New Media and Politics: Hold on Mum, just organising a riot on Facebook
New media means new power, and anyone can use it, social media is a way of connecting and organizing, and should you do it correctly a tool that can aid in almost anything you do. What I find extremely interesting is the relationships governments are making with the people, are they completely artificial? search a politician on Facebook and you're bound to find a page they've created allowing them to connect and identify with countless others, Barack Obama's online campaigning is a prime example, of smart, effective relationship building which not only gathers potential votes, but sends a message as well, that these politicians are genuine people not just fortunate men in powerful places. (sneaky PR in my opinion)
Another interesting aspect of social media and democracy is the idea of online activism, let's take a look at the London riots, though not directly organised via social media, twitter, blackberry messaging and Facebook all played vital roles in fueling the violence, that took the lives of 5 people and injured more than a hundred others. Other forms of protests such as the Egyptian uprising have been organised by social media as well. Social media is dangerous! and many regard the internet and social media itself as a weapon for all sides.
another interesting example was the trial of Joseph Estrada, with thanks to text message services, huge amounts of people were able to organize protests, and subsequently bring Estrada to justice. New media in most of it's forms is simply powerful and can bring about huge democratic change, it is without a doubt that social media will play these same roles again in the future.
Reference List
Shirky, Clay. 2011 “The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change.”In Foreign Affairs 90:1
Sauter, Theresa L. 2014 “KCB206 Internet, Self & Beyond; Week 8 Lecture Notes Accessed April 28, 2014.
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