Emergence of Social Media as the Dominant Form of Media
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of social media on politics. The paper will first analyze the emergence of social media and the way it replaced all other forms of media to become the most dominant form. The social media phenomenon shall be discussed in details at first. Then, the paper will discuss the scenario of politics before the advent and emergence of the social media. Lastly, the paper will analyze the influence of social media on politics with special focus on Canadian politics.
It is important first to understand the term ‘social media’ in the context of modern communication technologies prior to explaining its influence. In the days that preceded the internet, social media included telegraph communications that emerged in the later part of the 19th century. However, with the introduction of the internet during the 20th century, it achieved a different meaning. Social media came to be known as a form of communication that is done online by people, communities and groups creating networks. Social media emerged during the early years of the 21st century when other forms of media especially the broadcast were at its peak. Television was the ultimate platform that was utilized by every field to ensure maximum performance and result. The broadcast media had dominated every household. The political, cultural and economic discourse during that period used to take place in the television and radio platforms. The main thesis of the paper is to argue that social media’s influence on politics has been both positive and negative, for the politicians as well as the citizens.
In a quick time, social media has become the all-powerful platform for not just communicating but marketing and networking as well. Although many forms of social media were there in the previous centuries as well, as mentioned above, the actual form that is dominating today could be traced back to the emergence of the internet. The internet emerged during the 1980s and 1990s and quickly led to the development of various communication platforms. GeoCities, Classmates and Six Degrees were amongst the first known social networking site that developed in the 1990s (Cbsnews.com, 2019). However, Six Degrees is credited as the first social networking site because it included friends list, profiles, and school affiliations that some registered users could use. This created the phenomenon that would later go on to become the ultimate platform for all kinds of activities. With the turn of the 21st century, sites like Ryze, Friendster, LinkedIn, hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Twitter were introduced that changed the social media landscape forever (Cbsnews.com, 2019). The introduction of blogs also added to the phenomenon. Orkut was the first social networking site that received immense popularity especially amongst the youth. However, Facebook went on to become the ultimate player in the end. The site changed the meaning of social networking with innumerable other features being included and opportunities being provided to people (Cbsnews.com, 2019).
The Scenario of Politics Before the Advent and Emergence of Social Media
The social media phenomenon was at its full swing with people having the opportunity to connect not only with others from around the globe but also with their long lost friends. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, became the youngest billionaire thanks to the immense popularity of the site. His company became the most sought after company by businesses across the world, by politicians, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and many such. The site became an instant hit amongst the youth even with its limited features initially. The phenomenon began to rise as new features began to be added and the numbers started increasing with each day. The site was no longer confined to a particular age group as people of all ages began to take interest in it. Speaking about the popularity of the social networking site, Lim et al. (2015) stated that the site has become a lifeline to most of the people especially the young adults. After Facebook, the micro-blogging site Twitter attracted much attention. This micro-blogging site was the perfect tool for those belonging to the ‘celebrity’ category to communicate with their fans and other people. The site was popular amongst the celebrities because it provided the opportunity to express or share something without spending much time on it. In the views of Wagner, Vollmar and Wagner (2014) Twitter’s popularity increased because it was used by people who mattered and their ‘tweets’ became the credible source o information. based on an article published in The Guardian, it could be stated that Twitter’s popularity only grew with time and never went down even in the presence of the giant like Facebook (Addley, 2019). The report stated that in 2008, maximum articles that appeared in the national and local newspapers in Britain had the mention of Twitter.
Canada too was equally influenced by the social media phenomenon. According to a recent data, Canada boasts of around 22.69 million social network users as of 2017 (Facts, 2019). Amongst the social media sites, Facebook is the most preferred choice of communication with 84% Canadians opting for this site (Facts, 2019). The phenomenon has been described as a revolution changing the landscape of the entire world, be it any field. In the present generation, it has become the most influential tool by which even the common people could raise their voice that too by being anonymous. Anonymity is one of the biggest advantages of the social media that has contributed to it being such a huge phenomenon; note Xenos, Vromen and Loader (2014). Those who were previously subjugated because of their inability to speak aloud, found a new way to express their anger, frustration and demands on the social media. However, as Vromen, Xenos and Loader (2015) observe, this anonymity also led to the rise and creation of many crimes. Online stalking became a graving issue for women users in particular whereas “trolls” under the safety of anonymity began be one of the prime reasons for depression and even suicides. In both the cases, it could be stated that the social media has been a phenomenon that could not be overlooked.
Influence of Social Media on Politics
While the social media has largely influenced the younger generation in both positive and negative ways, visible influence could be seen in the field of politics as well. To understand the way social media have changed politics, it is important to analyze the politics before the emergence of the social media. In the years prior to social media, politics was viewed as an inaccessible and incomprehensible field especially for the common people (Wittel, 2016). The candidates running for office and the elected officials as well held little to no accountability for their actions prior to the advent of social media. The voters who were responsible to elect a strong and efficient representative had no real or transparent information about them and hence, it resulted in imbalanced control of power. This affected the politicians as well in that those who had good intentions and wanted to bring positive change were not able to directly communicate or interact with their voters. The political parties had to spend huge sums of money on advertising such as hoardings, banners, pamphlets, TV and print ads to campaign during elections. This money could have instead have been spent on improving the infrastructure of a country or even a locality.
While observing the political scenario of the current generation, Borge-Holthoefer et al. (2015) note that the new age political revolutions could not have been possible without the social media. The authors give example of the famous Arab Spring where social media play a vital role in mobilizing the people. The Arab Spring refers to the mass movement in many Arab nations beginning with Tunisia and including Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. All these movements took place at a time when the social media had established its stronghold within the realms of politics. This could not have been even imagined few decades ago when there was no social media. The Tunisian Revolution had spread like wildfire owing to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. People demonstrating on the streets against the tyrant regime were being recorded and posted on these social media platforms (Wolfsfeld, Segev & Sheafer, 2013). This caused the movement to become national although it began in the remote parts of the country. Now imagine the scenario in the decades when there was no social media. Incidents like the young man burning himself alive on the streets would have been restricted in that part of the city as there was no social media.
Positive Impact of Social Media on Politics
Before the emergence and dominance of social media, there were some doubts regarding the news content being broadcast on televisions and radio because these were majorly inclined towards a particular ideology or political party. Therefore, what the public viewed in the media platforms could not have been taken as entirely true. Politics prior to the social media was restricted to the powerful and the powerless found no medium to raise their voices.
The political landscape has seen many changes in the last 20 years or so. The social media have been credentialing in alternating its face of change. The candidates as well as their supporters keep posting their perception regarding the upcoming elections on Facebook, Twitter and so on (Castañeda, Fuentes?Bautista & Baruch, 2015). Every agent of election as well as individual parties participating in the elections is having their own pages on Facebook. By means of these pages, they appeal to the voters, broadcast their propaganda and request for donations.
The sheer speed at which news, rumors as well as poll results are shared over social media has transformed the approach of politics. In the pre-internet days, people relied on the hourly news bulletin or the next day newspaper for getting latest updates about the ongoing elections. However, in social media people can access the news websites at any hour to get the latest news and real time updates about the election. In this context, Allcott and Gentzkow (2017), argues that real time news information is also provided by television media. However, the reason why people prefer to check the news feed of election over social media is that along with news, they can also do live chat with people contemplating over the current news of election. This is how; perception of people regarding votes is also framed. In fact, Halpern Valenzuela and Katz (2017), states that false updates can also mislead the people by masses. As evident in the discussion of the Defense Minister of Canada with the Canadian Press, he is under threat that in the upcoming federal elections of Canada, the Russian intelligence agencies might attempt to manipulate the decisions of the Canadians with fake news and fake results of voting polls.
Public electoral polls before the election are a very common and engaging phenomenon. However, as Johnson and Kaye (2015), states, we find that the outcomes of the different polls are varying. That is why the people are not able to frame a future projection of the election, easily. However, with the advent of polling over the social media, the number of political polls has increased by number, manifold. It is evident that those outcomes are also flawed, most of the times. However, Skogerbø et al. (2016) states that if the people participating in the Facebook polls, see that one candidate is constantly ahead of the other in the social media polls, that is bound to impact on their psychology. They might perceive that is would be of mostly benefitting to vote for the leading candidate, rather than voting the underdog.
Negative Impact of Social Media on Politics
Social media nowadays provide the candidates with the opportunity of interacting with their favorite politicians. Traditionally it is not possible to meet any electoral candidate outside any live show or event. However, Halpern, Valenzuela and Katz (2017), states that most people do not get the chance to meet them. On the contrary, with the use of social media, the people are now able to participate in virtual events like Facebook live shows where they can live stream the activities of the politicians.
It could thus be evident that social media have been able to change politics in remarkable ways. However, it is also crucial to analyze the consequences that these changes have brought. As discussed above, social media have provided people with the opportunity to be up to date with news about elections, their candidates, results and so on. The consequence of this change could be discerned in the fact that those who do not have access to social media even today have to rely on the mainstream media, which results in the news being interpreted differently. As Gibson (2015) notes, while those on the social media have the advantage of communicating directly to the politicians, others without the social media rely on whatever the politicians say through the mainstream media. Another change brought in by social media is in the electoral polls. The outcome of this change is that the psychological impact of these polls results sometimes in conflicts as well. In contrast to this view, Rogstad (2014) states that the psychological impact that social media polls have on the users is limited and that it is not powerful enough to change the set mindset of a user or a voter.
In the context of Canadian politics, social media has had a remarkable affect as has been mentioned in the previous sections. On one hand, it has presented the Canadian public with new scope and hope in the political arena especially regarding the atrocities against the First Nations citizens; while on the other, it has caused much concern regarding the ill-practices of the social media platform (refer to the Cambridge Analytica controversy) (Wong, 2019). It remains to be seen in the coming days to what extent does the social media change politics further.
Conclusion
In the end, it could be reiterated that the social media has changed politics in both positive and negative ways. Firstly, it has made politics accessible to all those who were devoid of the opportunity previously. Secondly, it has created made the news related to politics reach faster and wider for the public and thirdly, it has allowed the political parties to interact directly with voters. As discussed in the paper, these changes have had numerous consequences on the global politics. The numerous mass movements have been successful due to the social media. People have been able to raise their voice in a better way against the political incapability and injustices. This has been possible especially because of the anonymity that people could have owing to the social media. The paper has also discussed the changes social media has brought in the Canadian politics. While it has allowed the minority classes to come up and raise their voices, it has also provided some politicians to use it illicitly to influence the voters. the political parties have used the social media as a tool to secretly examine the behavior of their voters to mold them in their favor.
Canadian Politics and Social Media
References:
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