Social media impact on political campaigns free essay sample

I would like to convey my deep affection to few persons and would love to acknowledge their appreciative help in our research project. The persons include my instructor Sir Sajjad Naseer and Ms. Maheen Haroon . Contents Abstract: Research on this topic would show on overall support or refute of social media playing a significant role in political campaigns. Given the support for social media‘s role in political campaigns, research would show how social media affected previous campaigns, specifically President Barack Obama‘s 2008 presidential campaign, and the growing importance of social media to future political campaigns. Research would also indicate the potential problems and best uses of social media in future campaigns. Introduction: Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share, or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Engagement through social networking sites and Twitter has become a marked feature of political and civic life for a significant portion of Americans . We will write a custom essay sample on Social media impact on political campaigns or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page According to the Mass Communication and Society study, the ability to express political views and opinions online plays an important role for social media in campaigns. Social media allow users to not only seek information but also interact with others through online expression such as posting political commentaries on blogs and social network sites and sharing multimedia commentary. In past campaigns, Facebook users have expressed themselves politically in many ways, such as making online donations, encouraging friends to vote, or posting graphics or status updates expressing political attitudes and opinions. Twitter and blogs have been used by candidates and voters to comment on social and political issues, share information and encourage participation. 38% of those who use social networking sites (SNS) or Twitter use those social media to â€Å"like† or promote material related to politics or social issues that others have posted. 35% of social media users have used the tools to encourage people to vote. 34% of social media users have used the tools to post their own thoughts or comments on political and social issues. According to the Mass Communication and Society study, the ability to express political views and opinions online plays an important role for social media in campaigns. Social media allow users to not only seek information but also interact with others through online expression such as posting political commentaries on blogs and social network sites and sharing multimedia commentary . In past campaigns, Facebook users have expressed themselves politically in many ways, such as making online donations, encouraging friends to vote, or posting graphics or status updates expressing political attitudes and opinions. Twitter and blogs have been used by candidates and voters to comment on social and political issues, share information and encourage participation. Also, YouTube and CNN partnered to sponsor a debate in which candidates took questions from user-created videos as opposed to a moderator. During the 2008 election, it was observed that Barack Obama, who won the election, had a large social media presence. In subsequent years after this election, many other candidates for political office created a presence on social media as well. This leads observers to question the correlation between social media and success in presidential campaigns. Research Questions  o How has social media been utilized in previous political campaigns, specifically the 2008 presidential campaign? o How has the use of social media changed in subsequent political campaigns? o Have there been any negative effects or new problems created because of social media? o What is the predicted future of social media use in political campaigns, particularly in the 2012 campaigns for president? Hypothesis: Ho: Social media can negatively and positively impact the way pol iticians are represented in political campaigns H1:The way politicians are represented are not linked to social media Research methodology: Research methodology used in the research paper is secondary research ,where the qualitative as well as quantitative research has been utilized . Literature review: Within the selection of resources reviewed, the following subcategories were identified: President Obama‘s use of social media in the 2008 presidential campaign, the current use of social media in political campaigns, problems with social media use, and the future predictions for use of social media. This is the order in which the following research is presented. It is important to note that some of these sources could be applied to any and all categories. These articles address the use of social media by President Barack Obama and his campaign staff during the campaign for president in 2008, the first campaign to use strongly social media. Articles that supported the idea that social media was an important part of Obama‘s campaign in 2008 addressed the thesis topic in question and formed the foundation for the research‘s hypothesis that social media affects political campaigns. President Obama‘s use of social media in the 2008 campaign and the apparent discrepancies between Obama‘s use and the use of his opposition, John McCain. These statistics, such as the fact that Obama had 2 million Facebook friends while McCain only had 600,000, show that Obama used social media much more than McCain in the 2008 election (Graber). Also, a November 7, 2008 article on the New York Times blog by Claire Cain Miller discussed the importance and effectiveness of Obama‘s use of social media, supporting the hypothesis that social media had an effect on the 2008 presidential campaign. Also, a study by Matthew James Kushin and Masahiro Yamamoto published in Mass Communication and Society, provided insight into the social media habits of young people (adults under the age of 30), a demographic targeted by Obama in the 2008 campaign. The study found that young people tend to get political information from social media more than any other age group . A 2011 study conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics found similar results and concluded that 27% of young adults find that Facebook and other social media websites have more of an impact that other types of advocacy (Harvard Institute of Politics). These two studies show that the use of social media helped Barack Obama target young people in his 2008 campaign. Because this thesis concerns social media use, social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were used as source material. Of particular interest were Facebook groups like ? One Million Strong for Barack? and ? Students for Barack Obama? that emphasized user generated support for Obama during his 2008 campaign. ?One Million Strong? was created in 2007, before the official campaign, by Farouk Aregbe, and it helped mobilize supporters and organize events. (President Obama‘s official Facebook page was also viewed to gain insight into his use of social media. Also of interest were YouTube videos like William’s. Yes I Can,? that used celebrities to garner support for Obama, and the parody video ? I Got a Crush on Obama? by the Obama Girl, that was said to have made an impact on the campaign (Story: Obama Girl). These sources provided insight into the social media platforms and the viewing of them by campaign supporters. The focus of these sources is the use of social media after the 2008 election, namely in the 2010 midterm elections. These sources discuss the use of social media today, and how it has grown since the 2008 election. A study by the Pew Research Center provided useful statistics about the increasing use of social media websites and recent statistics about 2010 use. The study also details important details about the use of social media for political purposes in 2010. An article from Politico by Byron Tau echoes this sentiment and discusses the changes in the social networks themselves since 2008. The articles show that young people are not the only ones using these social networks now, a departure from the Obama‘s 2008 campaign. A New York Times article about the Pew report by Jennifer Preston describes this shift to social media and also discusses the use of social media by the different political parties. According to the article, in the 2008 election, Obama and the Democrats used social media well, but the Republicans lagged behind (Preston). The article shows that Republicans have now almost bridged the social media gap and are quickly catching up to Democrats in terms of social media use (Preston). This shows that social media is becoming important for all political candidates and is not just a fad for the 2008 election. Since social media is a relatively new way for politicians to communicate during political campaigns, it is not surprising that problems with social have arisen for politicians. These articles discuss the problems and challenges associated with social media, because it is important to note the negative effects of social media on political campaigns. A March 18, 2011 USA Today article discusses the problems that the speed of this technology can cause. Referring to Twitter, the article contends that ? †¦it now only takes 140 characters to damage a political campaign because these technologies move so quickly, any off color remark can instantly be read and shared by millions of people (Kucinich). An article by Noah Rothman, the editor of Campaigns and Elections, contends that blunders such as these are especially worrisome when candidates handle their own social media profiles without the help of staff (Rothman, Opposition. Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). The issue of social media providing damaging material for opposition researchers is also discussed in this article. While opposition researchers say they do monitor social networks, it is not their main source of finding information (Rothman, Opposition Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). A January 2011 New York Times article discusses the problems political bloggers can also present for candidates with the rise of social media (Peters). While it is important to note that bloggers now play a role in the social media landscape, if used correctly, social media can provide new strategies to combat these problems (Greyes). Another problem noted in these sources is the social media ineptitude of candidates campaigning in local politics. An article by Steve Pearson and Ford O‘Connell in Campaigns and Elections magazine describes the need for local politicians to utilize social media correctly (Pearson and OConnell, Avoiding Social Media Pitfalls). Pearson and O‘Connell discuss problems and solutions for local campaigns using social media. Though many campaigns do not do this, they advise that engaging with constituents and having a concrete message are two of the most important things to remember when using social media (Pearson and OConnell, Avoiding Social Media Pitfalls). Dusty Trice, a Democratic new media strategist, also lists suggestions to combat this problem, especially with Twitter. Natch Greyes, a Democratic media strategist, also provides recommendations to overcome these problems in an article in the March 2011 Campaigns and Elections magazine. The focus of these sources is on predictions for social media use in future campaigns, and suggestions about the best ways to use social media in the future. These articles that support the hypothesis that social media will continue to be an important part of political campaigns help conclude that social media has had a lasting effect on social media over the past 4 years. These articles feature predictions by many social media experts about the future of social media. An article by Byron Tau in Politico describes the changes in the social media landscape, and the implications for the 2012 campaign. The article states, ? †¦the rich, dynamic web of 2012 will bear little resemblance to the stodgy ? Web 2. 0‘-era Internet, circa 2008 (Tau).? In a radio interview with The Madeleine Brand Show, Dusty Trice, the Democratic social media strategist, describes the dramatic changes to Twitter and Facebook, two of the most popular social media websites used in the 2008 campaign (Trice, Social media pervades presidential politics). The article by Pearson and O‘Connell discusses the changes they believe must be made by politicians to keep up with the changing social media landscape. Tau‘s article expands on this and discusses the changes President Obama has made to his social media strategy to keep up with the changes in social media since the 2008 campaign. Though Trice contends that Obama‘s incumbency will provide an advantage in social media in the 2012 campaign (Trice, Social media pervades presidential politics), an April 2011 article by Jeremy Herb describes the strategies Republican presidential hopefuls are undertaking to compete with Obama in the 2012 campaign. These sources also describe different social media experts‘ takes on the best way to utilize social media in the future. In Greyes article, she says that ? nano targeting, especially for Twitter, will provide the most effective way to reach supporters (Greyes). In a Politco article, media strategists discuss the growing importance of Smartphone’s and mobile tablets in the social media sphere. It is important to note the one article that disputes the importance of social media in future campaigns in Jeremy Herb‘s ? In 2012, A New World for Online Campaigning?. This article contends that while social media will have a role in the 2012 campaigns, traditional communication methods such as e-mail and meet-and-greets will still raise the most money (Herb). Research questions President Barack Obama’s Use of Social Media in the 2008 Presidential Campaign President Barack Obama‘s 2008 presidential campaign changed the way political campaigns utilized the Internet, specifically social media, for political purposes. According to an April 4, 2011 article on the political blog Politico, ? †¦Obama brought the long-promised political power of the internet to bear on a presidential campaign, raising millions and organizing thousands through a groundbreaking website and massive email list (Tau).? Obama‘s use of social media in the 2008 campaign has been compared to former President John F. Kennedy‘s use of television. According to a November 7, 2008 New York Times article, ? One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president has echoed that of John F. Kennedy is his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet (Miller).? Besides using email and a website, Obama focused on social media to mobilize volunteers and reach young voters . His widespread use of social media seemed to be a major factor in his victory over John McCain. According to political science professor G. R. Boynton, ? It is hard to imagine two campaigns more fully epitomizing the historical juncture crossed in the 2008 election. The McCain campaign was prototypical campaign past. The Obama campaign heralded campaigns to come. Obama had 2 million Facebook friends, while McCain had only 600,000. Disparities such as this were seen on other social media outlets like YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Digg and BlackPlanet (Graber 193). Obama spent millions on advertising on Facebook and Google, while McCain used mainly television advertisements (Graber 194). Obama focused on social media sites to target young people and mobilize millions of volunteers, as well as receive donations. The campaign used social media to connect with voters and supporters. According to a March 2011 article by Natch Greyes, a Democratic strategist who has advised campaigns on social media strategy, in Campaigns and Elections magazine, ? †¦ the Obama campaign used social media platforms to encourage voters to participate in and organize campaign activities such as house parties where like-minded voters would gather to watch campaign events or participate in phone banks (Greyes).? Obama raised a record-breaking amount of funds, mainly through small donations. Facebook seemed to be the major social network used in the campaign. Obama‘s Facebook page, currently with more than 19 million likes, relays information about his whereabouts, as well as posts relevant news from the White House. Currently run by Obama for America, the President‘s 2012 campaign, the Facebook page lists Obama‘s favorite books, movies, television shows and hobbies, just like the Facebook page of any user. The team also runs Facebook pages targeted to specific demographics, such as Women for Obama, Latinos for Obama, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Obama. These pages contain posts with links and videos to news that pertains specifically to these groups. While Obama‘s campaign team created pages for Obama and his wife Michelle, voter and supporter-generated groups also played a major role in Obama‘s campaign. Facebook groups like ? One Million Strong for Barack, founded in 2007 by Farouk Olu Aregbe, have mobilized many volunteers and garnered support for Obama. ?One Million Strong? was one of the first pro-Obama groups on Facebook. According to the group‘s description, members of the group have used the group‘s discussion board to ?  coordinate political action with one another in order to propel Barack Obama to victory in the presidential election (Aregbe). Even after the election, the group continued to promote Obama‘s policies. According to the group‘s page, ? Throughout 2009 and 2010, we have also continued to network with each other and organize political action in order to shape the agenda of both the Democratic Party and the President (Aregbe).? Another group, Students for Barack Obama, was started in 2006 as an online petition to encourage Obama to run for President in 2008. Now, the group has expanded offline, into what is now the official student organization of Obama for America with over seven hundred chapters at schools across the country (Students for Barack Obama). According to the group‘s Facebook page, We‘re organizing students to register voters, get out the vote, raise funds, and spread Barack Obama‘s message of hope, action, change (Students for Barack Obama). YouTube was also a major component in the campaign. More than 1800 videos were uploaded by Obama supporters to the BarackObama. com channel, which counted about 115,000 subscribers (Graber). Only 330 videos were loaded to John McCain‘s YouTube channel, and they attracted just over 28,000 subscribers (Graber). In a November 7, 2008 New York Times article, Joe Trippi, a political consultant, said Obama‘s YouTube videos were more effective than television ads, because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted. Trippi also asserted that advertising on YouTube is much more cost effective. ?The campaign‘s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14. 5 million hours,? Trippi said in the article. To buy 14. 5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million (Miller).? Also, internet sensations like the band Black Eyed Peas member William’s Yes I Can video, which has received more than 20 million views on YouTube, utilized celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Common and others to promote Obama and his campaign. Also, even parody videos like the Obama Girl‘s ? I Got a Crush on Obama helped to promote Obama. Originally posted in June 2007 by the comedy network Barely Political, the video was created as a parody after Obama announced his candidacy for President . According to a New York Times article about the video, ? That video probably had more to do with shaping Obama‘s complicated public image – young and exciting but maybe a bit shallow – than any Internet appeal devised by the candidate‘s own aides . In total, Obama Girl‘s videos have been viewed more than 100 million times, with I Got a Crush on Obama? receiving more than 20 million views Not only did Obama utilize each of these social media platforms, he also integrated them. According to the Greyes article, the Obama campaign focused on connecting with voters through a unified online presence. For example, new YouTube videos also appeared as Facebook posts, and new Facebook posts were also tweeted. ?By doing this the Obama campaign delivered the content supporters wanted in the format they wanted it (Greyes).? In the 2008 Barack Obama campaign, young adults (adults younger than 30 are usually considered in this designation) were a targeted demographic, especially through social media. According to the study in Mass Communication and Society, ? Attention to social media for campaign information was significant during the 2008 campaign, particularly among young adults (Kushin and Yamamoto).? In the study, 27% of adults younger than 30 reported obtaining campaign information from social network sites compared to 4% of adults age 30 to 39 and only 1% older than 40. As it turns out, social media is the best way to reach this age group. According to a March 2011 survey by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, 27% of 19- to 29-year15 olds — called Millennials by marketers — in the U. S. believe Facebook, other social media and blogs together have more of an impact than any kind of in-person advocacy in election campaigns (Harvard Institute of Politics). Also, the Harvard survey found that usage of Facebook by millennials has grown to 80% from 64% over the past year, and 90% of all college students polled by Harvard have Facebook accounts (Harvard Institute of Politics). The survey also found that Twitter usage was increasing among this age group – the percentage with Twitter accounts grew from 15% to 24% in the past year; growth in Facebook usage outpaced growth in Twitter usage by a three-to-one ratio, though (Harvard Institute of Politics). The political apathy sometimes associated with younger generations could also be remedied by social media. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that many young adults do not actively search for political information but rather encounter such information while going online for other purposes (Smith). Such unintended encounters can occur frequently in social media. According to the study in Mass Communication and Society, ? Facebook and Twitter, for example, deliver a stream of status updates by other users they friend or follow. These services push content to the user with limited active information seeking (Kushin and Yamamoto). So, even if young adults are not looking to find political information, they see and recognize it in many forms from their peers. The amount of information from these websites can have negative effects on political participation, though. According to the study ? The social media formats that present a wide variety of information simultaneously may distract users‘ attention and impair their capacity to extract politically efficacious information and see out additional political information (Kushin and Yamamoto). Current Use of Social Media in Political Campaigns While 2008 was the first time social media was a major part of a political campaign, the use of social media in the political arena has been increasing. According to the Pew Research Report, one in five adults who use the Internet, including a number of older, conservative Republicans, turned to social networks to get or share information about the midterm elections in 2010 (Preston). Also, according to a study by Nielsen, 25% of all time spent online is on social networks, and more than 170 million Americans over the age of fifteen accesses social media platforms each month (Preston). Also, the study found that viewing online political videos in the months leading up to the 2010 elections rose to 31% among adult Internet users from 19% in 2006 (Preston). Though the Obama campaign was one of the first to use social media for campaign purposes, most political candidates are now using social media. According to the Greyes article, ? In 2010, nearly every campaign used the strategies developed by the Obama campaign†¦ (Greyes). According to the April 2011 Politico article, ? Twitter and Facebook are no longer mere social networks – rather they‘re robust, sophisticated digital platforms with developer tools that let third parties build entire services around them (Tau). According to the article, Facebook had less than 100 million users throughout the entire primary campaign in 2008. By inauguration day in 2009, Facebook had reached about 150 million users. As of April 2011, Facebook had over half a billion – a five-fold increase since mid-2008 (Tau). Besides use for political purposes, money allocation for social media by political campaigns has also increased. Overall, you see significant budgets going to Facebook – because that‘s where users are, said Vincent Harris, a Republican media consultant who helped run the digital shops for Mike Huckabee and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in the April 2011 Politico article (Tau). Now, it‘s not just young people, one of the most targeted groups in the Obama campaign, who are now using platforms like Facebook. ?There‘s an interesting understanding among savvy operators: not just young people are using these tools,? said Adam Conner, associate manger for Facebook‘s public-policy division in the April 2011 Politico article (Tau). In a March 1, 2011 article in Campaigns and Elections magazine, Justin Hart, managing director at RaiseDigital, a new media consulting group, said that as older users increasingly take to social media platforms campaigns and legislative offices would be foolish not to pay attention to them. When you look at the fastest growing demographics on places like YouTube and Facebook, they are people fifty and up who are absolutely voters. They are also likely donors, which is part of what will make social media increasingly important to future campaigns,? Hart said in the article . Facebook is also being used for new purposes. According to the Facebook page U. S. Politics on Facebook, which highlights the latest uses of Facebook by politicians, Obama held a Facebook Live town hall meeting in Silicon Valley, demonstrating that social media is playing an increasing role in politics. Also, in June 2009, Republican State Rep. Justin Amash began posting every vote from the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives (Silverman). He then began posting his own votes, with explanations. According to a June 2010 article on mashable. com, a news site devoted to social media, Amash had positive feedback. ?I instantly received comments from dozens of people who wanted me to know how much they appreciated what I was doing. It became clear to me that posting my votes in real-time on Facebook could revolutionize the process of legislating,? Amash said in the article (Silverman). Amash said in the article that his strategy has helped him gain credibility with voters (Silverman). The gap in social media use by Republicans and Democrats is also closing. Though Obama and the Democrats won the social media battle of the 2008 election, Republicans caught up by 2010 (Preston). ?There was a great leveling out between the activists on both sides, said Patrick Ruffini, a Republican political online strategist who was the digital adviser to President George W. Bush‘s campaign in 2004 and later for the Republican national committee, in a March 2011 article in The New York Times. ?The notion that the Internet was owned by liberals, owned by the left in the wake of the Obama victory, has proven false (Preston).? Most Americans believe the Internet provides more political views than newspaper and television. According to the Pew report, 61% of adults surveyed agreed that the Internet exposed people to a wider range of political views than they might get from traditional news media sources But more quantity doesn‘t always mean better quality. The report found that 56% of Internet users believe it is usually difficult to differentiate information they find on the Internet that is true from information that is not true (Preston). This could mean an increase in social media use for political purposes, though. Alan Rosenblatt, associate director of online advocacy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said in the New York Times article that the lack of trust is what will drive more people to use social networks because that is where they can find recommendations and information from trusted friends (Preston). ?Given the opportunity to interact with people rather than institutions, people are looking to connect with people they can trust, Rosenblatt said in the article (Preston). Problems of Social Media Use in Political Campaigns While social media provides a new campaign platform, it also creates new problems. According to a March 18, 2011 article in USA Today, ? As the 2012 presidential race gears up, the growing popularity of Twitter is forcing potential candidates to confront an unfriendly digital reality: It now only takes 140 characters to damage a political campaign (Kucinich).? The instantaneous nature of social media sites can be very destructive. The rise of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have accelerated the rate an off-color remark or e-mail can be posted on a news site and in seconds turn into a national news story read by millions of people, the USA Today article said (Kucinich). While political blunders have been caught on tape or sent in email for years, the speed at which bad news travels is dramatically faster than the 2008 presidential campaign (Kucinich). Recently, an example of this was seen through the campaign of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential Republican presidential hopeful. A spokesman for Barbour resigned mere hours after news reports revealed the aide had made a series of insensitive jokes in daily e-mails about earthquake victims in Japan, Janet Reno, and genocide in Cambodia (Kucinich). News of these e-mails, broken by Politico, ? ricocheted across Twitter and the blogosphere? (Kucinich). Phil Singer, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for Hillary Clinton‘s 2008 presidential bid, called digital media ? ?gotcha politics‘ on steroids. There is also an issue with candidates running and using their own Facebook and Twitter accounts. Political consultants worry that allowing their clients to interact directly with online followers on social media platforms can result in embarrassing missteps that can cost them the campaign. According to a March 2011 article in Campaigns and Elections magazine by Noah Rothman, Facebook is generally a safe forum for interacting with followers because most candidates have a representative take care of their Facebook posting (Rothman, Opposition Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). But candidates still have to be cautious of their Facebook posts. Darren Eustance, president of the North Carolina-based Republican consulting firm Malleaus Political Strategies, said in the Campaign and Elections article that one of his clients who was running for chair of the Young Republican National Federation was strongly criticized for a comment she made on a comment from someone else (Rothman,Opposition Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). ?Someone commented on her page something stupid and racist about Obama,? said Eustance in the article. ?This candidate commented on her post, basically saying ? LOL, good comment, ha ha, you tell ? em. ‘ That came back on her like nothing else (Rothman, Opposition Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). Twitter seems to be the bigger problem with things like this, though, because candidates often compose their own tweets. ?In my experience, you are more likely to find stupid stuff on Twitter than anything else,? Eustance said in the article (Rothman, Opposition Researchers Say Its Still Safe to Tweet). But Dusty Trice, a Democratic campaign consultant, believes that having staffers put up messages will soon be a thing of the past as candidates become more comfortable with technology (Trice, Social media pervades presidential politics). In an interview with The Madeleine Brand Show on 89. 3 KPCC, Southern California public radio, he cited John McCain as one political figure who already handles his own Twitter account and does it well (Trice, Social media pervades presidential politics). Some recent remarks made by McCain about Jersey Shore star Nicole ? Snooki? Polizzi resonated with audiences. It was a news item that he did it,and it highlighted