Social Media and American Politics (PLAP 4500) F2020 Syllabus (original) (raw)
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The last two election years, (2008 and 2012), in the United States (US), social media has played an important role in the presidential elections. Social media experts have marveled at the extent to which President Obama and his campaign team used social media to promote and generate interest among young students and adults alike during the 2008 and 2012 election campaigns. The social media activities of the Obama team transformed politics into a whole new category and changed the dynamics of politics challenging the status quo. In the 2008 and 2012 US presidential elections, we realized that traditional campaigns in the form of rallies and town hall meetings were no longer enough to win elections. In order to win elections, garner support and spread information, politicians will now need to combine new media as well as some of the traditional campaign tactics to win elections. This paper will look at the role social media played in the US presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 and still playing in politics. The paper will also look at the role and effects of social media in the near future on politics and elections as a whole.
Social media and its impacts on politics
In recent years, social media are said to have an impact on the public discourse and communication in the society. The Internet has become an increasingly important tool for citizens to not only gain political knowledge, but to engage in the political process itself. In particular, social media are increasingly used in political context. More recently, micro-blogging services (e.g., twitter) and social network sites (e.g., Facebook) are believed to have the potential for increasing political participation. While Twitter is an ideal platform for users to spread not only information in general but also political opinions publicly through their networks , political institutions have also begun to use Facebook pages or groups for the purpose of entering into direct dialogs with citizens and encouraging more political discussions. In this paper, our main focus is to discuss the influence of social media on politics. We explained the importance of social media from the perspective of voters and politicians. We also focused on positive and negative effects of social media on politics. Finally, we conducted an online survey through questionnaires to know the impact of social media on politics..
The Internet has revolutionized the way most people live. It has become an integral part of our economic, political, and social lives, altering the way we purchase goods, the way we bank, and the way we communicate with one another. The number of internet users have grown from ten million in 1993 to three billions in 2014. People use online social media regularly to stay connected to their family and friends and pursue interests and hobbies. Advancement in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) , evolution of the Internet Web2.0 technology and the innovation of mobile technology have quickly developed social media into an important way to influence society. Social media has changed the way people communicate, it have helped make real the idea of a “global village”. The power of social media to affect society is based on its social aspects which means interaction and participation . Previous studies conducted on social media use presented Social Media as a tool that would motivate and deepen the relationship between citizens and politicians. Other studies have focused attention on the loss of control over information, the lack of citizens’ interest in general politics and the remaining inequalities of Internet access. According to David Phillips who explored the growth of social media sites, success in politics is now highly influenced by the online activities of political institutions, they can exchange views on the latest political developments or hot topics, inviting the public to comment and follow their political programs. David concluded that we have entered an entirely new and exciting era of politics, the internet has totally revolutionized the practice of public relations. Kathy Cohen, who studies youth utilization of social media, pointed out that social media provides expanded opportunities for political engagement for youth and marginalized groups, facilitated through the culture of sharing and participation. She concluded that social media has the potential to facilitate an equitable distribution of political participation among people from different racial and ethnic groups . To shed-light on the power of social media as political tool, this study explored illustrative cases of effective use of Social Media since 2011, for political mobilization, election campaigning, war propaganda and public diplomacy. The research examined the hypotheses that with the advancement in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), evolution of the Internet, innovation in mobile technology and the rapid increase in the number of Internet users, Social Media became an influential and powerful political tool that provides equal opportunities for the rich and the poor. The advancement in Internet Technology and the rapid increase in Internet users have made Social Media an essential, influential and powerful political tool. Social Media participatory and interactive characteristics have made it an essential tool for political and social change. The power of the Internet and its ability to overcome physical, economic, political, social, and individual barriers, have made Social Media an integral part of modern society communication habits. Social Media supports the human need for social interaction and knowledge and information democratization, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Social Media provided people with alternatives and the freedom to choose. The participatory skills, norms, and networks that are developed through social media to socialize with friends or to engage with people with the same interests can and are being transferred to the political realm. The average individual has risen to the centre of digital content production, sharing his own knowledge, wisdom and personal experiences with his peers Political activists utilized social media tool such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and weblogs as tools for organizing and generating awareness. Social media allows political activist to operate with greater creativity and independence and to go across political borders. Social Media provides individuals the capability to reach a sizable audience and mobilize others through their social networks in an easy and inexpensive manner. Social media applications such as Twitter have provided politicians with the tool to influence, inform, and engage their public while gathering feedback on political issues
J833 Social Media, Politics, and the Individual - Syllabus
This course will cover current research, theory and methodology in the area of social media and politics, with particular emphasis on individual-level effects. We will adopt an international perspective, including research published in English conducted both in the Global North and South. We will discuss research from communication, political science, social psychology and computer science to address questions such as: Do social media influence what people know and think about politics? What are the affordances of different social media that matter for political engagement? How does misinformation and conspiracies spread online and influence our political beliefs? What are the effects of informal political conversations held on Facebook and Twitter? Do social media promote cross-cutting exposure or self-reinforcing echo chambers? In which ways governments are reacting to citizens’ activities on social media? When addressing these questions, we will pay particular attention to new theoretical concepts, the variety of methods employed to study social media and politics, and cross-national differences and similarities in published findings.
Looked with declining native intrigue and interest in vote based legislative issues and declining national's trust in lawmakers and delegate organizations Gibson et al., 2008: 111-13), governments, political gatherings, social and political researchers in many nations have concentrated on the capability of online correspondence to address these shortages and rejuvenate democracy. Conceived in the web 2.0 age, internet based life offers the clients correspondence open doors for socialization, social intuitiveness and uncensored discourse, encouraging the development of online political conduct with late rise of new intelligent and media-rich Web destinations.
Full Paper Social Media and political communication.docx
Over the last ten years social media has gained the reputation of being a popular choice of communication among people. Not only in advanced countries like US and UK, but developing countries like India has become one of the largest users of social media. Today, India has overtaken US (which ranks 2 nd to India) in terms of Facebook users in the world followed by Brazil and Indonesia. Everyday there are millions of people who are joining these social media sites and are sharing opinions on issues of social, political and economic importance. These discussions sometime take the face of activism, sometimes social protest, in some cases, change in laws of the country and sometimes have even lead to the uprootment of the ruling government. If we look at the impact social media had over the political decision making of a country, we will find that every major country around the world to some extent or the other have been effected by it. For example, the 2008 US Presidential Election, when Barack Obama became the President for the first time (second time was in 2012), had been termed by many critics as a win by social media. It is now a known fact that Barack Obama used social media to its full potential. In fact, the 2008 US Presidential Election was the first example of how social media can be used to garner popular votes and instigate popular sentiments. After the hugely successful social media campaigns of the 2008 Election, came Arab Spring in 2011. Social Media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. India being one of the largest countries in the world and having a large young population, millions of whom are present in social media platforms, permeates ideas and thoughts among themselves. The youth of India is hooked into social media. Not only the youth, but the average Indian too is now connected through social media and these number of users are growing with each passing day. Thus to reach this population and to connect with people, political parties in India too are taking the social media route. Politicial Communication in India is fast changing due to the advent of social media. In 2014, the BJP garnered popular sentiments not only through its social media campaigns but also its candidate for Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi himself was very active in social media. His tweets and selfies became very popular among the youth. This paper tries to study this trend in political communication especially in the context of election campaigns in India. It also tries to understand how social media sets the agenda for election campaigns and evokes popular emotions and sentiments among people.
Social Media: The Power of Changing Political Landscape
The growing popularity of social media have play another dominant role in changing the lives of our society – changing the political and democracy landscape. Regardless it is conservative, liberal or centrism thoughts, social media users have make use the social media platform to seek more information, which leads to greater involvement into political discussion (Zúñiga, Molyneux and Zheng, 2014, as cited from Shah et. al., 2005; and Kwak et. al., 2010). Compared with traditional media, such as printed media, radio and television, which are costly to produced and disseminate the message to the public at large. The inconsistency of spreading the words from politicians to the people might occur as the production cycle for traditional media are time consuming (Zúñiga, Molyneux and Zheng, 2014, as cited from Best & Krueger, 2005). In relation to the Arab Spring, which started in 2010, Social media plays part of the role in spreading the awareness in political movement. People in Arab Countries had embraced this change of internet community, which results the high penetration of the internet, increased social media activity and increasing numbers of smartphone users in the cities and its sub-urban areas (Dewey et. al., 2012)
The Plight of Social Media: An Analysis of the Effects Social Media has on Political Discourse
2021
Delaney, Kelsey. The Plight of Social Media: An Analysis of the Effects Social Media has on Political Discourse. Department of Political Science, March 2021. Advisor: Çıdam, Çiğdem This thesis demonstrates how social media has affected political discourse. It builds on an analysis of epistemic bubbles and echo chambers to show how social media contributes to the formation of insulated groups and perpetuates belief polarization. Two case studies are used to display how social media has been weaponized by political actors through the manipulation of algorithms, bot accounts, anonymity, normalization, and trend-setting tactics. The first case study focuses on how private companies can profit from the unauthorized collection of social media users’ personal data. This allows them to manipulate these data points to target each user with political propaganda to achieve a political goal. The second case study shows how white supremacist groups have weaponized social media to disseminate the...