Blog Post 2: Politics and Social Media

Politics and Social Media

With the rise of the internet, political debate and key social issues are now discussed on social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube etc. As the masses adopted this new way of life, politicians followed suit, by spending more money on online ads and launching entire campaigns to target their voters and raise awareness about themselves and the issues they stand for. In fact, since 2008, when Barack Obama announced his intention to run for President of the U.S.A, his campaign was the first major election that relied so heavily on recruiting volunteers online. The Obama campaign was able to identify the power of social media very early, long before there were any big analytics firm to use AI to affect change. Despite this, they were able to sign up over 1.5 million volunteers for their eventually successful campaign effort. Social media and politics have been intertwined and have continued to grow their influence on the public ever since.

Today I learned, how the modern consumer/voter is shaped by the decades of public relations campaign propagated by Edward Bernays and other American executives that used the Freudian version humans being motivated by their primal instincts to focus adverts to these instincts. As a result, with the rise of the internet, emerged a new breed of self contained mini universes for consumers to indulge themselves in. The politicians who identified the power of these online citizens early, adopted to platforms like Twitter to gain a following and sustain their campaigns through small donations from many people. This reduces the corporate influence on smaller elections and in the future can revolutionise campaigns for bigger races too. 

Furthermore, as the internet matured, the largest chunk of entertainment for people has moved online which created an opportunity for companies to monitor and diagnose political leaning of voters based on their activity. In fact, in the documentary, "Hyper Normalisation", it was highlighted that as the algorithms improve, they increasingly suggest material that you are likely to already be interested in. This means that voters' pre-existing beliefs are likely to be fed back to them to help reinforce a narrative which strengthens their support for issues. Politicians in the U.K. and the U.S. used analytical tools to influence people's thoughts about candidates or issues to eventually cause Brexit and the surprise election of Donald Trump. 

I also learnt what the role of a press secretary is for an elected official. They control the narrative by being the source of the campaign or administration's interactions with the media. This can extend beyond briefing rooms and onto the statements the politician makes on social media. Since they screen all thoughts between the office and the world, they are pivotal to the success and approval of any administration. However, this trend of screening candidates' thoughts has been reversed in recent yeas. At least it has been the case with the Donald Trump and Boris Johnson administrations. Trump to a greater extent has dismantled many core beliefs in what society had long found acceptable behaviour and language in public. It is yet to be seen whether such kind of omnipresent bad language online will remain appealing to voters in the future, but the last four years were filled with several surreal comments from the President on his twitter account.  

In conclusion, it is irrefutable that the internet has played a huge role in politics. Since the 2008, "Facebook Election" won by Obama, social media's importance has only grown. Because it's still a relatively new phenomenon, governments have yet to figure out how to restrict online spending for campaigns. In the meantime, politicians at all levels of government have used social media to their advantage, both in terms of spreading awareness and raising funds to support their campaign efforts. I learnt that as online activity grows, politicians and corporations have used analytical tools to identify and target potential voters with revolutionary levels of precision. I also found the important role press secretaries play in streamlining the message they want to be received by the public and how charismatic leaders can often over look their importance.