Last week my civic issue post related to how people receive their political news from biased sources and how we can better differentiate fake news on social media platforms. This week however, I want to look at the impact politicians make on politics based on their personal involvement on social media. Social media today is used for many reasons. From creating platforms for fame and fortune, to sharing niches and tips or tricks, and of course, sharing news, social media is equivalent to what live television was 20 or so years ago.

 

In the past, politicians used to stray from social media and would instead provide information to the masses through national news sources to maintain reliability. Now however, social media has become the newest and easiest way to receive news as quickly as possible. Although this can definitely have it’s advantages, it also leaves quite a bit of room for personal bias. Politicians primarily use Twitter and Instagram to share any news or anything of political significance. Yes, a lot of these accounts are controlled by a team and not the politician themselves, but the information itself is coming from the direct source. 

 

One of the most involved politicians on social media is/was Donald Trump, the most recent US president before Joe Biden who is currently in office. Because Donald Trump was a celebrity before he was elected as president, his Twitter account already had quite the following and he was rather comfortable with sharing his personal ideas and opinions on his account as he had done in the past. The question is to what point should politicians be able to share biased opinions to the public? Although there were times where he tweeted about political, international, and national news, many of his daily dozen tweets were him complaining and criticizing someone for arguing against his personal views. 

 

The consequences of Trump sharing his personal ideals took place on January 17th 2021, when Twitter made the decision to ban his account indefinitely after a tweet of his encouraged a violent riot/protest at the United States capitol. Earlier that day, Trump supporters had decided to swarm the capitol in protest of the appointment of president elect Joe Biden. This was in efforts to prevent Biden’s inauguration into office because the president attempted to convince his supporters that the election was “fraudulent” and that the votes were counted incorrectly. Instead of diffusing the situation, he encouraged it. In an article by CNBC on the situation, reporter Lauren Feiner writes,  “As the riot unfolded, Trump tweeted messages encouraging nonviolence, though he later released a video message that also reiterated his unsubstantiated claim that the election was stolen from him and told rioters, ‘We love you.’” To prevent further encouragement from the president to the public, Twitter made the decision to permanently ban Donald Trump’s account. 

 

On the other spectrum of things, the instagram account of Michelle Obama, the 44th first lady of the United States, is used as a platform of hope and uniformity. Although she still posts things that are rather personal such as photos of her husband or kids, she still uses her platform in a respectful manner…and with over 45.4 million followers, people are in fact listening to what she has to say. Michelle is an excellent demonstration of what social media can do to influence the current political world for the good. At the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, she posted on Instagram a portrait of George Floyd with her caption writing, “…Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it. It’s up to all of us—Black, white, everyone—…” Unlike the Twitter posts that were published daily by Donald Trump that spoke to only one portion of the political audience, Michelle Obama’s Instagram speaks to everyone as a whole to hold our country accountable and thus move forward from the past to the future. In a CNN article by Leah Asmelash on both of Obama’s efforts to reach out to the public via social media she writes on the previously mentioned post, “Both statements come against the backdrop of sometimes violent protests across the nation, as people mourn and show their anger over the death of Floyd.” 

 

Personal social media pages are just one of the newest ways that modern technology is being used to share the ideas of all different platforms of people, companies, and so forth. Although it can have negative impacts due to to the lack of a “filter”, it’s also good because now news outlets and second sources are less likely to sugar coat, or beat around the bush of an idea or issue that a politician is trying to quickly and easily get across to the public.

 

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/twitter-permanently-suspends-trumps-account.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/politics/michelle-obama-george-floyd-statement-trnd/index.html

In the past, reliable news networks, newspapers, and live airings of the politicians themselves were how the public received news and updates about politics. Today however the term “fake news” has risen from unworthy new platforms who act more as a tabloid than they do a news source. From there, people retweet, repost, and fabricate these sources on their own social media page to further spread the word of whatever information is being given out. On the other hand, social media is also able to spread reliable news sources faster and more efficiently to those who no longer read the paper or physically watch the news anchors every morning. Whether it be false or correct political news, is social media doing more harm than good for the modern political world?

 

There are several generations currently active on today’s social media platforms. The eldest of the standing generations is the Baby Boomers, born from 1946-1964, whom if they use social media primarily use Facebook. Gen X, those born between 1965-1976, also use Facebook but are often on Instagram and Twitter as well. Millennials, born between 1977 – 1995, and Gen Z, born 1996 to today, reside on the same platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. All four of the above mentioned apps are completely different but are used to quickly spread information from one source, to another person and from that person can be spread to any of their friends or followers. 

 

The two main political party affiliations, democrat and republican, have been divided recently of which news source they trust and prefer to receive political information from. Democrats prefer news sources such as CNN whereas republicans prefer to receive news from Fox News. The main difference is that each one is biased towards their political party, candidates, elects, and so forth. In an NPR article about the negative effects of social media on the political world, Pinar Yildirim, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in social media trends, speaks on the subject. He states, “One way that increased usage may be felt in the 2020 election isn’t in just the amount of false information being seen and shared”- “but in how polarized the American public is during the campaign cycle.” The polarization of America is becoming more evident more than ever and social media is making it much worse. 

 

Former journalist Steven Brill says in the previously mentioned NPR article that, “The great thing about the Internet is everyone can be a publisher. The really bad thing about the Internet is everyone can be a publisher.” Individuals can take what they heard or read from their preferred news source and shape it into what is merely an opinion but then is taken by their followers as facts and legitimate information. The current pandemic has led people to create their own theories on if the coronavirus is a hoax, if/how it can be contracted, if masks are necessary, and so forth. Instead of listening to the scientists who are speaking on the democratic news platforms like CNN, they are hearing from false sources and then spreading that information to everyone else. 

 

Yes, social media can be used to distribute false or negative political news, but on the other hand, social media has also been a way to give political information to people who usually aren’t interested in politics. More youth voted in the 2020 election than ever before and this could be thanks to social media. Additionally, unlike older social media users, younger users are more adapted to discovering false information from the truth because of their increased knowledge on sources, plagiarism, bias, and so forth that is taught in the modern educational system. “How Important Is Social Media In Reaching Young Voters?” is a recent article in Forbes written by Peter Suciu who writes, “Even as this is the first opportunity for many of generation Z to vote, they see how it was manipulated in past elections and how it is used to sow distrust and spread disinformation.” This acknowledgment of the youth is how social media could possibly be seen as being beneficial when it comes to politics.

 

So how do we discredit false sources and users posting false information without vanishing the good social media has done for the distribution of political news? A newly encouraged idea comes from a previous and continuous used social media that is somewhat of a “trigger warning”. Instagram stories are where the user can post something or repost another user’s post for 24 hours for all of their followers to see (or if they’re public, for everyone to see”). On there, if the post shows something disturbing whether it be emotional, gory, etc. it first is covered by a gray screen that warns the user of the post before they can click again agreeing to see it. If this could be used to be put over unauthentic news sources or opinionated posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. stating that it could be showcasing false information, then the user knows truthfully what they are reading or watching. This upcoming policy could be what saves American polarization between parties and further benefit generations to come. 

 

 

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/27/860369744/social-media-usage-is-at-an-all-time-high-that-could-mean-a-nightmare-for-democr

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2020/07/22/how-important-is-social-media-in-reaching-young-voters/?sh=3b9243387679