Saxon's Mama

:When understanding the potential impact that social media can have on the way someone understands and engages with politicians, it would be fair to say that that the power of social media is wildly underestimated by most Australian politicians. Jericho (2012) puts this down to an overwhelming tendency to use platforms such as Twitter and facebook to broadcast political agendas or highly polished PR pieces instead of engaging in real comment with followers, which demonstrates a lack of understanding in how social media works. 

This can make politicians appear out of touch and vaguely amusing, a bit like when you realise your toddler is more iPad savvy than your mother. Especially when they make public gaffes a la Barry O’Farrell and his ‘deeply off the record’ tweet of 2010, calling Julia Gillard a ‘ranga’ (Jericho, p273 2012). Alongside this, the desire to drive traffic to party websites is ‘contrary to the nature of social media’ (Jericho, p276 2012), and does little to positively contribute to image, profile or constituent engagement. This will obviously change and evolve as these generations of politicians make way for those who have never known life without social media, and who will have an innate and sophisticated understanding of how to execute a campaign and profile online.

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, was well known for his social media prowess and cultivated a ‘cool dad’ persona with his public profile and his ability to ‘get it’.

The following video gives some insight into Obama and his willingness to engage with social media and use it to enhance his image, rather than damage it with too much politic.

Top social media moments from the Obama Presidency from CNBC.

And here are 9 lessons in social media we can learn from Obama:

<https://www.typeform.com/blog/ask-awesomely/president-social-media/>

Maybe our Aussie politicians could take some tips? 

It is true that in 2008, The Pew Research Center in the US, found that nearly 75% of internet users went online to get information about the American election (Young, 2010). Obama is widely reported to be the first social media president, which, it could be argued, is due to timing but is also because he does it so well. Obama is a clever social media user, and someone who understands the way it works, which really contributed to his popularity outside of his politics. While he made his online activity relatable and often funny, Obama was viewed as an aspirational president. In contrast, Donald Trump, while well known for his prolific use of Twitter, it could be said that his activity tends to be divisive and rude. In 2017, Obama had three of the most liked and retweeted tweets for the year. Trump didn't make the top ten. 

<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42243659>

So back to Australia, and how our politicians fare as digital citizens. There is no doubt that they see the importance of it but their inability to translate this to engaged activity is testament to how out of touch their thinking is, and possibly how much of a factor age is.

New Zealand’s new PM, Jacinda Ardern, is another wonderful example of a politician who understands and is properly engaged with new media, as we can see from the following exchange with Ed Sheeran:

Australia, we have a long way to go!!

REFERENCES

Bogost, I 2017, ‘Did America Need A Social Media President’ viewed 20 June 2018 <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/did-america-need-a-social-media-president/512405/>

Jericho, G 2012, 'How many votes are there on Twitter?', in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.  

http://stuartjdavidson.com/social-media-quotes/

10The mobilization of citizens against crime and corruption in Tunisia & Egypt, during what came to be termed the ‘Arab Spring’ (Gerbaudo, P p4 2012) illustrates the ability of social media to garner world wide attention and incite action, in ways which would have been unimaginable ten years ago. ‘Tweets and the streets’ (Gerbaudo, 2012), or social media used as a contemporary method of communication, give the power to people on the ground to lift the lid on political corruption and mistreatment of citizens by using social media to illustrate activity and give insight into circumstances as they unfold. This in turn empowers people to have a greater understanding of global events and the knowledge to engage with these happenings as they see fit. For example, tweeting and retweeting with relevant hashtags #arabspring, sharing YouTube clips of riots, and liking facebook pages such as “Kuleena Khalid Said” or “We are all Khalid Said” (Vargas 2012) gives a voice to global citizens who want to stand in solidarity with others and make a stand against injustice. 

There is an obvious tendency to celebrate social media for it’s role in driving collective social action, however there is also the idea that social media contributes to something called the activist delusion or sub activism, whereby users think they are contributing to social change without actually doing something meaningful. Activism for slackers, or ‘slactivism’ (Gerbaudo, p7 2012) is described by scholar Morozov as ‘feel good activism that has zero political or social impact’ but creates an ‘illusion of having a meaningful impact on the world without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group’. Whilst I somewhat agree with Morozov’s pessimistic attitude, I definitely think that liking pages or sharing stories contributes to a wider understanding in society of worldwide events. The opportunity to express yourself and stand in solidarity with others when a tragedy occurs, or to show support for others can and does have an impact. And while changing your facebook profile to a rainbow is support of marriage equality may not seem like a big step, this small contribution to social awareness cannot be underestimated. 

Something which is really on my mind at the moment is the separation at the US border of immigrant children from their parents. I find this abhorrent, and I feel sick to the stomach when I see the images on social media or on the news. But it is hard to imagine that I would know about it if it weren’t for social media. I certainly feel helpless in this situation, and as a global citizen I have tried to find ways in which I could help alter this outcome in the US. It is difficult to have impact on another country’s policies but I do believe that the more people who share these stories and express their disgust, the more likely that there will be some sort of change. Even small movements have a ripple effect. And I really hope there is one now.

REFERENCES

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto Press, London.

Vargas, J 2012, How An Egyptian Revolution Began On Facebook, viewed 10 June 2018 <https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/books/review/how-an-egyptian-revolution-began-on-facebook.html>

IMAGES

The Protestor, viewed 17 June 2018, <http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132,00.html>

I was so affected by the video, ‘Caught on camera racist Australian abuse girl smash bus window YouTube’ (Checkpoint Media 2012) in this week’s module, I was brought to tears. I feel so appalled by the abusive behaviour exhibited by the people in the video and so embarrassed that this could happen to a foreigh national in my home country. Like so many other Australians, I lived for many years in the United Arab Emirates, an Islamic country, and was always welcome to celebrate my own heritage without fear of physical or verbal abuse. I can’t help but think of the Cronulla riots when I see this type of unnecessary and escalating abuse, and the pack mentality that was quickly established between other passengers. Living abroad, there were certain occasions when I found myself having to discuss this event and our country’s attitude toward non Australians with Lebanese & other Middle Eastern work colleagues and clients. It was a difficult discussion to have, even when the behaviour of a few do not reflect your own beliefs, they can unfortunately become representative of your people. It is hard to be proud of your country in these moments. 

I really admire the author of this video for having the courage to film under such circumstances, as I imagine the consequences of being caught would be dire, and this would definitely dissuade me from engaging in the situation in the same way, no matter how appalled I was by the scenario. In fact, the more appalling, the less likely I would be to involve myself for fear of the consequences. It could be said that the public shaming of these offenders via YouTube is part of the ‘productive role of provocation’ (McCosker 2014) which aims to corral other digital citizens together in response to bad behaviour, and to push back in an entertaining and intelligent way, about what is acceptable behaviour in our society. Swedish psychologist Dan Olweus (boyd 2014, p131) has defined bullying as occurring when ‘someone of differential physical or social power subjects another person to repeated psychological, physical or social aggression’ (boyd 2014, p131) and I wonder if a collection of similar experiences, administered by different people, can be defined in the same way? Was this experience the first time the French victim had been subject to racism in Australia? Or was it part of a bigger collection of experiences? What if the victim had been Middle Eastern, or Indian or Asian? It would be high likely that this was not a solitary incident. And if it wasn’t the first time, but the abusive content was similar, could it be said that this constitutes bullying? This definitely does not make me proud.