In this generation most of the daily news is built on a social media platform. Also, there has been a convergence with social media and politics. For example, when Barack Obama was running for elections in 2008, he wanted to reach to the youth. So he used the media such as television advertising for his campaigns. In The New York Times article “How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power”, David Carr explains how Obama was the first President to use the internet for campaigning. Unlike his former opponents who cared about how much money they can raise during their campaigns. Also in his article, Mr. Andreessen said “Other politicians I have met with are always impressed by the Web and surprised by what it could do, but their interest sort of ended in how much money you could raise. He was the first politician I dealt with who understood that the technology was a given and that it could be used in new ways.”
Politics and Social Media go well with each other. There can be benefits and also downsides for Politics and Social Media together. News on Social Media can hurt a campaign because once a story is out, it spreads quickly and becomes viral. Such as the “Sex Tapes” of Donald Trump talking about women disrespectfully. Also, Hillary Clinton’s “Emails” that were deleted and contained important information. In my point of view Donald Trump isn’t using Social Media for political reasons wisely. He puts whatever is on his mind onto Twitter before rethinking the consequences.
I agree with the third article, “The Role Played By Social Media In Political Participation And Electoral Campaigns”, when they stated “Personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens in a more targeted manner and vice versa, without the intermediate role of mass media.” Like I said before, people consume daily political news through social media and on their phones. A research was conducted by PEW RESEARCH CENTER on 10/2014, by studying how many people use their phones to keep up with election news by age. Also, they compared the same study that they have done in 2010. They found an increase from 2010 to 2014, especially among 30 to 49 year olds.
