Political Communication - How has the rise of social media changed the political communication syste

Social media has become an inevitable part of our everyday life, which exerts profound impacts in many industries. As a collection of online systems including the production, storage, and distribution of user-generated content, social media has the capabilities to create a virtual social space that allows synchronous and asynchronous interactions for users (Chen, 2013). Arguably, it is vital for any political actors or any members of the public to take the importance of social media into consideration in political communication (Schapals, 2018c). This essay shall identify, analyse, and critique the influence of social media on both politicians and the public in the political communication system.

On the one hand, social media has affected politicians by providing endless opportunities for two-way interactions with the electorate. Evidently, social media acts as a cost-effective platform to convey their political messages (Sauter as cited in Schapals, 2018c). By utilising social media, politicians are able to circumvent the conventional method of reaching voters, especially the young demographics or those who are not particularly interested in politics, through earned media or paid advertising. Politicians can employ a great volume of database about their target audience on social media, and customise their messages based on the chosen demographics (Murse, 2018). Apart from social media platforms namely Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, politicians also extend their political reach on text messages and televisions. For instance, political-themed shows on national television namely Q&A and Question Time not only help to promote the politicians’ presence but also help to bridge the distance between politicians and the audience members. While the public can directly engage with politicians across all sides of the political spectrum in a live and unedited setting, the politicians are simultaneously put under pressure to deliver answers related to the audience’s political queries (Schapals, 2018c). Indeed, through the introduction of social media to the political communication system, politicians can promote their presence extensively among many platforms. Obama's leveraging of social media platforms can serve as a stark example of politicians utilising social media networks. He ran an extensive election campaign from his official website to other social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Also, he concentrated on the two-way flow of communication between his team and the public on these platforms. Thus, it is not a surprise that he had won approximately 70% of the votes from Americans under the age of 25 in the presidential election (Dutta & Fraser, 2008).

However, the opportunities that social media brings to the political actors come along with the challenges. In a free fall nature of political communication, conventional social hierarchies have gradually been blurred; thus, the political actors constantly need to grab the attention of the public. Besides from the necessarily simultaneous response to the buzz of media interactivity, political actors are increasingly aware that their political messages may undergo alterations once they are under scrutiny in the context of social media (Blumer & Coleman, 2010). Furthermore, many concerns in relation to copyright and privacy of the public on social media have been raised as politicians may go to any lengths to exploit the citizens’ personal details in favour of their running for election, as illustrated in the Facebook – Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

On the other hand, social media has also influenced how ordinary citizens can contribute to the political communication system, as it blurs the boundaries between the political system and the public. Social media creates a deliberative public sphere for the exchange of information and the formation of preferences for policymakers, without any discrimination (Chen, 2013). Rather than passive recipients, the publics are now becoming active participants who can produce, distribute, or critique any media consumption (Dal Zotto & Lugmayr, 2016). According to research findings from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 51% of people opt for social media as a source of news. It also suggests that people are increasingly considering Facebook, Twiter, and other social media platforms for their news consumption. Several political actors have utilised this new means of political communication on social media; thus, adopted the use of hashtag #ausvotes for the 2010 Australian federal election. There were approximately 36,000 individual citizens who used the hashtag #ausvotes in their conversations on Twitter, yielding a record of over 415,000 tweets (Bruns & Burgess, 2011). In line with the enthusiasm of Australian citizens in the political communication online, 22% of American registered voters shared how they voted on their personal social media accounts, which translated to the number of 30% of voters being encouraged to vote by their acquaintances (Rainie, 2012). Definitely, as we are moving towards a new era of heightened active citizenship and public deliberation, there now exists a greater volume of dialogues between “kings” and “commoners” (Benkler as cited in Schapals, 2018c).

Nevertheless, the merits of the public sphere have been constantly questioned. One concern might be due to the fact that communication in the public sphere can adopt a self-critical style, as it has a tendency of opening for private communication (Rasmussen, 2007). As a matter of fact, the public sphere and its political purposes are only accessible to those who have resources; therefore, they may not address all target audience from different cultural backgrounds or socio-economic statuses. Furthermore, the practice of different characters incorporating into a bigger picture of public opinions can be complicated to address (Rasmussen, 2007).

All in all, social media has a vital role to play in the political communication system. It is not only of importance to the politicians when they utilise it to convey their political messages to the target audience extensively but also of significance to the general public in the deliberative public sphere. However, social media is a complicated tool that needs to be used wisely, depending on how it is employed, by both politicians and the public.