User:Madeline.coles/sandbox

=Social Media and Politics=

Social media and politics have become inter-connected since the widespread adaption of technologies previously reserved for government, military and scientific use spread to the general populace in the early 90s. The accessibility of affordable communication technologies to the average consumer resulted in the global rise of social media influence over politics, current issues, and ideological movements. Social media, as defined by all internet and mobile technologies facilitating interactive conversations regardless of time or location around the world, is a unique application of user generated content. Blogs and online discussion boards host varied options and debates surrounding current political events, elections, policies and campaigns. Applications like Twitter have evolved into rapid-quick newsfeeds, distilling and transporting thousands of individual and group supported thoughts and megabits of information per second. During times of political instability and military intervention, social media proved an authentic vehicle for obtaining by-the-minute information, due to reporting by observers and participants at the heart of the action who use social network tools such as blogs, micro blogs, email, instant messaging, picture sharing, youtube etc.

Social media has created a valid forum for political debate by providing an open space for a public sphere, as defined by an arena in social life whereby individuals are able to unite to freely discuss and identify societal issues. The simplicity and easy accessibility of social media allows for discussions to travel and spread among likeminded groups despite global distance, thereby facilitating political change by movements that actively influence political action. The advantage of social media to connect multitudes of similar thoughts and ideas through an accessible route also allows for open debate between opposing views that would otherwise never be accessible or considered valid in more traditional formats. Social media is a galvanizing form of communication that directly connects world wide internet users to propagate both positive and negative messages.

The ability of social media to connect previously inaccessible people with varying or similar views on a subject creates a two-sided conversational platform. For politicians, political parties and governments, social media can act as a double-edged sword. It allows politicians to reach masses of constituents or stakeholders, particularly younger demographics, in record time. It is often used as a means of engaging and educating young voters and new voters on their particular political platforms. In a democratic society, this form of grass roots contact can promote the sense of connection and civic duty in its citizenry. In dictatorships, military or religious regimes, it can be used to subjugate its people. Its use by subversive or revolutionary citizens can throw the balance of political regimes off kilter.

Social media also provides free, world wide advertising; this exposure is unequivocal to any other advertising forms, such as television, print, radio or billboards. Social media is utilized most by young people because the associated technologies have developed as this young generation has grown up. This congruent growth has resulted in young people’s willingness to learn and participate in social media, resulting in its effectiveness.

The latest technologies of social media have revolutionized the political environment. The political debates which take place on social media channels have come to influence more than just the a few individual opinions, it has moved many individuals to band together in order to change their political situations. Social media supports and thrives on democracy. Although, because news and information is available to anyone with a computer, it is unfiltered and at times unwarranted by a government, which can lead to government censorship of media. However, in a response to unwanted government policy and a search for good governance, individuals will take action. It is well known that new social media - whether it has been newspaper, radio, television or the telephone- often creates political and cultural revolutions. An example of how social media has revolutionized politics and highly influenced young people’s political standings are the political movements lead by youth in some non-democratic countries. The 2011 "Arab Spring" is a fair example of how powerful the use of social media - particularly Facebook and Twitter - can be on large political scale.

Social Media Technologies:
Social Media technologies include: social networks, blogs, instant messaging, visual and sound sharing, and emailing. The most influential social media of the 21st century has been Facebook and Twitter. Facbook, the popular social networking site, was launched online in February 2004 and Twitter, a social networking and micro blogging site, was launched online in July 2006. These social networks are multilingual and free to anyone with internet. This free access allowed for them to gain rapid worldwide popularity, especially in North America. These two social media sites have contributed the most political debate.

There are six different types of social media, according to Kaplan and Haenlein the authors of, “Users of the world unite! challenges and opportunities of Social Media”. They are: collaborative projects, blog and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds.

North America
North America has created the most influential social networking and media technologies in the World, such as Twitter and Facebook. This is due to the non restrictive government policies on such issues such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and privacy laws. This provides an open and free environment in which the North American public can be continually informed about political hot topics, laws, policies and regulations as they are being debated and developed. As a result of the discussion and debate of the public sphere, social media aids and supports a democratic environment. Furthermore, North America’s lenient internet laws have effectively aided in proper democratic discussion in North America by appealing to the majority of their citizens, thus allowing for good governance. Good governance is used as a comparative outline when contrasting ineffective economies and political bodies with viable economies and political parties. Often the currently ‘successful’ nations are those in which a democratic government exists. Canada and America especially set the standards for other countries for good governance. Canadian and American political parties have used this platform to their advantage, most recently when dealing with social media.

Canada
Canada’s legal system of parliamentary democracy provides a safe and supportive environment for social networks to thrive. Both citizens and politicians of Canada interact actively and regularly in social media discussions of important national issues and policies through the different websites of Canadian political parties. The three major political parties – The Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic Party – are all active participants in engaging their constituents.

The Liberal Party of Canada targets the voting generation between the ages of 14-25 with their websites, Ontario Young Liberals [], and the Young Liberals of Canada, www.ylc-jlc.ca. These sites include a blog of weekly updates, an events page and a photo gallery with videos, all of which are connected to Facebook. This outreach into the community and their main demographic is successful in promoting their image and displaying both their political platforms and the practical actions of the party. However, their use of social media has not boosted their poll numbers during the most recent provincial and national elections.

The Conservative Party of Canada also participates in the social media wave. The Conservative Party’s website www.conservative.ca, allows Canadians to follow government policies and news with visual updates and links to other social networking sites. The Prime Minister himself has a number of social networking forums including Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. The Conservative leader’s Twitter followers amounted to 132, 238 in April 2011. The use of social media in Stephen Harper's case was successful for his 2011 re-election.

The New Democratic Party has an interactive site that allows visitors to receive email updates, watch videos and read news. They were also a frontrunner for the Twitter race between the Canadian political parties. During the election campaign, the NDP hosted an online town hall session that prompted Twitter users to ask Jack Layton and his party questions using the Twitter hashtag #AskLayton. Facebook, Twitter and mobile devices delivered the news of the NDP leader Jack Layton’s passing on August 22 2011 to Canadians.

Blogs, websites, tweets and Facebook posts all affect political and social change such as the G20 demonstrations that provided a public record of the event that often refuted the traditional media of TV and newspapers. The G20 conference held in Toronto in 2010 played host to heads of states from participating nations to discuss the global financial system and the world economy. Historically, the G20 conference are accompanied by stringent security amid demonstrations and threats of political terrorism. The G20 demonstrations in Toronto were a good example of how social media is able to provide instant and reliable political news. The G20 news generated by social media such as Twitter updates, provided instant and verifiable accounting of events as they unfolded. The Twitter tag g20updates provided minute-by-minute comments or news on the G20 protests and could be seen without having a Twitter account. The media coverage of the G20 was so prevalent that it sparked interest for Canadian citizens who were normally not interested in politics, due to the constant information feed on social media devices. The G20 conference resulted in a stream of information available through social media to nations that previously would have been unavailable. Canada and North America successfully use social media for the benefit of the global community.

USA
The United States is a constitutional republic, whose primarily democratic government provides an environment of stability and consumerism that fosters rapidly shifting technologies. Data reports that 4 out of 10 US citizens use social networking and 3 out of 4 US citizens aged 18-29 have a social networking site.

The Republican National Committee, although has been working towards advancing their social media outlets, such as their website www.gop.com, they are not as popular or as ‘user-friendly’ as their Democratic counterpart. This can partly be traced to a typically older demographic. The Republican Party created a website in response to Obama’s social media campaign during the end of November 2008. RepublicanForAReason.com aims to be a platform for Republicans to share their opinions about the future direction of the Republican Party. The site allows users to upload videos or post texts of ideas and social commentary, which is visible immediately. There is no filter on the user-generated posts in contrast to Obama’s change.gov website, which encourages people to submit but does not publish it for all to see.

After President Barack Obama was elected his team created a website called change.gov which allows Americans to share there goals and stories. This website along with the American government website, whitehouse.gov, is more aesthetically pleasing and navigationally organized than the Republican website. The Democratic National Committee launched an application for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch in 2010. This app allows people to access information on events, watch videos, see pictures and take part in Democratic discussion. It is also connected to Facebook and Twitter and can sent updates on what the party is up to. There have been numerous goverment applications like this one in which people are able to follow a political party or a particular politician’s progress, and give feedback as they also receive information updates.

The advantage that the social medias of the Democratic Party have over the Republican Party can be seen in the campaign of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama during the 2009 election. Barack Obama’s campaign has been called a social media take over. Many attribute Obama’s political success to his expansive appeal to voters via social media channels, particularly his campaign website. A key figure in the takeover was the installation of one of the co-founders of the thriving social network Facebook, Chris Hughes, to develop and drive traffic to Barack Obama’s online and social media marketing architecture. In 2008, then senator Obama was one of four 2008 presidential candidates with an official campaign blog, however his myspace friends vastly outnumbered his competition with over 110,000 friends in 2007. Obama’s website My.barackobama.com utilized his grassroots potential by having users join groups to connect with other users, plan events to raise money, write blogs and volunteer for the campaign. Obama used his website to engage and unite Democrats as well as gain support and monetary aid for his campaign. He also made use of virtual game advertising on the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise, which directly targeted the young voter generation. During the election campaign 3.2 million signed up as supporters on Facebook alone. Obama had 1,827 videos with 120,479,084 views on Youtube compared to that of his rival John McCain’s 330 videos and 25,995,773 views. This data shows the influence Social Media currently has over the United States electoral system.

Social media is shown to reinforce initial political standings, due to the constant bombardment of information and news regarding preferred candidates or political parties that helps to focus attention on that same platform. The 2008 Presidential election was a watershed - it was the most expensive US election, had the most voter turnout in US history, it resulted in the election of the first African-American President and made significant use of Social Media.

Alternately, social media can affect the election process negatively by turning politicians and political platforms into popularity contents whereby candidates need not be judged on the merit of their character or political aptitude, but how easily accessible they are on the internet and as a visual candidate e.g. Sarah Palin.

Political Mobilization in the Middle East
December 2010 saw the beginning of what would be strings of political uprisings in the Middle East. Egypt and Tunisia led the movement and experienced revolution, which was charged by social media and initiatives made by young citizens. Civil war the began in Libya, followed by outbreaks from Bahrain, Syria and Yemen. Since the start of the movement, protests have also been made in Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and around the border of Israel. It is most interesting that these rebellions should have such a widespread occurrence and connection with the youth, in this century. Many believe that this is not a coincidence, but inevitable, considering the current technologies deriving from social media. The new media-literate generation was determined to change the sectarian policies of their government. Many Arabs believe that Facebook especially is the sole reason for change in their political situation.

Social media is the newest platform for dialogue between engaged citizens. This phenomenon is particularly innovative and exciting within Arab countries, whose conservative politics have favoured intense censorship in the past. The forums and internet sites have helped simplify the process of clarifying protesters' demands. Before these technologies, individuals would have to go out on the street and demand different things, but with social media, different groups have the opportunity to introduce themselves along with their ideas to gain interest and a following. Although social media does not directly influence what will happen next for the governments, it does mobilize enough people to act, hopefully in a show of unity that will dictate the next political stages. Alone, social media is not enough to change regimes in the Middle East. Pure Revolution will not occur unless a higher military power comes into play and chooses to side with the majority of those rebelling against current systems. Although it doesn't change regimes by itself, the messages and connections that are spread through sites like Twitter and Facebook have a lasting impact.

The popularity and effectiveness of social media in the Middle East has come at a time where masses the government is dissatisfying to its citizens. This formula of new technologies, easier communication and political agendas leads to contentious politics, often through political mobilization. Political mobilization can be defined as any movement in a society, which in the end, results in a change of policy. Contentious politics can be defined as the use of disruptive means to make a political point or change a political policy.

Social media sites can, however, also pose a security threat to both participants and users, and governments and organizations. For example, governments can infiltrate online political movements by joining their groups and actively seeking involvement, only to find out who the main instigators are. This task is made simpler by the fact that most social networking or media sites are open to the public. Recently, Syria has banned the iPhone and has deemed it as harmful to the nation’s stability. Anyone found with an iphone will face prosecution because of its uses to film and organize anti-government demonstrations and send messages of the movements updates. Extreme measures from both Middle Eastern natives and governments are still being made, with the aid of social media.

Censorship in Asia
Other countries such as China and Thailand have a certain amount of trepidation towards these Social Media technologies and therefore have banned many of them from their citizens. This is usually found in communist countries. Censorship is defined as the suppression of speech or public communication considered objectionable or inconvenient to the body of people, as determined by a controlling body, such as a government. Sometimes fear and wariness is associated with social media. This is when governments chose to take precautionary actions on their country in the form of censorship. The governing body of the Republic of China has chosen to limit their citizens with the amount of access and participation towards Western social media. This means no Facebook and no Twitter. China, however, has established their own social networking sites for their citizens.

Future of Social Media and Politics
The Twenty-First century has seen the heated and co-dependent relationship between new social media technologies and their role in the political debate. Social media brings forth actions from political governments in the form of censorship in The Republic of China’s example or in the form of outreach to their citizens in the Democratic elections of North America. The change to political situations as a result of social media planning is seen through the most recent strings of political mobilization known a the “Arab Spring”. The most recent political elections for President in the United States and Prime Minister in Canada are characterized as political ‘firsts’ because of their wide association and participation through social media technologies. It can be said that starting with North America and spreading worldwide, social media is a necessary tool to nations regarding political issues and an aim for good governance.