#mda20009 week5

The growth of social media has an impact on the political parties especially in participating the citizens to their campaign or sorts. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Wikipedia, Instagram and YouTube are the top activity on the web commonly use by the citizens today. They spend more time on these social medias to connect with other people in the community. Although this shifting environment are known by the politicians, they are still grasping on the idea of how social media works. But, back during Obama’s election campaign, he utilised the social media to engage with the citizens because he recognized the influence of countering offline work alongside an online campaign. His whole campaign strategy is with the use of social media such as fundraising (Effing, Hillegersberg & Huibers 2011, p. 25-26).

Since then, the involvement of the politics has intensified in the practice of social media, which is to cater new paths for political organization so that the citizens can partake in it. The use of social media in political organization has influence more youths to be involved in this campaign be it online or offline. Through social media, the youths have access of the information about the politicians regarding their views, opinions, political interests and so on to have better knowledge and have more choices on their involvement in politics (Abdulrauf, Hamid & Ishak 2017, p. 1-2). Additionally, governance is the approach of organizations or countries in managing the system at maximum level (Cambridge Dictionary 2019). I think that the politics are about governance because the politicians need the citizens to behave accordingly to the laws and policies that they create, but they also need to cater to the needs of the citizens. It should work both ways.  

SARAWAK FOR SARAWAKIAN MOVEMENT The Sarawak For Sarawakian movement is also using social media to reinstate the position of Sarawak as equivalent associate alongside Malaya, as they are the original founders of the Malaysian federation in 1963. The new generations often carry on the fight through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to clarify the anger and discontent (Chin 2019).  There are many other movement or activism that the young generations start up through digital media to support their cause. This is because digital media has become a norm to connect with others especially when they want others’ supports.

These movements have been politicised because it does involve the politics as they need to hear the voices of the citizens or people to serve the people’s needs especially for the country.

   REFERENCES:

Effing, R, Hillegersberg, J & Huibers, T 2011, ‘Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems?’, International Federation for Information Processing, Vol. 6847, pp.25-35.

Abdulrauf, A, Hamid, N, A & Ishak, M.S. 2017, "Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political KnowledgePreview the document", SHS Web of Conferences, Vol. 33, pp. 1-7.

Living in a country where politics is the butt end of most conversations in Malaysia, the idea of it taking effect is little to no action. Most conversations in the Parliament are prettied up with words about the people or the country and how we are to be represented, where in reality it’s mostly just to gain profit and using it for themselves rather than actually finding a way to solve the issues. This is where the engagement of politics take into place. 

What is Political Engagement?

Political engagement, also known as political participation, is the any number of voluntary activities undertaken by the public to influence public policy either directly or by affecting the selection of persons who make those policies. With this definition in mind, we can get an idea of how citizens can be affected by policy initiated by the government and how its taking effect. 

The Good Part About It

Political engagement can help build the local community whom have similar beliefs and understanding on how politicians should resolve the situation. It also helps to build a community who have similar beliefs in how the government can help reduce the issues in our country.

Political engagement can also help politicians open new networks and in different areas, creating opportunities simply by conversing with the citizens who have engaged in politics.

The Bad Part About Political Engagement

Political parties can go over the limit when engaging in politics. This is where politics can get personal due to the overwhelming effects of the decisions made by the government. It also causes the supporters of the opposing parties do any sort of movement or any sort of actions which are destructive. A good example is when Trump Supporters raided the Capitol building. To keep it short, in January 6th 2021, trump supporters aimed to storm the Capitol Building in spite of disrupting the elections to vote for Biden. The supporters believed that doing so will demonstrate Trump’s peace for power.

In conclusion, political engagement is a good way to show support or criticism for the consequences over the choices the government has made, however it is how we choose to show it that tells the difference between engaging and attacking.

References:

Longley, R 2021, ‘What is Political Participation? Definition and Examples’, ThoughtCo., ThoughtCo. , viewed 3 November 2022, <https://www.thoughtco.com/political-participation-definition-examples-5198236>

Over the past decade social media has become a leading and growing source of news and information for hundreds and millions of people around the globe. With access to fast internet and social media being free and readily accessible thanks to smartphones it is the preferred choice of news platform. News usually travels fast, but with the help of social media it travels at unprecedented rate, courtesy to services such as Facebook, Twitter. The old practices of submitting a story for the next morning’s story is almost if not dead. Nowadays whenever a new story breaks it is expected that it be covered immediately. This is where social media comes in handy the ability to publish a bit of information whenever it is available. It gives the journalists a platform where they can interact with the readers, it gives the journalists a platform to build a public profile where they weigh in on topics as they unfold and the virality of social media means they can reach those people who are well outside the targeted audience range (Wagner 2012).

One of the most prominent examples in recent memory is the #MeToo movement which is aimed at raising awareness on sexual harassment and assault another example would be the #BlackLivesMatter movement which was a continuous effort to raise awareness of the violence and racism against the black minority. It has been reported that more than half of Americans have engaged in some type of political engagement on social media. In addition, almost half of the darker skinned social media users have been noted to say that this type of platforms is extremely important to them when it comes to expressing their political views or getting involved into issues which they consider important. Moreover, many American’s think social media are important when it comes to getting officials elected as it shows that the politicians are keeping an eye on the ongoing issues. Furthermore, it gives a voice to the underrepresented groups it gives them a platform to highlight issues that might have not gotten a lot of attention (Anderson, Toor & Smith 2018).

Therefore, thanks to the unique features provided by social media it enables the politician’s in communicating with the voters. It is a rapid and an immediate way to access a big audience, the ability to link foreign communication into the politician’s personal system of communication with the electorate and it provides the electorate a way to dissect the new message released. However, certain governments have started placing in law to protect the citizens from fake news and also educate them about the potential damage it can cause especially inciting racial and religious disharmony. According to the Singapore government if there is a content about the public intuitions that it deems is inaccurate than the governments issues correction that must be published. Furthermore, it can tell the platforms to remove the content it deems false. It has also been stated that the law will not target opinions or the freedom of expression (Vaswani 2019). Another case is where certain internet sites in Egypt were cut off by the President as a way to prevent the protesters from using social media being to create unrest in the country (Arthur 2011).

Reference:

Anderson, M, Toor, S & Smith, A 2018, Activism in the Social Media Age, viewed 30 May, 2019, <https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/>.

Arthur, C 2011, Egypt blocks social media websites in attempted clampdown on unrest, viewed  30 May, 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/26/egypt-blocks-social-media-websites>.

Vaswani, K 2019, Concern over Singapore's anti-fake news law, viewed 30 May, 2019, <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47782470>.