Ethics of Social Media as a Political Force - Report Example

Ethics of social media as a political force Name Institution Abstract The effect that the social media has had on the political front across the globe has been felt far and wide especially during the last decade. In view of this statement, this paper discusses the various effects, both in adversity as well as positively; the social media has had on the political fronts of many nations of the world. The structure of the paper involves an illumination of the different and prominent social media sites that have been documented as having the capacity to influence leaders of many nations in the world effect certain policies in their govern ship. Several examples have also been utilized here as a way of strengthening the concept of power of the social media. It has been found in this research paper that the social media has been used recurrently as a tool to reach out to people, enact policies and share opinions about how they are being governed. The advantages as well as the disadvantages of using social media as a political tool has and also been analyzed and it has been found out in this research paper that, the social media could be used as a double- edged sword; to make as well as to destroy. Examples have been given to support this argument. Introduction Not so long ago, less than a decade to be precise, social media was a thing nobody heard of. Matter of fact, the inception of internet as an information tool was not yet embraced. Today, it would be hard to imagine a world without internet connectivity. Actually, it is even hard enough to believe that at a given point in the recent past the world used to survive without the convenience of internet technology. Fast forward to today, the internet has taken a deep root and a huge space in the core of the way human kind conducts his or her affairs today. The internet spurred an explosion of innovativeness among young minds in the world. It is via such an innovative streak that the social medium was created. And the world was taken by a storm. Termed by many as the best creation of all life times and having an uptake with figures that could only be described as momentous, the social media has established itself as a multi-billion dollar industry. But stepping aside from the dazzling financial figures that these sites generate and command, this research paper sought to dwell mainly on the impact they have on the lives of people who use them. Nearly 80% of the world’s population is subscribed onto some social network site or another. Some are members in multiple sites. The big question remains; what benefit do they achieve from the sites? Of what significance are these sites in the lives of these people? Social sites, as the name suggests were created, and are still being created in drones, for the purpose of bringing people close together irrespective of the distance. Now, this is where the connection to politics comes in. The fact that these sites are used bring people together implies that politicians could use these sites to connect to many people at a go (Muniandy & Muniandy, 2013, p.72). And in truth they do. The same is true for vice versa. When people want to reach out to these politicians for one reason or the other, they use the social media to express themselves and their ideologies to these politicians. On a basic scale, the power of the social media can be felt already. But to drive the point home, this paper will have an in-depth investigation of how the social media can be used to make, change or bring down political structures and policies. The paper will be divided into sections, the first part introducing briefly how the political systems used to operate before the onset of internet and social media. Then an investigation into a number of social media that are popular in the world today will be carried out. Lastly, the role of the social media on the political front, using typical examples and case studies will be done. A conclusion will be issued at the end to sum up and tie the discussion together. Politics before internet and social media As stated in the introductory portion of this paper, the internet and all the facets that the system brought with it was an unheard thing barely less than two decades ago. But governments were there and people still made policies. Matter of fact, politics is the oldest profession of all time (Michaelsen 2011, p.10). So, why has all this excitement about a social media and politics emanated from? Policies were still being created even before internet as an idea was developed. Politicians still conducted their campaigns, albeit more crudely. People still had channels, albeit slow and full of bureaucracy, to reach out to their leaders. Policies used to take a lot of time, sometimes years on end because the pressure from the people to change also took an equivalent time frame to build up. Once a certain decision was made, the decision was usually relayed to the people through medium such as televisions and radios as well as the print media. Though an effective way in itself, these media did not give the respective audience the chance to respond to these opinions. As a result of this, most times it was found that the politicians made decisions that were final and the imposition onto the people as well as the implementation was more often than not unchallenged (Tufekci & Wilson, 2012, p. 364). This does not imply that people were always comfortable with the decisions and the policies made by their leaders; it implies that even though they did not like these policies, they did not have a direct and influential manner or channel through which they could voice their discontent. Conduct of campaigns was not an easy process, politicians had to enact a door to door policy so that they could ensure that they have reached out to all their voters. This was a very expensive affair and often the resolve of the wealthy few. The people had to have a 100% reliance and trust that the candidate they elect to the legislative houses would give them the appropriate representation that they needed. However, power corrupts, and more often than not, these politicians put their own personal interests ahead of the interests of the people for whom they were elected to represent. Despite this raising a lot of disgust and disaffection among the people, it was usually very hard for the people to initiate measures to ensure that their representatives were doing the exact jobs they had been elected to do. The only form of disciplinary action they took upon these politicians was to deny them another term into the legislative assembly in the next election period. This method was not very effective it took a long time to have policies effected. The social media unveiled Safranek (2012, p. 1) states that the largest social media platforms that are in existent in the world today are Facebook and twitter. Facebook had a user presence of over 850 million users by the March year 2012 (Safranek, 2012, p. 1). Amongst this number, 161 million users are deemed to be active and in the USA alone. The Facebook platform was created by a Harvard university drop out Mark Zuckerberg mainly as a tool through which students could relate to each other and exchange ideas in the campus. Later however, the demand for the services that this site was giving started spreading to other people as the capability and the potential to network people was identified. Once the platform was a success in the United States, it went viral and the whole world embraced it. Today it would be difficult for people to imagine life without Facebook. The same success story applies to a close competitor of Facebook, Twitter, which also commands a huge presence in the social media market with a figure of around 300 million users by the march of year 2012 (Safranek, 2012, p. 1). You tube follows closely next where the users are given the platform to upload videos and download videos free. There is a lot of traffic that flows through these media platforms on a daily base. Other forms of social media are blogs. Blogs have currently taken much root and are being used by different personalities to tell stories, share news as well as take opinions from other people. There are other very many methods that fall under the Role of social media in the political spectrum The advent of the social media changed a lot in the way politics is run in the world today. Politics is said to dynamic career and the various players in the industry have has to catch up quick. The order of the political world is to ensure that they say and act as the people want them to. There are several forms of social media that are in operation in the world today. The most common ones are blogs and notable social networking sites. The social media has contributed significantly to politics through a number of ways as discussed in the following paragraphs. One of the major ways through which the social media has contributed to the political system is through provision of a platform by which the political leaders could reach out to people (Howard & Parks, 2012, p.360). The social media is used by these political leaders to conduct their campaigns, provide news materials to their people as well as give directives on what is happening. Many political parties have embraced this form of delivery of information as it is the easiest way through which these politicians can reach out to a mass of people at once. According to Swenson (2012, p. 103) .The social media concentrates people who have a common goal and assists them towards the achievement of the common cause. Many political parties have used these platforms to recruit new members to their parties. Campaigning is also one of the major uses of the social sites by the politicians. Almost everywhere in the world, politicians have used the power of the social media to conduct their campaigns. Taking an example of the USA campaigns, the re-election of President Barack Obama to a second term in office in the year 2012 was largely influenced by the power of the social media. People had the opportunity to share their opinions as well as amass support for his re-election. The president himself was availed the opportunity to have a constant interactive and almost instant platform with his potential voters across the vast country irrespective of where they were. People were given the convenience of listening to their leaders from the comfort of their living rooms. A very important concept that these sites offered to the people during the campaign period is the capacity of the sites to offer interactive sessions between the potential voters and the potential candidate. People are capable of evaluating the strength of the candidate without waking up from their offices or home places. The same applies to the fact that they can also have interactive sessions amongst themselves that will allow them to discuss upon the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the candidates that present themselves for election. The politicians take the advantage offered by the social media to deliver news pertaining to their activities, rally for support and create a rapport with the people. Aside from the positive end, perhaps the major role that the social media has had in the influencing of political moves is the capacity of the social media to bring people together for a certain common goal. People have been rallied the world over in a bid to support a common cause. Within minutes sometimes, people across the globe have had the capacity to come together, through just a tweet or a status update to support a certain cause. Many of the political uprisings that have occurred in one time another in the world since the inception of social media have been directly instigated by the power of these social media. A number of examples of the same has been issued in the following paragraphs. The Arab spring and the role of the social media The Arab spring represents one of the best typical examples of the role of the social media in the political spectrum. In this uprising, people used the social media as a tool to spread insurgent agendas (Lindsey, 2013, p.1). The Arab spring that occurred in the year 2011 was the first major revolution in the Eastern hemisphere to utilize the power of the social media in such a capacity that brought different people from different walks of life together to rally for a common cause (Storck, 2011, p.1). The spring saw over a dozen nations involved and the methodology of conducting these uprisings were both violent and non-violent. Major cities and nations across the Middle East and some African nations such as Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Morocco were also involved in this revolution. Other nations such as Iraq, Algeria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia also had protests breaking out following incitements through the power of the social media. Egypt was among the pioneer nations of this uprising and it is here that the first successful uprisings took place. Other nations quickly followed. There were major lootings and in some instances violence in major cities in the Arab world. The question now remains; what exact role did the social media play in this spring? How did the social media contribute towards these major uprisings. Lindsey (2013, p.1) and Storck (2011, p.1) states that the internet and the social media was used as tool to primarily spread propaganda, have people share their opinions and widespread messaging services. People were able to rally themselves very fast through following a tweet or an update or through the numerous messaging services that some social media sites offered for free and through this actions, they were capable of expressing their opinions and organize for strikes and widespread revolutions. Tweeter and Facebook were the two preferred social sites that these revolutionaries utilized, reason being that they commanded quite a huge following both on these Arabian countries as well as in the world in general. In some instances, the revolutions were not violent, consisting of peaceful marches, strikes as well as demonstrations. The internet and the social media was used as the primary tool to organize, relay information, coordinate and collect feedback from the people. The causes of the Arab spring were many. The protestors wanted to bring down the governments of the time for a number of reasons. Firstly, there was widespread and almost naked corruption in these countries. Government officials of these nations were billed as the most corrupt individuals in the world. As a result, delivery of services to the people was very poor. Many of these people lived below the poverty line. Taking a case of Egypt, the majority of the people lived under a dollar per day. By the United Nations Humanitarian standards of living, these people were ranked as poor. All the same, they still had to pay bribes to corrupt official to get what was democratically rightful to them. This sparked a lot of anger amongst these people and with the growth of the social media, they saw an avenue to express their anger and dissatisfaction. As the movement grew and spread wide, these people began forming revolutions using the power of the social media as a tool of communication. The efforts and threats of the government to shut down or regulate the usage of internet was met with fierce opposition from these people. They started demanding for a change of regime and took to the streets in wave after wave of revolution, both violent and non-violent. The international media took over and support for the same cause started flowing from everywhere in the world. People from all over the world encouraged these people through the social media platforms and these revolutions could not be stopped. With this success in Tunisia and Egypt, other nations in the Arabian continent followed soon and the revolutions sprung out in many nations across the continent sporadically. This was later to become known as the Arab spring. Dictatorship in many of these Arab nations was also another cause of the uprising (Joseph, 2012, p. 146). People used the social media especially established platforms like Facebook and Tweeter to air their absolute discontent of these regimes. Poor living standards, high levels of unemployment in these countries, high and escalating crime levels were also among the factors that led to the uprising. Food prices had gone up and the economy was on the down scale. Many youth of these nations specially in Tunisia where the first successful revolution took place were dissatisfied by the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the elderly aristocrats. With lack of jobs and increased living standards, these youth had to figure out a way to even the playing ground. The rich were getting richer and the poor citizens, who formed the majority were getting poorer as days went by. Creation of these revolutions was a step by step process that grew daily to become huge and unstoppable. Through the social media platforms, people would share their opinions pertaining to the system of governance that they were experiencing. They wanted a change of regime from the concentrated aristocratic type held by the elderly for decades to the more liberalized form of governance by the youth. The major advantage that these social sites had over other forms of communication was the capacity to remain anonymous but still have the power to share opinions. People could create accounts in sites such as Facebook and tweeter using names other than their real ones and use them to air their views. Another advantage was that these sites were actually cheap to access and to use. With just a mobile phone that had internet connectivity, people had the capacity to receive or relay information instantly to another or a group of individuals. The fact that it was hard to censor the information through these mediums of communication made it even more suitable for these people to grow their movement. Videos were created and uploaded on YouTube and the reactions were instantaneous. Post election violence in Africa and the role of Social media- the Kenyan Example Kenya is a country located in the East African section of the African continent. The country is termed as the major business hub of the East Africa. This country was rocked by widespread violence after the 2007 general election that spread into the year 2008 and left in its wake hundreds of people dead and other left homeless (Goldstein & Rotich, 2008, p.2 ; Dercon & Gutierrez-Romero, 2010, p. 2). The violence that hit the country after this election is considered by many to have been politically instigated and one of the worst-case scenarios the country has ever experienced since it attained independence from the British in the year 1963. It came as a result of one party arguing that the elections had been rigged spurning a series of violent protests and attacks aimed at specific tribes across the nation. In trying to establish how the social media played a role in this violence, a number of points cropped up from the study. The social media had two roles in this case; firstly, with a combination of other forms of media such as the radio, it fuelled the hatred amongst different communities in the land resulting into major crashes. The hardest hit areas were western as well as the rift valley provinces of the country where hundreds of people were displaced when their homes were burnt down and others killed (Goldstein & Rotich, 2008, p.3). by the year 2007, uptake of the social network by the Kenyan people had not gained much root but still a significant portion of the population was in these social sites. The uptake of the social sites would soon go viral after these crashes. And this is where the other role of the social media came in. people used the social media as a tool to re-unite the people who had been involved in this violence. Messages of love, patriotism and solidarity as a country were spread in these social sites. The outside world also assisted in the reuniting of the country through messages of peace that ran through these social sites. Leaders used the sites to ask their people to lay down their arms and embrace solidarity and peace so that the country could survive the violence. The role of social media in Africa politics following the Kenyan example after the post election violence of 2008 could be used to portray the capacity of the media to take people apart and bring them back together. The fact that the social media is not censored in any manner allows the people the chance to air their views feely and without the fear of oppression. This brings about a certain form of cohesiveness and unity of purpose that many other forms of social activities fail to bring. The ease of using the social media could also be one of the reasons why people prefer the media to other forms. This brings this paper to another section that involves the brief discussion of the advantages of using the social media in a political set up as well as the advantages of the same. Advantages of using social media in politics There are a number of inherent advantages that have been identified from the power of the social media in politics. One of the major advantages is the capacity of the social media to bring people together in one platform. This implies that the political leaders could have the chance to deliver information to their people without having to incur much costs of holding rallies, meetings among other avenues. They are able to use these platforms to deliver news and information on what they are doing, recruit new members to their parties and generally interact with their people on a one to one level (El-Nawaw & Khamis, 2012, p.3). On the other hand, the people have the chance to monitor directly the activities that their leaders are undertaking. This involves asking these leaders questions pertaining their roles and their duties. The citizens get a special experience having their leaders respond to them promptly. They also use the platforms to air their concerns and give new ideas for better implementation of the political policies designed by these leaders. They are also able to interact with each other and discuss policy issues among themselves. People can use the platforms to raise awareness on matters that affect them as a community in large. Lastly, people who use these sites are availed with a plat form through which they can air their complains in case they feel something is not being implemented as desired. Disadvantages using social media as a political tool More often than not, the content in social media is uncensored. People have the freedom to utilize this form of media as they please. As a result of this, some people who are malicious in minds take advantage of this freedom to spread rumours, propaganda and hatred amongst the people. If these people are taken seriously, as they often are, they could lead to insecurity and chaos amongst groups of people. Conclusion The discussion aired in this paper has helped establish the influence and power of the social media especially when it is used as a political tool. From the discussion, it has been observed that since the advent of the social media and the massive embracement of the same by people across the globe, the manner in which politics was being conducted has been revolutionalized. People are more aware of the daily activities revolving around them because the social media keeps them well updated. The social media has been observed to be among the best tools o communication because of its easy in dissemination of information, sharing of messages for a specific cause and bringing people together. Typical cases where this influence has been felt across the globe have been given in this paper. The Arab spring, discussed herein, is one of the best case examples of how the social media has been used to change political balances. The protests, revolutions, strikes, demonstrations and even violence that occurred during the Arab spring were as a direct incitement and instigation through the power of the social media. Kenya has also been discussed following the 2008 post election violence and the role of the social media, before and after the elections has been analysed too. It is evident from the discussion that the social media has continued to establish itself as a very important and very viable tool that could be used to influence political paths in many countries today. More and more people are turning to the social media as a simple way to interact with other people and have their views heard. In conclusion, this paper argues that it is important to understand deeply the exact power that these sites have and try to use them to bring positive change and positive development in the way of govern ship in the world today. References Dercon, S & Romero, G, 2010, ‘Triggers and Characteristics of the 2007 Kenyan Electoral Violence’, CSAE Working Paper Series, Vol. 12, pp. 1-35. El-Nawawy, M & Khamis, S, 2012, ‘Political Activism 2.0: Comparing the Role of Social Media in Egypt’s “Facebook Revolution” and Iran’s “Twitter Uprising,” CyberOrient, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-6. Goldstein, J & Rotich, J, 2008, ‘Digitally Networked Technology in Kenya’s 2007–2008 Post- Election Crisis’, Berkman Center Research Publication, No. 08-09, pp. 1-9. Howard P, N &  Parks, M, R, 2012, ‘Social Media and Political Change: Capacity, Constraint, and Consequence’, Journal of Communication, Vol. 62, No. 2, pp. 359–362. Joseph, S, 2012, ‘Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights’, Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 145-185. Lindsey, R, A, 2013, ‘What the Arab Spring Tells Us About the Future of Social Media in Revolutionary Movements’, Small wars journal, Vol. 1, pp. 1-6. Safranek, R, 2012, ‘ The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change’ ProQuest journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-14. Storck, M, 2011, ‘The Role of Social Media in Political Mobilization: Case Study of the January 2011 Egyptian Uprising,’ retrieved September 27, 2013 from http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/content/pdf/participant-papers/2012-02-bifef/The_Role_of_Social_Media_in_Political_Mobilisation_-_Madeline_Storck.pdf Swenson, B, 2012, ‘The Human Network: Social Media and the Limit of Politics’, Baltic Journal of Law & Politics. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.102–124. DOI: 10.2478/v10076-011-0014-3. Michaelsen, M, 2011, New Media vs. Old Politics The Internet, Social Media, and Democratization in Pakistan, fesmedia Asia Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Hiroshimastrasse: Berlin. Muniandy, L & Muniandy, B, 2013, ‘The Impact of Social Media in Social and Political Aspects in Malaysia: An Overview’, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 3, No. 11, pp. 71-76. Tufekci, Z & Wilson, C, 2012, ‘Social Media and the Decision to Participatein Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square’, Journal of Communication, Vol. 62, pp. 363–379. Read More

But stepping aside from the dazzling financial figures that these sites generate and command, this research paper sought to dwell mainly on the impact they have on the lives of people who use them. Nearly 80% of the world’s population is subscribed onto some social network site or another. Some are members in multiple sites. The big question remains; what benefit do they achieve from the sites? Of what significance are these sites in the lives of these people? Social sites, as the name suggests were created, and are still being created in drones, for the purpose of bringing people close together irrespective of the distance.

Now, this is where the connection to politics comes in. The fact that these sites are used bring people together implies that politicians could use these sites to connect to many people at a go (Muniandy & Muniandy, 2013, p.72). And in truth they do. The same is true for vice versa. When people want to reach out to these politicians for one reason or the other, they use the social media to express themselves and their ideologies to these politicians. On a basic scale, the power of the social media can be felt already.

But to drive the point home, this paper will have an in-depth investigation of how the social media can be used to make, change or bring down political structures and policies. The paper will be divided into sections, the first part introducing briefly how the political systems used to operate before the onset of internet and social media. Then an investigation into a number of social media that are popular in the world today will be carried out. Lastly, the role of the social media on the political front, using typical examples and case studies will be done.

A conclusion will be issued at the end to sum up and tie the discussion together. Politics before internet and social media As stated in the introductory portion of this paper, the internet and all the facets that the system brought with it was an unheard thing barely less than two decades ago. But governments were there and people still made policies. Matter of fact, politics is the oldest profession of all time (Michaelsen 2011, p.10). So, why has all this excitement about a social media and politics emanated from?

Policies were still being created even before internet as an idea was developed. Politicians still conducted their campaigns, albeit more crudely. People still had channels, albeit slow and full of bureaucracy, to reach out to their leaders. Policies used to take a lot of time, sometimes years on end because the pressure from the people to change also took an equivalent time frame to build up. Once a certain decision was made, the decision was usually relayed to the people through medium such as televisions and radios as well as the print media.

Though an effective way in itself, these media did not give the respective audience the chance to respond to these opinions. As a result of this, most times it was found that the politicians made decisions that were final and the imposition onto the people as well as the implementation was more often than not unchallenged (Tufekci & Wilson, 2012, p. 364). This does not imply that people were always comfortable with the decisions and the policies made by their leaders; it implies that even though they did not like these policies, they did not have a direct and influential manner or channel through which they could voice their discontent.

Conduct of campaigns was not an easy process, politicians had to enact a door to door policy so that they could ensure that they have reached out to all their voters. This was a very expensive affair and often the resolve of the wealthy few. The people had to have a 100% reliance and trust that the candidate they elect to the legislative houses would give them the appropriate representation that they needed. However, power corrupts, and more often than not, these politicians put their own personal interests ahead of the interests of the people for whom they were elected to represent.

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