The politics of social media

I think most of us would struggle to point out our more than a hand full of politicians even if we tripped over him or her, but that’s starting to change, thanks to social media helping us raise our civic literacy levels and altering the way politics are done. We now expect not only our state but local offices to connect with us on a more personal level. And it’s happening via social media mediums.

It seems that local and state offices are taking note due to the massive increase in politician’s utilising and getting involved with social media. Barack Obama, the President of the United States and famous for his 'Let's bring the change' message, might well prove successful in changing the way internet is used for politicians. Of late, many politicians have begun considering internet as a viable medium for interactive communication and are, consequently, making their presence felt in the World Wide Web.

Politicians in today’s society have now started to look for new innovative mediums to advertise and promote their campaign. Not only do political parties use these mediums to reach a larger audience, but also they use it to reach out to the younger audience. There is a huge amount of interest and enthusiasm for the emerging technologies and how they impact the government and political space. Political candidates now have so many options of online and mobile tools to enhance and improve their campaign such as communication and fund-raising this all leading to a creation of very much engaged communities of supporters.

Australian Prime Minster Kevin Rudd is known as an eager Tweeter, using the medium to announce policies and recently the engagement of his son. About 900,000 accounts follow the PM on Twitter, while he follows about 200,000. Mr Rudd has proven that if social media is used with a positive, individual interest, it has tremendous power, and especially when it came to appealing to voters younger than 30. He has his own website http://www.pm.gov.au/ there is a section called ‘PM Connect’ where the Prime Minsters talks about why he has utilised the internet as an medium to target his audience.

“Since launching my re-designed website, I have held a number of blogs. These online events are a dynamic and important mechanism to enable the Australian people to engage with the Government and get involved in strengthening the democratic process in Australia.”

As well as the PM blog which creates an opportunity for the community to provide comments and engage with each other in relation to the policy initiatives under discussion, Mr Rudd also has found higher engagement for the public through his Facebook Page, Twitter profile, and YouTube channel.

So how effective is the use of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for politicians as part of a campaign strategy? While the online group Getup.org used the internet during the last Australian election to quickly raise $200,000 to pay for an anti-Coalition climate change advertisement to run during the AFL Grand Final.

When Kevin Rudd made his apology speech to the stolen generation last month more than 50,000 people watched the speech on YouTube.

Obama's recent State of the Nation address was turned into a song by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and shared by more than six million MySpace users.



These recent events point to a new trend of the "social media generation" using their medium of choice, the internet, to change the way information is received and distributed, shifting news gathering towards a more self-service model. Young people are no longer merely consumers of news, they are also distribution channels, and even DIY journalists.

Traditional news filters are being replaced by social filters, as young people now habitually pass interesting videos and news items among themselves online. It doesn't mean that people are not reading newspapers - it just means that for a new generation there is a tendency to look to more than just one source to get a fuller picture on stories of interest.

With myself I find that if a news story is of interest to me I will look it up further online. I much prefer to getting news straight from the source. Newspapers and television show what they want to, The initial story, people opinions on the issue, video footage. Why would I watch television and reading a newspaper when I can find exactly what I want with a click of a mouse? I think this is what politicians have realised. For you and I believe my generation and politics only have a relationship when it directly influences us. For example, last year Stimulus Package. Every Facebook status in my newsfeed was ‘cheers k-rudd for the $900’ and ‘has already spent my k-rudd money in my head’.

The point is that young people now have a whole new set of tools with which to form their own opinions and share them, and even to shape the news themselves. Political candidates now have so many options of online and mobile tools to enhance and improve their campaign such as communication and fund-raising this all leading to a creation of very much engaged communities of supporters. As political parties are increasingly realising, failure to understand these new trends and use this new technology to reach this new net-savvy generation can have serious negative consequences.