they can readily use this information to micro-target the prospective voters on the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (Takaragawa & Carty, 2012). Perhaps this has happened for the first time in the history of political campaigning that the political contestants could customize the content and intent of their communications in consonance with the specific characteristics and peculiarities of the targeted audience and could deliver these communications specifically to them. This is indeed a revolutionary approach towards political campaigning as it has made the politics more broad based and inclusive and has allowed the political parties to communicate with and tap into the hitherto sidelined and ignored political constituencies, thereby augmenting their say and participation in them mainstream politics and expanding the overall voter turnout. In that sense social media has directly empowered the voters scattered across all hues and shades of political opinion by allowing them to direct, shape and have a say in the political debate evolving across a political campaign (Leuschner, 2012). This has indeed improved the quality and scope of democracy by making it more inclusive and participative. However, it could not be denied that this opportunity for micro targeting and customizing the political communication in consonance with the target voter segment has also brought in the possibility of a political manipulation of the fears and apprehensions faced by minorities. Yet, this calls for expanding the openness of political debate through social media so that the informed citizens could target such opportunistic political campaigns by disseminating the apt information and data. Real Time Evaluation and Assessment of the Voter Opinion The one big way social media has streamlined, fastened and improved the political campaigning is that it has improved the capacity for assessing, evaluating and responding to the voters’ response and opinions in the real time (Tumasjan et al, 2010). In the earlier political campaigns that relied on conventional for campaign communication and canvassing, the process of accruing information regarding voter opinion and responding to this information happened to be an elaborate, slow and imperfect task that relied in an array of intermediaries. Instead of directly engaging the targeted political audience, these campaigns relied on an array of intermediary agencies and groups to assess the voter opinion. The problem was that such an approach not only distanced the voters from the candidates, but also made it difficult to address the voters’ doubts, misapprehensions and queries. Social media has allowed the political campaigns to evince a marked leap in this direction. Today it is readily feasible for the political campaigners to access and evaluate the opinions of an array of voters segments at the social media platforms and to respond to these opinions in the real time (Tumasjan et al., 2010). This has indeed altered the overall nature and scope of political campaigning in the sense that it has made it more direct, prompt, participative and inclusive. Today it is readily possible for the contestants to respond to the emerging political controversies and misinformation attributed to them in real time and with appropriate effectiveness, all because of social media. Some experts may try to push forward the argument that social media has enhanced the scope for fomenting political controversies and disseminating political misinformation by making such content go viral in no time and with minimal cost. To some extent this is indeed true. Still, the sunny side is that social media also enables the contestants being victimized by misinformation and controversies to respond to them in no time and with maximal sway. Social media allows the contestants to strike a direct bond with the target audience and to engage in a direct one to one communication with it. Conclusion One simply cannot deny the fact that each and every form of media are they the TV or the press improved the political campaigns by enhancing the quality and scope of communication between the contestants and the voters. In that context, social media has taken political campaigns a step ahead in that direction by allowing them to become more inclusive, prompt, honest, economical and direct. This has made political campaigns more voters centric and participative, negating all scope for emotional manipulation, misinformation and scandal mongering. This has indeed strengthened the trust and faith of the voters in the political process and democracy and has gone a long way in improving and expanding the voter turnout. The future political campaigns simply could not ignore to adapt and align their campaign strategy in tandem with social media. References Bohannon, J. (2012, September 12). Social Voting Really does Rock the Vote. Science. Retrieved from http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/09/social-voting-really-does-rock-vote Conway, B.A., Kenski, K., & Wang, D. (2013). Twitter Use by Presidential Primary Candidates during the 2012 Campaign. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(11), 1596- 1610. Cooper, B.B. (2013, November 22). 10 Surprising Social Media Statistics that Might Make You Rethink your Social Strategy. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belle-beth-cooper/10-surprising-social-medi_b_4325088.html Dugan, L. (2012, October 22). How has Social Media Changed Politics? Mediabistro. Retrieved from http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-politics-infographic_b30254 Houston, J.B., Hawthorne, J., Spialek, M.L., Greenwood, M., & McKinney, M.S. (2013). Tweeting During Presidential Debates: Effect on Candidate Evaluations and Debate Attitudes. Argumentation and Advocacy, 49(4), 301-305. Lahner, K. (2013, June). The Time for Transparency is now: Use Every Tool Possible To enhance your Community’s value to Residents. Public Management: 8-10. Leuschner, K. E. (2012). The Use of the Internet and Social Media in US Presidential Campaigns: 1992-2012. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/1510408/The_Use_of_the_Internet_and_Social_Media_in_U.S._Presidential_Campaigns_1992-2012 Rainie, L. (2012, June 20). Social Media and the 2012 US Presidential Elections. US Department of State. Retrieved from http://fpc.state.gov/193458.htm Takaragawa, S., & Carty, V. (2012). The 2008 US Presidential Election and New Digital Technologies: Political Campaigns as Social Movements and the Significance of Collective Identity. Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry, 10(4), 73-82. Tumasjan A., Sprenger, T.O., Sandner, P.G., & Welpe, I.M. (2010). Predicting Elections with Twitter: What 140 Characters Reveal about Political Sentiment. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. 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