Social Media Affected by Politics

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The role of media in society can be viewed from two perspectives: that the media exists to deliver what interests the public, or that the media exists to deliver what is in the public interest (Jolly,2007).

However, the way it is currently being used is creating a political discourse dominated by outrage, prejudice and self-absorption at the expense of understanding and the responsibility of the citizen to take an interest in broader issues of society and government. But we should be warned that as people increasingly rely on social media for their news and information, it risks becoming a huge “echo chamber” where people’s prejudices are endlessly reinforced.

social media is primarily driven by connecting people with shared interests. That is one of its strengths, but he is concerned that as a result it is encouraging a fractured politics where people are narrowly interested in only their own concerns. And the tenor of such debates on personalised issues is inevitably partisan and prejudiced, with dissenters often demonised,

We know from studies that people look for information that confirms their pre-existing views and beliefs, and in a social media environment that is really dangerous.

“Democracy relies on citizens having some exposure to people with a different set of beliefs to their own. But the way social media is evolving and being used, it is encouraging people to speak only to others like themselves and to focus on issues that only matter to them and their friends

Paradoxically, these concerns for the health of democracy are emerging when the advent of the Internet and social media has brought ordinary citizens unprecedented access to information and unprecedented power to mobilise. In both this year’s Australian and US elections, social media will be used to engage voters like never before. But is social media part of the problem or part of the solution?

On the one hand, it is a powerful platform for ordinary citizens to expose wrongdoing and mobilise. But on the other, it is a platform for peddling lies, xenophobia and propaganda.

Our sense of being in a collective, a shared republic, is at risk of being lost because people are only talking to people who agree with them and the other side is demonised.

Social media encourages “cynicism chic” where what is valued is the appearance of being knowledgeable and being “above it all”, rather than engaging with what are often very complex policy problems. He argues this encourages a simplistic view on social media of policy problems, and a widespread, but often unjustified, cynicism towards politicians that could undermine government by making citizens apathetic.

“People from all side of politics often have good intentions, it is just that they have different views on how to deal with particular policy problems. But politicians must feel incredibly constrained by social media,

We all complain that politicians should be more open and speak honestly, but we have to take some responsibility because as soon as a politician says anything they risk being attacked on social media.

“I hope we reach a more mature point in our use of social media, and that people realise that listening to people who have some expertise on an issue is better than listening to people who know little or nothing about an issue or are peddling propaganda.

“The alternative is that maybe what we are seeing a reversion back to the historic role of the press as a highly partisan vehicle for news. Are we gradually replacing an impartial press, which is, historically speaking, still a new idea, with a highly partisan social media?”

social media is a haven for assertion and crude political attacks, as well as an echo chamber for our own prejudices. But he argues the potential benefits for democratising the political discourse are just too important to ignore.

The challenge, he says, is to fully realise the democratic potential of social media by giving it time to develop the same norms and standards that have characterised political debate in the past, where the courts and established media have acted as gatekeepers. The key will be to achieve that while fostering the new freedom and diversity that social media offers.

“We have to learn as a society to be more mature in the way we use this tool and we have to be able to moderate ourselves,” Dr Muller says.

We can’t put the social media genie back in the bottle, and we shouldn’t want to give its huge democratising potential.

“Social media has given everyone the ability to be a publisher. Access to a platform, whether it is print, a microphone, or a television camera, is no longer the preserve of the privileged few in the established media, but is available to everyone with an Internet connection and the skill to use it.

“What we need to do is recognise this potential and look for ways to manage it and trust that, over time, society will apply the same norms to public exchange on social media as we apply to other places of public exchange.”

Social media, Dr Muller argues, is a welcome democratic challenge to the power of the established media and institutions like the courts. Thanks to social media, he says a knowledgeable citizen now has power like never before to call out falsehoods, propaganda and inaccuracies in the mainstream media, subjecting professional journalists and publishers to unprecedented scrutiny.

CONCLUSION

An increasing subset of the political battle nowadays is being fought online, through party Websites and social media. This is beginning to affect the balance of power in the overall media ecology: while mainstream media have historically played an important role in political campaigning and in shaping public opinions, online and social media now contribute new communicative ingredients to the public sphere.

While much attention has already been paid to the way that social media users critique and criticise the mainstream media, the opposite is less true. Conventional print and broadcast media have been instrumental in raising awareness about the political uses of social media platforms, and in doing so reflect contemporary views; so, what is the portrayal of social media in the media?

In the report, we investigate how the political uses of social media are portrayed in the Australian mainstream media, in order to understand the perceptions that help shape how politicians, citizens and journalists employ new media tools to support their political objectives.

Politicians

Commentary