The document discusses the influence of social media on democracy, political reforms, and citizen engagement, highlighting its role in enhancing public discourse and organizing political movements. It illustrates significant examples, such as Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and social media's impact on elections in Canada and protests in Egypt and Libya, showcasing both its potential for positive change and the risk of polarization. Additionally, it raises concerns about governmental regulation of social media in the context of political activism.

1. Social Media and Politics
Learning objectives
Learning objectives include an understanding of the following:
· The role of social media in democracy
· The role of social media in advancing political reforms
· How social media create polarization
Introduction
Social Media are now a central component of democracy. The
media are increasingly associated with political organizing,
elections campaigns, accountability, and generally a more
engaged citizenry. Social media are a dominant platform
through which everyday citizens can share, organize, and
communicate their ideas. People regularly use the media to
acquire information about leaders and public policy related
areas like the environment, education, health and so on. Many
public offices now have websites that include social media
functions in their communication with the public. Collectively,
social media provide a public sphere where individuals can
interact with likeminded people on political issues and provide
criticism and support for leaders. However, while social media
platforms make many issues accessible to increasingly large
groups, the media have the potential to create polarization.
Specifically, many blogs are quite subjective while some forms
of media promote hatred and intolerance. Additionally, it is also
difficult to examine the extent to which social media really
alters public opinion as more research is needed. Lastly,
questions remain on how much time users are prepared to
devote their time on the social media for political problems.
Social Media and Elections

2. Popular social networks have transformed the use of the internet
as a political tool for democratic transitions. Barack Obama’s
historic in 2008 win was attributed to a new media strategy
inspired by popular networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
The campaign’s website My.BarackObama.com, allows
supporters to join local groups, create events, sign up for
updates and set up personal fund-raising pages. The campaign
was spearheaded by Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook.
The social networks helped Obama raise more than two million
donations of less than $200 each (Stelter, 2008). This success
was based on huge investments on social media. The campaign
spent $3 million on online advertising that targeted potential
voters and online tools providing details of voting locations
(Stelter, 2008).
Similarly, social media was extensively used in Canada’s 2011
elections. The elections were dubbed the “social media
elections” or “election 2.0.” Harris (2011) observed that the
social media served as “a one-stop shopping for parodies,
speech remixes, gotcha moments, unconventional ads, and
attacks so fiery, they risk scorching your computer monitor.”
Two "vote mob" videos simultaneously held spots in the Top 10
on YouTube. A satirical video juxtaposing a Harper speech with
an address by Star Wars' evil Emperor Palpatine drew more than
114,000. The University of Guelph's "vote mob" videos were
viewed more than 33,000 times (Harris, 2011). Critics of the
Harper Government also took to other forms of amateur
production to express their disapproval of Conservative
policies, from fake TWitter accounts(@làytonsmustache,
@ThePMSaidSo) to digitally produced comics (Reilly, 2011).
Out of the above, amateur video garnered significant attention
from both viewers and critics alike.
Social Media and Citizen Participation

3. In recent years, social media forums have been used as avenues
for encouraging civil participation in public policies. Lawrence
Lessig, a professor at the Harvard Law School illustrates how
social media could be used to ‘fix’ the U.S. Congress and to
organize a convention to propose amendments to the U.S.
Constitution (Taske & Plude, 2011). Lessig’s site
www.fixcongressfirst.org contains a digital strategic plan and
www.callaconvention.com allows individuals to find and
support an event in their area or plan an event of their own. An
additional site http://convention.ideascale.com allows
individuals to submit ideas for constitutional amendments
browse recent ideas and vote on them. As users submit their
ideas, the online community discusses and votes for them, and
the best ideas move to the top.
Social media are also used to initiate conversations. The usage
of social media in recent protests and calls for reform in Egypt
and Libya were instrumental in garnering international
attention. One illustration of the prevalence of social media is
illustrated by a book co-edited by an Egyptian-British activist
Nadia Idle and Alex Nunns. The book titled Tweets from Tahrir
consists of Tweets from the 18 days of uprising in Egypt located
in Tahrir Square in Cairo. At the launch of the book in Cairo,
Idle, noted that what had happened on Twitter was "so
incredible and inspiring" that they were compelled to document
how people using the microblogging site had been reporting
about the revolution (Cambie, 2012). Tweets from Tahrir
demonstrates how storytelling is changing because voices of
main characters now become integral parts of a story and
authors in many ways facilitate story telling process.
In Syria, where international media has been barred, much of
the exposure of the protests has taken place through social
media. A cursory look at YouTube provides many videos
reflecting violence against civilians in the country. In this way
social media is being used to uncover repressive actions by
governments on civilians. Similarly, the viral film “Kony 2012”
created by Invisible Children Inc. Short film to create

4. awareness on Joseph Kony, a war criminal from Uganda who
has been accused of recruiting children for war and other war
crimes reveals of over 89 million hits on YouTube.
Social media have become powerful tools for political activists
around the world, giving people a way to coordinate protests
and quickly spread word of setbacks, victories or other
developments in campaigns. “Smart mobs” of activists, brought
to demonstrations by text messages, have also led to political
change in the Phillipines and Ukraine (Zuckerman, 2007). In
2001, SMS messages about political corruption helped turn the
tide against President Joseph Estrada in the Phillipines, and led
to SMS-organized street protests and Estrada’s eventual ouster.
SMS messages in Ukraine were instrumental in mobilizing tens
of thousands of young demonstrators in the streets of Kiev in
late 2004 to protest election fraud and demand a revote. To stop
virally spreading messages, governments have ordered SMS
networks shut downs e.g. in Ethiopian, Cambodia, Albania, and
Iran. Twitter also blocked in Iran and China. Do you think
governments should have the power to regulate social media in
such cases?
Social media have also aided in creating transparency and
accountability in public offices. Whistlestop, for example,
allows individuals to track candidates’ performance and to
mobilize friends in support of candidates through social media.
Can you think of similar organizations?
As seen above, social media have contributed to some
democratic advancement. However, social media have also been
linked to grouppolarization. Sunstein, 2001 argues that the
internet could be seen as a “breeding” ground for extremism.
This emerges when like minded people deliberate without
hearing contrary views. Examples of this occurrence include
hate groups. Such groups use social networks to make quick
contract with like minded individuals and to organize events.
Required Readings

5. Cass Sunstein. (2001). The Daily We. Is the Internet really a
blessing for democracy? Boston Review.
http://bostonreview.net/BR26.3/sunstein.php
Harris, M. (2011). Election 2.0: Web gains momentum. Average
Canadians driving the campaign on YouTube.
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=9
37d08f1-2d95-4489-b6a7-83e38c141fec
Reilly, I. (2011). "Amusing Ourselves to Death?" Social Media,
Political Satire, and the 2011 Election. Canadian Journal of
Communication 36, pp. 503-511
Additional Readings
Cambié Silvia. (2012). Lessons from the frontline.
Communication World, pp. 28-32.
Stelter, B. 2008. The Facebooker who befriended Obama. The
New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/technology/07hughes.html?
pagewanted=1&_r=2
Taske, C. & Plude, F. 2011. Experiencing social media across
generations. Media Development, pp. 38-41
Zuckerman, E. (2007). Mobile phones and social activism. Why
cell phones may be the most important technical innovation of
the decade.
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/hardware/page7216.cfm
?rss=1
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