Saturday, 25 January 2014

Gen Y and Politics... do political twits win?


 The 2013 federal election confused me. Who to vote for? It all seemed like a lose lose situation.Facebook status' became ten to the dozen as opinions surfaced after Gillards public ousting ... I was meant to decide between:

                        OR 


                       How ???  The mind boggled!




So this week I investigated social media in politics,  starting with a condensed

 History:
  • In 1960, Americans watched the first televised presidential debate. For the first time, media power shifted public opinion after the public witnessed and awkward Richard Nixon, next to a calm and confident John F. Kennedy. Kennedy won by 0.2% of the votes. (Steele C, 2012)
  • Former US presidential candidate John Edwards was the first person to ever announce his candidacy via an online video posting.  The video was posted on his website however, so very few people actually viewed it. 
  • Leading up to the 2008 US presidential elections, blogging, tweeting and text messages became part of each candidate's campaign. A YouTube presence was seen as essential if a candidate wanted to appear accessible to younger voters. 
  • Twitter became a way to keep track of presidential candidates. Sites like  2012twit.com and @MentionMachine, polling twitter mentions (Steele C, 2012). 
  • By 2012, new media was a powerful force.  A survery in the lead up to the 2012 US Presidential election  found 60%  of social media users expected candidates to have a social media presence with almost 40% saying social media would help determine their voting choices. 

Now, Social media is an integral part of  political campaigns and strategies.


In Australia
Both Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott embraced social media, in direct competition for new votes. Rudd's tweets aiming to bring a closer bond and connection with the public by sharing family moments, jokes, and his Cat (..?) and Abbott using his feed to share transcribed speeches and disseminate information, giving a more detached feel. (Visentin, 2013)



So, what about Gen Y? 
Prior to the 2014 September election, in a bid to reach younger voters the AEC launched a shareable enrolment app on Facebook, linking back to the AEC registration portal - where for the first time ever, voters could register online. Facebook and Twitter became rival social hosts as the political debate stirred up. Facebook also launched hashtags, in direct competition with Twitter. The Australian
         Above: Despite losing the 'social media election', Abbott still won the 2013 election...
         http://www.abc.net.au

Above: The election tracker allowed voters to follow the candidates in real time
http://www.marketwire.com

Steele (2012) says "the number of message share's, and attention from external media plays a much more important role in voter's opinions." And I agree. From personal experience, the only real social media that really affected my final vote was intelligent Facebook posts and news report shares, not the sufferings of a politicians cat, or a pair of speedos!
References:




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2 comments:

  1. Unknown28 January 2014 at 20:56

    Enjoyed the post Ciara. Totally agree with Steele. Politicians using social media is more like a popularity contest. Id rather read what the experts think.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown1 February 2014 at 18:03

    You made a boring topic - Politics - fun- thanks. And yes its join the Social Media train or not be in the game.

    ReplyDelete

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