Within this presidential election, the use of social media is more prevalent than ever before. After the Republican National Convention’s secret keynote speaker Clint Eastwood created a 15 minute parody of himself taking to an empty chair- meant to symbolize President Obama- the Democratic Party choose to take their response to the web. Obama’s campaign responded to Eastwood’s remarks by posting this picture to the right with Obama sitting in the President’s seat with the caption “This seat is taken” on their Twitter as well as Obama’s multiple Facebook pages; the campaign also created a seperate Twitter account called @InvisibleObama.
A San Fransico Chronicle article written by Julie Bykowicz discusses the huge surge social media has taken since the last presidential election in 2008, as well as how much larger an influence/role it has. According to the article, “as of Sept. 4, it (the chair photograph) had been retweeted more than 54,000 times — the most activity of anyone during the Republican convention and the second most ever from Obama’s account”.
“This will be, without a doubt, the most socially connected election season ever,” Joe Green, president and co-founder of NationBuilder, said to Bykowicz. “Democracy in its most basic form is really about mobilization of the masses, and that is what social media enables at the grassroots level.”
Not only is social media the best way for candidates to reach their electorate, but it is also the way that many people of the younger generation receive their news in general, a critical age group the candidates are fighting to win over. Most of what I know of each political candidate and their separate stances has come from either their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, or the new of the two social media sites. I don’t always have time to sit down and watch the news for hours when the RNC or DNC is broadcasted, but I definitely did check the updates of the conventions from each candidates’ Twitter account, Facebook, and later watched some of the speeches on YouTube. Without the candidates utilizing social media, I know that I for one would know much less than I do now. Social media is overall, simply, very convenient. It can be looked at on the go, and if you have a smart phone can be accessed almost anywhere. That is the type of source that in the technology age, candidates are smart to utilize.
Joe Green’s comment really nails why I personally believe social media is so important to democracy. When Occupy was in full swing last year, it was social media that kept all of the different chapters unified across the country. YouTube brought us footage of the student’s response to the Occupy Oakland police brutality, and Twitter was aglow with to-the-second updates when the DC OccuBarn was being demolished. Even locally: without the viral photos, the masses would have been largely unaware when the police carried away that bandana’d member of Occupy BG (http://www.sent-trib.com/images/stories/2011/12-5-11/Occupy_arrest_rotator.jpg). Democracy can’t work if the public is uninformed, and social media has the ability to present unfiltered news to all.
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