Politicians are no strangers to the media. For many years I've seen their commercials where they stand proudly with their families in front of an American flag expressing their views and making promises.
Senator Scott Brown has taken using the media to the next level with social media. According to Wikipedia social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content"[1].
Social media outreach increased Brown’s name recognition among likely voters, according to the study. In November 2009, 51 percent had heard of Brown; by January 2010 his name recognition was up to 95 percent.
I think that we should all be on the lookout for more politicians in the future using this form of social media.
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You could look at this article in two different ways.
ReplyDeleteYes you could easily say that we need to beware of the politicians who "cheat" to get their name out there. You could easily point out that if their name wasn't out there on its own with the old fashion traditions then its probably not worth looking into.
Another view could be that this person is new but will shock us with his or her motives. They used this system to simply say "hey i have something great to offer so please listen up".
People say i'm a positive Polly so of course i'm one of the ones who would listen to this person. But just because I am listening doesn't mean they will get my vote; it simply means they have a fair shot too.
I think this is a interesting topic. I don't see the wrong in this at all.
ReplyDeleteAs Julie has stated this is a good way for politicians who are not as well known as others, to get their name out there.
Another point is they could be using this social media to possibly attract the younger crowds that are more technology based.
For example me, I get all my news, information, entertainment, and other knowledge such as a how to, from the internet. It is quick and easy if you know where to start.
Google has certainly helped make the internet searching much easier.
Barack Obama and John McCain both did something similar while campaigning for the '08 election by creating Facebook and MySpace pages. While I agree that this type of thing is a great tool for building a grassroots campaign, I would agree with MizzMoneyMaker that we should be on the lookout for this kind of thing. It seems to me like all this overnight name recognition could be a way to swing a lot of wishy washy voters while not really showing any substance.
ReplyDeleteI am a friend of Hillary Clinton on myspace. I think that politicians using any kind of technology is smart, simply because it gets them out there.
ReplyDeletePoliticians gotta do what they gotta do to get their names out there. Don't expect anyone to honestly try to get their way to the top, because in the end I believe everyone has to play dirty at least once.
Politics in my opinion go way over board in campaigning or advetising. I cant express how much I hate seeing a political leaders campaigning on commercials. Reach out to the people in public. People will get a better grasp of who someone is speaking in public rather than all the fancy media, televeision campaign they do
ReplyDeleteI think media outreach is an awesome way for polititians to get there word out! I noticed that in 2008's election MTV played a big part in the election and politics. I think personally that was a great way to get teens involved with the election. The media is the way to go from what I have noticed in the past couple of years!
ReplyDeleteUsing the media to reach this generation is the only way to win. For example, Diddy's Vote or Die was a great way to get young people interested in voting.
ReplyDeleteKeeping a connection to the media is a way to gain votes and keep people voting. Social media seems to be the best way to gain interest right now.