Political uses of Twitter
Twitter has many uses tied into political areas. The primary way twitter is used by politicians and political campaigns is a twitter account run by either a politician themself or a team employed by a politician. A team is often employed to moderate the tweets of an individual and to research potentially positive and negative outcomes that can come from sharing political information online.
Campaign videos are also a large influence on voters who consume media online, with a significant budget being spent on producing effective material at each election. Some politicians may also pay for their tweets to be promoted by twitter or even have their tweets featured as advertisements on the site.
The ‘moments’ feature of twitter is somewhat akin to a more traditional approach to news. Whereas to see information directly from politicians one must follow them directly on twitter, the moments feature often pools together many standpoints to form a more complete overview and does not require the user to follow all the accounts involved in a discussion or event.
An increasing majority of US presidential candidates and UK Ministers of Parliament use twitter as a primary method of communication for sharing information to voters in modern day politics. While not necessarily being built around one on one communication like other alternatives (such as Facebook), twitter is ideal for this style as the follower system allows for a user to cherry pick exactly what they do and don’t want to see on the website.
Some politicians have also used the website to spread awareness of fundraising efforts to further expand their campaigning potential (such as Bernie Sanders and former president Barack Obama).
Brief History of Politics on Twitter
While sites such as video-sharing website YouTube were used in the 2008 US Presidential election, the 2012 election saw widespread attention on twitter for each candidate.
Due to the binary nature of politics, many debates from 2012 onwards on twitter often turned into a Left Versus Right arrangement with the right accusing the left of only informing themselves on left-aligned political views and vice versa. This is otherwise known as an echo chamber in online communities.
The 2016 election saw a lot more attention to political activists and participants on social media, with President Donald Trump often using the website to inform voters on his intent and using the site as a way to debate with his opponents throughout his presidency. A particular example is his communication on the site with teenage political activist Greta Thunberg.
In more recent years, many individuals have had past altercations or perhaps criminal activities revealed to many of their followers on twitter as it is easier than ever to share information to these groups. This can lead to smear campaigns against certain politicians online due to the ease of spreading this data. This has been said to often exacerbate the amount of ‘fake news’ that circulates in these communities.
Online ‘memes’ often circulate online, these are often images or short videos edited in a humorous way and then shared. From 2016 onwards an increasing amount of political memes were shared with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders all interacting, embracing or rejecting various memes of themselves, their opponents and/or their allies and rivals.
Accessing political content on twitter
In a modern world where more information is shared than ever, it can sometimes be hard to find what you’re looking for; especially when it comes to political information. Individual accounts are the easiest, most direct way to see what a politician is outputting onto twitter, with all the ‘tweets’ arranged in a chronological timeline so the user can easily digest the information and hashtags may be used to relate the tweet to an ongoing event or crisis.
Users who do not wish to view political content can still be subjected to this content, either through paid ‘promoted’ tweets akin to traditional advertisement or through ‘retweets’ from their friends and acquaintances; where political content is reposted by a user for all their followers to see as well.
Fake news
A term popularised by President Donald Trump, Fake News refers to a situation where a political rival can spread deliberate misinformation in an attempt to skew public opinion against a candidate. This is especially effective in some cases as many attempts to disprove fake news is often misconstrued as paranoia on the part of the defending individual, further sowing the seeds in the distrust in the minds of followers and voters alike.
Effect of social media on Politics
Twitter is very influential in the United States due to the opportunity to express a freedom of speech, something many individuals in the US have long complained is becoming more and more difficult in modern society.
The character limit often means information often needs to be concise and engaging to keep a users interest, meaning twitter is an important step in making politics more lean and stripping out unneeded information to keep users engaged on their standpoint and intentions.