Politics and Social Media White Paper

8/2/2019 Politics and Social Media White Paper

1/7

Cameron Franey Research Paper #1

My professional area of interest is the role social media plays in governance.

Social media has changed politics in an extremely drastic way. Secrets are harder to

keep, elected officials are easier to contact than ever before, and campaigns are run

completely different than they were before the Internet age. The tools of the trade

are changing so much and those using them are struggling to keep up.

Currently, the blogosphere is buzzing around a new Pew Research report

discussing social networking sites and the role they play in politics. The report

attempts to figure out if people live in what they call social network echo

chambers (Rainie, and Smith). This concept describes an individual that surrounds

themselves with people and media that is congruent to their ideologies. For

example, an echo chamber for a conservative individual might involve following the

Republican National Committee on Twitter, having majorly only conservative

friends on Facebook, and getting most of their news from conservative leaning

blogs.

The importance of this research is to determine how partisan voters are

becoming. The more isolated people are in their social media echo chamber the

more likely they are to become belligerently partisan and cross-party politics

becomes even harder than it currently is. With such wide access to everything its

easy for the common user to grow their chamber larger and larger until no one is

ever challenged by the other side and everyone is bunkered down into their own

beliefs. Before the Internet age there were only a certain number of newspapers or

news stations one could get their information from, so it was important for news

organizations to be bipartisan to some extent so they could sell more newspapers or


2/7


advertising space. Now thatspace on the Internet is all but free, its easier to avoid

the other side of the aisle entirely.

The study found that 49% of Democrats, 39% of moderates, and 32% of

Republicans have discovered their friends political ideology and been surprised by

what they found from social media (Rainie, and Smith). These findings suggest that

we dont surround ourselves entirely with people of our ideological backgrounds.

Between half and one third of people dont even know the political beliefs of those

theyre friends with. The study also found that while only 18% of people have taken

negative action, blocked, unfriended, or hidden, against someone with incongruous

political posts to their own beliefs, only 16% of users have friended someone

because of their political beliefs and postings. These numbers indicate that social

media users dont often take actions for or against political posts, which means we

dont surround ourselves in our echo chambers as much as common knowledge

suggests.

While Pew may have found that social media users may not use social media

to interact with friends about politics, there is one social media platform that is used

by politicians very heavily. YouTube is a tool that candidates have embraced very

strongly, posting political ads on there to bypass the costly television media and get

the ad directly to the voter as quickly as possible. One of the better examples of

social media users debating over political ads on YouTube is Rick Perrys Strong

campaign. Rick Perry, former republican presidential hopeful, posted a video on

YouTube that split viewers very heavily. It was so controversial that even some

bloggers that one would think would agree with the video were angered by the


3/7


content (Anderson). While only 30 seconds long, Perrys religious speech has

garnered him over 700,000 dislikes and so many negative comments that the

comments section had to be removed. YouTube was also a strong platform for

President Obama during his 2008 campaign. By getting on YouTube, Obama grabbed

the young vote before McCain could. This vote helped him ultimately win the

election.

To put things into perspective about how important social media is to politics

today, one blog, 140 Proof, posted an infographic entitled How Social Will Win the

Election Ad Wars. All Facebook, which dissected the graphic, argues that targeting

is the most important part of political advertising on social media. The blog says 100

million potential voters are using social network this year (Moire). This means that

social media is a potential gold mine of advertising.

According to 140 Proof, in 2008, Barack Obama spent $500,000 in social

media advertising, while the unsuccessful John McCain spent nothing, with the total

being spent over all campaigns being $9.5 million. In 2012, there will be an

estimated $142 million spent on social media advertising. Politicians recognize the

importance of social media and are scrambling to outdo the others. For politicians,

social media is uncharted territory and right now anything goes.

One of the biggest draws of social media advertising is the ability for it to

snowball. A political ad on TV can only be viewed, while a post on Facebook can be

liked and reposted, a tweet can be replied to or retweeted, and a YouTube video can

be shared and emailed. This can snowball the message into something much bigger

than it ever would have been if it were just a TV or radio spot.


4/7


Another important aspect of social media that 140 Proof points out is the

ability for social media to follow voters into the booth. Because of politicking laws,

campaigning near a building where people vote is illegal. However, voters will bring

their phones into the booth with them, which means they can still access

information that would have otherwise been kept from them. This helps

campaigners zero in on swing voters and might lead to flipping votes that they

might not have gotten.

The last big leg of social media that bloggers are discussing with politics is

Twitter. Twitter is something that politicians havent quite figured outthe full

potential of yet. While President Obama has tried a Twitter Townhall to engage the

social media world, some bloggers complain that it isnt quite what they wanted

when they heard Twitter Townhall (Rosenblatt). While Obama fielded answers from

Twitter, he responded via online video. This is a good integration of multiple

channels of connectivity, but it wasnt truly a Twitter townhall since he wasnt

giving his answers via Twitter.

Bloggers also discuss the fact that with instant access quality of social media,

especially Twitter, there is much greater political accountability now than ever

(Pearson). When a vote is made and the news is released, the Twitterverse can jump

on the decision immediately. The world is now a 24-hour news cycle. So Washington

news no longer runs from daylight until Congress leaves the building. Everything

happening in DC is discussed throughout the entire day. This means constituents are

constantly second-guessing what their representatives in Washington are doing.

This means the politicians must be extremely aware of their constituents desires


5/7


before they make a vote, because the political backlash could be not only immediate

but also amplified due to the snowball effect that was discussed earlier.

On the other side of that coin though, it is easier now for politicians to get

feedback from their constituents. Representatives no longer have to rely on phone

surveys and mail to hear what their constituents have to way. They can now look at

Twitter traffic and Facebook comments to determine where their constituents sit on

issues in order to hopefully make decisions that are better suited to their voting

base.

My focus is different because I plan to treat social media as a net positive for

politicians. Most bloggers talk about all the trouble social media can cause

politicians, from uncovered scandals to backlash from publics about certain issues. I

plan to treat social media as a good thing for politicians. Yes, they can get in trouble

because of social media, but the benefits that arise from using social media far

outweigh the negatives. Constituents can stay in touch with their representatives

much better than before, as stated earlier, campaign costs could decrease greatly

since content can be made and distributed at a cheaper rate with social media, and

politicians will be forced to more responsive to their constituents because of the

connectivity now. American governance has the chance to really evolve and become

something positive after lagging behind in public opinion for such a long time.

Readers should read my work because I look at politics from a very unique

point of view. Not only have I worked in Washington politics, but Ive also got a fresh

take on things. Im very optimistic about politics in America. I think we as voters and

leaders have the ability to turn around a system that stopped working a long time


6/7


ago. I also come from a communication background so I understand politics from a

different angle than most. I dont just see the issues and winning and losing, butI

also see the ability to form long-lasting relationships between voters and leaders

that can benefit the population as a whole due to healthy communication.


7/7


Bibliography

Anderson, John. My response to Rick Perrys Strong Ad. Political Corrections. N.p.,

10 12 2011, Web. 18 Mar. 2012.http://politicalcorrections.com/?p=5.

Fitzpatrick, Alex. Do you agree with your Facebook friends politics? Not likely.

Mashable Social Media. N.p., 12 03 2012, Web. 18 Mar. 2012.

http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/social-media-friends-politics/.

Moire, Jennifer. INFOGRAPHIC: Facebooks $142 Million Political Ad Market,

According to 140 Proof.All Facebook. N.p., 15 03 2012, Web. 18 Mar. 2012.

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-politics-infographic-2012-03.

Pearson, Glen. Social media demands instant political accountability. LF Press. N.P.,

19 03 2012. Web. 18 mar. 2012.

http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2012/03/16/19513161.html.

Rainie, Lee, and Aaron Smith. Socialnetworking sites and politics. Pew Internet

Project. (2012): n. page. Web. 18 Mar. 2012.

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_

politics.pdf.

Rosenblatt, Alan. Twitter Townhalls. Digital Politics. Big Think, 29 11 2011. Web.

18 Mar. 2012.http://bigthink.com/digital-politics/twitter-townhalls.

How Social Will Win the Election Ad Wars. 140 Proof. N.p., 15 03 2012. Web. 18

Mar. 2012.http://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-

win-the-election-ad-wars.
http://politicalcorrections.com/?p=5http://politicalcorrections.com/?p=5http://politicalcorrections.com/?p=5http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/social-media-friends-politics/http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/social-media-friends-politics/http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-politics-infographic-2012-03http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-politics-infographic-2012-03http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2012/03/16/19513161.htmlhttp://www.lfpress.com/comment/2012/03/16/19513161.htmlhttp://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_politics.pdfhttp://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_politics.pdfhttp://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_politics.pdfhttp://bigthink.com/digital-politics/twitter-townhallshttp://bigthink.com/digital-politics/twitter-townhallshttp://bigthink.com/digital-politics/twitter-townhallshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://blog.140proof.com/post19348267894/how-social-will-win-the-election-ad-warshttp://bigthink.com/digital-politics/twitter-townhallshttp://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_politics.pdfhttp://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_SNS_and_politics.pdfhttp://www.lfpress.com/comment/2012/03/16/19513161.htmlhttp://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-politics-infographic-2012-03http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/social-media-friends-politics/http://politicalcorrections.com/?p=5

Documents

Politics and Social Media White Paper