Free Essay: How Social Media Is Influencing Politics in the USA

The emergence of the social network in the United States has significantly affected how the political communication is conducted. The political institution including political parties, politicians, institution, foundations and the political think tanks are making use of the social network, for example, Twitter and Facebook to communicated and engage with the voters. Majority of this individuals are presenting their opinions over the social media. There have been continually increasing numbers of social media users for political communication. The social network is giving impact to the nature of interaction in the United States since it is mostly use to coordinate the uses of the new methods. The users in the United States is directly connecting with the politicians. They can meet with their campaign managers and participate in the political events with the help of social media. (Aaker, Jennifer L, Andy Smith, et al., 3).

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Despite the significance which has been associated with politics in the United States, campaigning using of a social network is also associated with some dangers. Although the parties control the messages on newspapers add and the TV, their opposition parties sometimes post the negative comments about the firm leaders just below the campaign messages. The politicians in the States have platforms for communicating which vary from mainstream media. They have the power to give a large sum of money within the short duration through the social network campaigns. President Obama in the year 2012, for instance, manage to raise dollars exceeding a billion for his press, and that broke the record of fundraising in the States. It was approximately $690 million which was generated through the online donation which included the email, social media and the contributions from websites.

Use of social network as a campaign tool in the United States, for instance, Facebook, Twitter, and the youtube are significantly affecting how the politicians in the country conduct their campaign. The social network has impacted the interaction between the American citizen and the politicians. (Hendricks, John A, and Dan Schill, 6). The presence of social network in the States has made the elected officials together with the candidates to be more accessible and accountable to the voters. The social media is also influencing the ability to announce to the public the content and broadcast to many citizens. We will, therefore, look at how Facebook, youtube, and twitter are changing the politics in American. Below are some of these ways;

It allows direct contact with the voter.

The tools of the social media enable the politicians in the United States to talk directly to the citizens without taking much time. The use of social media is making more accessible for the politicians to avoid the traditional means of reaching to the voters for instance paid to advertise which was not effective and was consuming time.

The politician in the States are making advertisement without really paying for them

The use of social media has become common during the political campaigns in the States. They produce commercial messages and publishing them at no cost on youtube. They do not incur many expenses using the radio and the TV. During the campaigns, the journalist in the United States write about the Youtube advertisement and widely broadcasting their messages to many audiences with minimum cost for the politicians.

Tailoring the information to the audience

The campaigns in the United States is tapping into a rich of information concerning the people which follow them on the social network and filter their messages basing on the specific population. With the use of the social network, the campaign is providing signals which are appropriate to the particular group of the voter. The voters vary in the ages. The Individuals below the age of 30 get addressed on some issues when compared to those of age above 50, and the social media has enhanced this.

The social positively influencing fundraising

Most of the campaigns are making use of the social media to generate a large sum of money within a short duration. There are what we term as the money bombs which is usually 24 hours duration. The candidates motivate their supporters to contribute money. Facebook and the twitter are the most commonly used sites.

Obtaining of feedback

The social media is significantly used in the United States to receive the response from the registered voters. Majority of the campaigns look for staffs who will monitor the negative feedbacks on their social network. Regardless of the nature of feedback, the politicians are using the social media to control them.

Weighing of the public views

The value of a social network is strongly reflected on how the politicians and their teams are receiving people's opinions. They weigh out these views and make the necessary adjustments in the campaign strategies.

The strength of citizens

Through the use of social media, the American citizens are now able to petition together with the government including the elected representatives. Continue usage of the social network is enabling the citizens to team up and come out in powerful ways.

The presidential election of 2008 became the first process in which the candidates made use of the social media and the internet as one of their campaign tools. Obama made the United States history and became the first individual to organize his supporters using the internet. He made enough communication and ads in a manner which had not occur in the previous election. He maximized the use of Facebook and youtube site as his primary strategy. By the year 2012, the running candidate began optimizing the use of social media sites. They presented their views on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the mobile applications as the campaign strategies. For some, they officially announce their candidacy on the social media. Obama himself sent a video via the email to more than 13 million for his re-election. (Minkler, Meredith, 5).

The social network has influenced the digital channels in most of the United States election. The 2016 presidential election, for example, had the social media providing the candidates and the government parties with the public platforms to give their views online. They were able to make a direct connection with the supporters and allow their audience to raise the political issues. The use of the social network impacted the role of aiming the given groups of registered voters using tailoring advertising and the false ideas. The aim was to disrupt the public assistance for the leading candidates.

For most of the United States voters in the year 2016, the primary source of information concerning the presidential campaign was the fox news. The Facebook, however, got ranked third. The social platforms allowed the citizens to discuss the election. From the survey of 2016 poll, most users of the Facebook perceived mix political opinions with that of their friends and only a slight percentage of about 23% having the same views with those of their friends. In the same year, most of the users had not changed their opinions concerning the social or the political issues as a result of what they had seen on the social network. The political candidates also were view equally. The twitter also got rank to have generated fake news during the process. (Aaker, Jennifer L, Andy Smith, et al., 6).

As Christians, we live in a political environment, and it is, therefore, our responsibility to understand that the environmental matters may be controversial. We thus have a responsibility towards this environment. During the presidential campaign, we usually hear evangelist mostly the young ones talking about the politics being a dirty game. The central message spread by the gospel is reconciliation, and it is through faith that the sinners will be reconciled back to God. The news of the gospel is holistic with the implications about all areas of our lives including the way the Christians can engage themselves in the political matters. We will, therefore, discuss the four reasons as to why Christians should be responsible for the politics.

The first reason why we need care for the politics is that they are unavoidable. In the context of American, for instance, the ultimate sovereignty gets entrusted to the people of the States. The people of America, therefore, controls politics. Since the policies have the real implication in the world for missions, spreading the gospel and Christian's evangelism, we consequently supposed to engage the process of politics and give their necessary authority. Developing a love for government is another responsibility we need to grow as Christians. Government is our neighbor as we cannot avoid them, we, therefore, need to love it as we love ourselves just as Jesus explained about loving of the neighbors. In a real sense, politics becomes among the most significant areas in which we should demonstrate our love. We cannot claim to be caring others and neglecting the political arena which shapes our freedom and rights. (Hendricks, John A, and Robert E, 8).

We are also responsible for the political environment as the government removes the evil and brings good. We need to understand that the authority of the government was derived from God to bring right and eliminate the evil. The government does a function in the God's kingdom work on the land. The Christians have a responsibility of supporting the government it makes the environment suitable for the citizens to stay peacefully. We should go as per the worldview of Christians which provides elaborated understanding about reality. It talks about most areas of our lives including the political engagement. The Bible itself speaks about the city government and even give the examples of commitment which are faithful. In Old Testament, for instance, Daniel and Joseph served in the civilian government. They exerted the influences to expand the growth of their nations. Engaging in good deeds as Christians must include taking part in the political activities.

Conclusion

In summary, the trend has shown that the emergence of the social network has brought a lot of impact on the politics of the United States. The former president of the States Barack Obama was the first president who efficiently used the social network as his primary campaign strategy. Throughout his two terms, his politics was mainly driven by the social media. The use of the social media in the State is significantly bringing positive impacts. It has cut down some of the cost in the political arena. Despite the many important, there are also some setbacks which have emerged as a result. Some are negative comments on the site against their opponents.

Work cited

Aaker, Jennifer L, Andy Smith, and Carlye Adler. The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.

Hendricks, John A, and Dan Schill. Presidential Campaigning and Social Media: An Analysis of the 2012 Campaign. , 2015. Print.

Hendricks, John A, and Robert E. Denton. Communicator-in-chief: How Barack Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010. Print.

Minkler, Meredith. Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and Welfare. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2012. Print.