Social media and political communication in the United States

The emergence of social media has changed the way in which political communication takes place in the United States. Political institutions such as politicians, political parties, foundations, institutions, and political think tanks are all using social media, Facebook and Twitter, as a new way of communicating with voters. Individuals and politicians alike are able to voice their opinions, engage with their network, and connect with other likeminded individuals.[1] The active participation of social media users has been an increasingly important element in political communication, especially during political elections.[2]

Social media is changing the nature of communication because it is a tool that is being used to mobilize users in a way that has never been done before. Users are able to connect directly to politicians and campaigns and engage in political activities in new ways. By simply pressing the like button on Facebook or by following someone on Twitter users have the ability to connect in new ways. The option for users to share, like, or retweet political messages instantaneously has opened up a new avenue for politicians to reach out to voters.

Further politicians have a platform to speak that is different from the mainstream media. Politicians have the ability to raise large amounts of money in relatively short periods of time through the utilization of social media campaigns. In 2012 president Obama raised over a billion dollars for his campaign, which broke the fundraising record. Around $690 million was raised through online donations including social media, email, and website donations and more money was raised from small donors than ever before.[3]

Influence of Social Media on Elections

Early History

Democrat Howard Dean is credited with being the first politician to utilize the Internet for political gains.[4] Dean served as the Governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and decided to run for president for the 2004 election. Dean is credited with organizing the first campaign website, acting as a virtual headquarters for fundraising and volunteer recruitment.[5]

Dean’s website had a number of online metrics of success including the hits on his homepage, weblogs, campaign sign-ups, house parties and meet ups.[6] Dean’s supporters hosted house parties and invited individuals to learn about Dean’s campaign. Dean also encouraged use of the website Meetup, where individuals would attend face-to-face meetings to learn more about his campaign.[7] About 75,000 individuals attended these meet-ups and more than 96% of respondents reported that they wished to become actively involved in Dean’s campaign.

Dean won a "digital" primary election that was held on MoveOn.org with 44% of the votes. His success in the primary generated positive coverage by the news media. This early victory was important to the momentum of the campaign.

Dean’s campaign was also viewed as a success for his ability to raise large amounts of money in small increments. In January 2004, his campaign had raised $41 million from supporters mostly online. A total of 318,884 individuals contributed to his campaign, with over 61% of the contributions under $200. Less than 1% of individuals gave $2,000, which was the federal limit.[8] Dean’s fundraising behavior was opposite of his rivals. George Bush raised $130.8 million in 2003 and 68% of his donations were the maximum donation limit.[9]

Political Origins of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg served as a field organizer for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.[10] Zuckerberg was responsible for Get out the vote and mobilization efforts. Facebook was launched the same year. The Facebook Platform relies on group formation and constant communication, both of which are goals for any political campaign.[10]

Chris Hughes, a founding member and developer at Facebook, left the company to work as an advisor for President Barack Obama. While working at Facebook, Hughes designed a Facebook profile for the then presidential candidate. Following his departure, Hughes worked on Obama’s Facebook page and utilized his knowledge of content management and new developments to outpace other candidates in relation to their online presence.[11] Hughes created the website MyBarak0bama.com which had a similar layout and concept as Facebook.[10]

2008 Presidential Election

The 2008 presidential election was the first election in which candidates utilized the Internet and social media as a tool for their campaigns.[12] Then President-elect Barack Obama was the first to use the Internet to organize supporters, advertise, and communicate with individuals in a way that had been impossible in previous elections.[13] Obama utilized sites like YouTube to advertise through videos. The videos posted on YouTube by Obama’s were viewed for 14.5 million hours.[13][14]

2012 Presidential Election

By the 2012 election more candidates were utilizing a wider array of social media platforms.[15] Politicians were now on social networking sites like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other new social media tools and mobile apps. Some of the candidates used social media sites to announce their candidacy. Barack Obama emailed a video to 13 million when he announced his intention to run for re-election and Mitt Romney sent out a tweet.[15] Other candidates posted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to announce their candidacy.

There is a clear difference between the Obama and Romney campaign's presence on social media throughout the 2012 campaign. In October 2012, President Obama had over 20 million followers on Twitter and Romney had 1.2 million. On Facebook Obama had over 29 million likes on his page and Romney had 7.9 million. On Instagram Obama had 1.4 million followers and Romney had 38,000 followers. President Obama had higher followers on all of his other social media accounts including Spotify Pinterest and YouTube,[16] though research suggests merely following Obama or Romney on social media sites such as Facebook may have had little influence on voter behaviors.[17] President Obama also utilized his social media accounts more than any other candidate online.[18] He actively posted more on Twitter, YouTube and on his personal website blog.

President Obama’s campaign thrived on online donations in both 2008 and 2012. In 2008 3.95 million people donated to president Obama’s campaign.[3] That number reached 4.4 million people during his 2012 campaign. The total online donation also rose from $500 million in 2008 to $690 million in 2012.[3]

Limitations and Constraints of Social Media in Political Communication

Social media has been used in political campaigns ranging from small local elections to larger-scale presidential elections. According to Wael Ghonim, social media can reinforce pre-existing beliefs rather than promote new ones. Social media, while a great source of gathering volunteers and money, serves the main purpose of affirming political beliefs and strengthening a political base.[19]

Another limitation of the way social media is used in political campaigns is that politicians cannot control the conversation. According to a study by Miguel del Fresno García, Alan J. Daly, and Sagrario Segado Sánchez-Cabezudo, regular friends and followers hold high levels of influence on social media, instead of blogs and campaign pages. Users with the most influence over social media fall into three different categories: users who disseminate knowledge, those who engage other people, and those who lead conversations. These three types of users are the ones who others tend to follow and listen to through social media. Therefore, for political campaigns to truly reach as many people as possible, political groups first need to get those three users talking about their campaigns on social media.[20]

Scandals

Scandals have been a part of the American political system since its inception (see List of federal political scandals in the United States). Political scandals are events that capture a lot of attention and eventually disappear over and are the source of intense public communication. The role of the media has subsequently played an important role in both the breaking of these stories and the coverage they receive. In recent decades there have been an increased number of scandals relating to the Internet and social media.[21]

The first and most notable political scandal related to social media has been the demise of Congressman Anthony Weiner in 2011. Weiner, a Democrat from New York, sent a link of a suggestive photograph to a woman on his public Twitter account.

The tweet and picture were then sent to Andrew Breitbart , a conservative blogger, who posted them to his website before Weiner had a chance to take the tweet down.[22]

Within days the Anthony Weiner incident became national news. The scandal, nicknamed Weinergate, is widely considered to be the first political sex scandal to come about as a result of social media.[23]

Other political scandals have emerged as a result of social media. Joe Miller a Senate candidate from Alaska tweeted about decorating his office prior to any announcement that he had won the race. Miller deleted the tweets, but not before a blogger was able to screen shot them. Miller eventually lost the election.[24]

Meg Whitman a Republican candidate in California was embarrassed following a tweet sent out by her press secretary that included a YouTube video of a cross-dressed musician. Whitman lost the election to Jerry Brown.[24]

Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Congressman, got into trouble after tweeting throughout a trip to Iraq, in which he breached security by posting confidential details about the visit.[21]

There is a changing nature of political scandals that has resulted from the increased use of social media and the Internet. Politicians are increasingly more vulnerable online as the separation between public and private life has quickly diminished in the increasingly more connected world.[25] Political scandals are shifting from illegal or corrupt activities towards personal missteps no longer about illegal or corrupt activities.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kearney, Michael (2013). Political Discussion on Facebook: An Analysis of Interpersonal Goals and Disagreement (Thesis). University of Kansas.
  2. ↑ Eli Skogerbø & Arne H. Krumsvik, "Newspapers, Facebook and Twitter: Intermedial agenda setting in local election campaigns," Journalism Practice (2015) 9#3 DOI:10.1080/17512786.2014.950471
  3. 1 2 3 Scherer, Michael. “Exclusive: Obama’s 2012 Digital Fundraising Outperformed 2008.” Time. November 15, 2012. http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/15/exclusive-obamas-2012-digital-fundraising-outperformed-2008/
  4. ↑ ”Campaign 2.0” Webspace at University of Texas at Austin. April 25, 2007.
  5. ↑ Hindman, Matthew. “The Real Lessons of Howard Dean: Reflections on the First Digital Campaign.” Perspectives on Politics, 2005, p.121-128.
  6. ↑ Rospars, Joe. “How Howard Dean’s Scream Helped Obama Land The Presidency.” Time Magazine. July 1, 2014. http://time.com/2946448/howard-dean-scream-obama-president/
  7. ↑ Cornfield, Michael. “The Internet and Campaign: A Look Back at the Campaigners”. Pew Research Center, 2005, p. 2
  8. ↑ "Contribution Limits for 2003-2004". FEC.
  9. ↑ Justice, Glen. “Campaign Fund-Raising; Financial Firms are Bush’s Biggest Donors, Study Reports.”The New York Times. January 9, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/us/2004-campaign-fund-raising-financial-firms-are-bush-s-biggest-donors-study.html
  10. 1 2 3 Slotnick, Allison. “Friend the President”. 2008.
  11. ↑ McGirt, Ellen. “How Chris Hughes helped launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign.” Fast Company Magazine. April 2009. http://www.fastcompany.com/1207594/how-chris-hughes-helped-launch-facebook-and-barack-obama-campaign
  12. ↑ Carr, David. “How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power.” New York Times. November 9, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?_r=0
  13. 1 2 Miller, Claire Cain. “How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics.” New York Times. November 7, 2008. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/
  14. ↑ Ramirez, Jessica. “The YouTube Election.” Newsweek. November 9, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/youtube-election-85069
  15. 1 2 Fouhy, Beth. “Elections 2012: The Social Network, Presidential Campaign Edition.” Huffington Post. April 17, 2011 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/17/elections-2012-social-media_n_850172.html
  16. ↑ Wortham, Jenna. “The Presidential Campaign on Social Media.” The New York Times. October 8, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/08/technology/campaign-social-media.html?_r=0
  17. ↑ Pennington, Natalie; Winfrey, Kelly; Warner, Benjamin; Kearney, Michael (2015). "Liking Obama and Romney (on Facebook): An experimental evaluation of political engagement and efficacy during the 2012 general election". Computers in Human Behavior 44: 279–283. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.032.
  18. ↑ “How the Presidential Candidates Use the Web and Social Media: Obama Leads but Neither Candidate Engages in Much Dialogue with Voters.” Pew Research Center Journalism & Media. August 15, 2012 http:// www.journalism.org/2012/08/15/how-presidential-candidates-use-web-and-social-media/
  19. ↑ Baumgarten, Matthew (3 February 2016). "Part One: Social Media's Influence on War & the Political Mind". WDTV. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  20. ↑ Garcia et. al, Miguel Del Fresno (2016). "Identifying the New Influences in the Internet Era: Social Media and Social Network Analysis". Reis Revista Española De Investigaciones Sociológicas.
  21. 1 2 3 Arsenault, Amelia. “Scandal Politics in the New Media Environment” Analytical Note: Scandal Politics Review. 2008.
  22. ↑ Altman, Alex. “Weinergate: Anatomy of Social Media Scandal” Time. May 31, 2011. http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/31/weinergate-anatomy-of-a-social-media-scandal/
  23. ↑ Bradley, William. “Weinergate’s Lasting Impact: The First Big Social Media Political Sex Scandal.” Huffington Post. June 7, 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/weinergates-lasting-impac_b_872585.html
  24. 1 2 Bosker, Bianca. “The Most Embarrasing Politician Twitter Scandals.” The Huffington Post. August 3, 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/politicians-top-twitter-s_n_870967.html
  25. ↑ Lunt and Livingstone. Media and Communications Regulation & The Public Interest. Sage Publication. April 4, 2011 http://www.uk.sagepub.com/upm-data/45145_Lunt_and_Livingstone.pdf

Further reading

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