Communication is vital to the coexistence of humans. As a result of technological advancements resulting to the foundation of internet, which has been one of the greatest communication channel of mankind. It is quite obvious that the existence of internet has gotten rid of most communication challenges that serves as an hindrance, for example the case of boundaries have been eliminated.
Decades ago, the conventional media {Television/Radio, Newspaper and magazine} took the lead role in dissemination of information, appraised by its ability and capacity to get in touch with wide range of heterogeneous audience. It's ability is quite magnificent to the extent it was quoted to have possessed the power of a hypodermic needle also known has magic bullet theory.
The basis and assumption of this theory is that almighty media is capable of influencing people's behaviour and attitude, directing them to act in a way that goes in line with the objective of the media, you can say the media is capable of mind control. Such was the power attributed to the conventional media until the advent of internet.
Internet being a product of technology has been in existence for decades now, as a result of its rise and usage it has made the world a global village. As important as information is, before the arrival of internet, there is this accessibility barrier due to differences in locality and geographical entity. It became an hindrance in dissemination of information that is capable of enriching and saving lives of humans but thanks to technology, internet was birthed and eradicated the challenge, which was highly commendable.
Based on its features, information can be dropped by any individual from any corner of the earth and it will reach the masses in a matter of minutes such is the power of the internet. With less censorship, to an extent you can say through the internet our true libertarian rights can be practiced, which involves freedom of expression, right to be solely responsible to choose which information is worth being read.
Out of the abundance of the internet, we now have other innovations such as social media. Social media has taken the world by surprise as a result of its assimilation by the masses. Becoming a global phenomenon that has impacted the cognitive understanding of the masses about the existence and Significance of the existing media that has ruled supreme over the years. Social media gained more acceptance due to its flexibility in convening information without going through gatekeeping process an attribute which is most sacred to the conventional media.
With the lack of censorship of social media does pose a new set of advantages and disadvantages to the society. Highly capable individuals who are aware of the rate of the mass adoption of the Social media, are capable of using its features in pushing their own agenda. Without differing, there have been cases of politicians using social media as a tool for turning the citizens against an administration through the use of misinformation.
It is no doubt that matters of importance are mostly discussed on social media, especially if it affects the lives of the masses. This definitely sounds good, I mean for the citizens to have an uncensored platforms to discuss about the political situation in a country. I remember in my country when the government notice how easy it is for citizens to use the social media to gather support, in order to fight against corrupt practices. The government of my country banned a platform called "twitter" now "X" as retaliation for the citizens rebellion against the government ill practices.
This proves how disturbing it is for the government of my country to watch citizens have an uncensored opinion against them. Knowing fully well how such opinion and perspective of them, have a general effect on their public identify, political career and international relations. For developed countries, the social media is also used for opinion polls, to see how the citizens will react if a particular policy is implemented or their perspective of a specific political candidate.
Social media in this era have lot of use cases, when it comes to politicians and voters, it might be slightly different from how social media is being used as citizens but the use case is still similar. Not all citizens are eligible voters in my country, Not all eligible voters vote during election, majority of those who constitute the voting power in my country are not on social media but then all voters are still citizens of my country. Hope you get the idea?
From the last election, it became evident that social media might be used to discuss political activities especially during election but social media discussion only have little effect on the overall outcome of an election because those who will vote are in areas without access to social media. These set of people constitute a larger percentage of the voting power than those that engage in political discussion on social media.
Which means, the fact that a candidate is loved and supported on social media does not guarantee that they will emerge as winners. But at least both politicians and voters that are on social media, use social media as a means of analysing each other like a game. To an extent politicians and voters on social media have a symbiotic relationship.
Is there anything I would like to change? Well that would be getting rid of Political illiteracy. It is quite strange how politicians uses citizens against each other on social media in order to change the topic of discussion or push an agenda. If an adminstration notice that the people are getting agitated on a specific subject and from the looks of it they are already rallying support. Don't forget that the support people are getting on social media on a particular motion is also a means for the opposition party to weaken the current administration, which means they are not actually doing it for the good of the country.
For the current administration that the motion is against, they will come up with a scheme by creating an illusive disaster or national event that would shift the political discussion on social media from what it is, to what they want it to be. This strategy has been used against the citizens many times to blindfold us from what is really happening. If only people were more aware of the scrupulous nature of politicians, it would make it a lot easier to have a more productive discussion on social media without politicians influence.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Social media and politics" in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
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