How the Internet Has Changed Political Interactions - Essay Example

The grievances and complaints of the citizens of any country can be expressed to the officials in a far more reliable and fast manner than before. The emergence of any news on the web is analogous to fire in a dry forest in modern times. Any act of misconduct by the government cannot be hidden since people have acquired greater power to voice their opinions with the advent of the Internet. The recent uprising in Arab countries, such as Egypt, and Libya, could not have been arranged with such unity and effectiveness of social media and networks had not been available. The risings were led by no apparent leaders but at the spur of collective thinking and ideas. The dictatorial nature of the leadership in those countries always forbade any expression of negativity towards the rulers; however the accumulation of agitation among the masses on the web transformed into a historical revolution that freed the people from years of dictatorship.

The citizens are more aware of the prevailing political activities which makes them capable of possessing a strong opinion about everything in their societies. These opinions are known to gain voice on the political forums which can prove to influence the core objectives of the political parties. Democratic parties tend to rely on such internet communication even more than the dictatorial rule. Specifically, communication and campaigning are noticed to escalate in the times of the elections. An apparent benefit of political communication over the Internet is that the political parties can evaluate the responses and comments of their voters and strategize their actions accordingly. This proves to become an ongoing survey for the political parties since the success or failure of any event or procedure can be retrieved on an immediate basis via social networks.

Democracy always encompasses competing parties campaigning with all their might to convince as many voters as possible. Competition always involves the aspect of keeping an eye on the activities of the opposing sides. Before the advent of the internet, such monitoring activities proved to be tedious. However, keeping track of the competitor’s activities has gotten easier by following the forums and pages of the respective political parties.

The common usage of the web for political communication has given more power to the citizens and more opportunities for the political parties to get feedback from the general public. However, it would not be wrong to state that the usage of the Internet for political communication is found more in developed countries than in developing countries due to the accessibility of the Internet in the former ones.