The politicians are coming!
Whether or not you follow politics, it follows you. Politics good or bad finds a way into your life. The current president of the United States of America tweet absolute nonsense and the world is still trying to work out confeve.
(Twitter, 2017)
Its not hard to see why many politicians have jumped on the social media bandwagon. Do it right will can create free promotion and marketing for your campaign but doing wrong creates media hype and apparently you can still even will an election, just like Donald Trump. Social media allows politicians to get engage with their followers and promoting themselves during elections. I personally don’t care much for politics. I hate it when it seeps into my personal life. I like to remove or mute people off my Facebook who preach politics, life if too short and there are already so many things trying to get my attention. I don’t need this extra distraction.
Twice our Prime Minster, surviving a back stab from his own party. Kevin Rudd’s had an amazing campaign back in 2007 with Kevin 07. Seriously someone from marketing needs a promotion. Kevin Rudd not only engaged with followers on Facebook, but he even joined Reddit (Foster 2017).
Close to an election voting become the new food pictures on Instagram, political engagement and involvement on social media can be easily seen, users use hashtags like #auspol #politics, #vote, #metoo and more. One of the great things about social media that politics takes advantage of is that every engagement is that it affects the everyone around like a spreading virus – even users who are not purposely engaging in politics are exposed to politics on social media even when they are not looking for it (Bode 2017). Being political engaged on social media for both the politicians and for the end user takes minimal effort and skill, all most zero costs and everyone and anyone can engage just by following, liking, sharing or commenting political content. These simple actions can cause huge ripple effects even though they seem non-influential actions by individual however they continue to transcend into the individual’s network, with the result of me blocking you off my feed.
There is no question that social media is holding a growing power and the sense of being digital citizen has become a force in the life of people. Social media has a great became a medium for people to voice out their opinions, share their thoughts, if their opinions are unwanted. I’m looking at you flat earthers. The use of social media is no longer just creating content, socializing with friends, it has extended to posting about politics and sharing one’s political agenda. Sharing on social media can be very public, therefore it is important to understand its subtle yet monumental effects.
References
Bode, L 2017, ‘Gateway political behaviours: the frequency and consequences of low-cost political engagement on social media’, Social Media + Society, 25 November, viewed 12 January, 2019, <doi: 10.1177/2056305117743349>. Foster, A 2017, Kevin Rudd proves he is the handball king, viewed 20 January, 2019, <https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/kevin-rudd-lives-up-to-his-title-of-handball-king/news-story/c023263aa12f64aa3bc38740850a88dd>. Twitter 2017, Screenshot, [image], viewed 12 January, 2019, <https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?lang=en&lang=en>.
