PoliTube!

Social Media is becoming another front on which the battle for votes takes place. The social media platform presents politicians with a new campaigning tool and opens up a new audience. President of the United States of America, Barack Obama , used Youtube in particular to great effect.

Obama is undoubtedly the politician who has benefitted most from social media screens. An example of how Obama’s run for the presidency benefitted from social media screens can be found in the viral video on YouTube called ‘Crush on Obama’ which features Obama Girl, the video is an Obama tribute to say the least. This video increased Obama’a popularity with younger audiences that will be eligible to vote in a few years, Obama Girl helped build a rapport between Obama and younger audiences somewhat. YouTube seems to have become Obama’s friend in that addresses such as the announcement about Osama Bin Laden’s death are posted on Youtube along with the address made at the White House Correspondent’s dinner. The speech saw Obama absolutely roasting Donald Trump for his scepticism of Obama’s birth certificate. The speech was very comedic (and in my opinion written for him by writers from Saturday Night Live) which Obama received praise for whilst some commenters of the video thought he was merely stooping down to Trump’s level. Social media screens are very risky for politicians and parties to utilize as there is always the risk of negative blowback in some way shape or form.    

Social media screens can be a double-edged sword in that they can positively or negatively affect the disposition of voters towards a politician and the party they represent. Political parties can use Social media screens to find any slip-ups made by the opposition and bring attention to them in order to make the opposition look bad, though the social media platforms like YouTube already do a good job of this anyways. Moments that can be capitalised upon in such a way are known as ‘macaca moments’. Former U.S senator George Allen made the mistake of referring to an Indian-American man as macaca, a word that was used to describe native Central African populations, it means ‘monkey ‘and is considered a racial slur. This macaca moment was used to show that George Allen lacked the discipline of staying on topic while speaking and wounded his campaigning efforts. A recent example of a macaca moment in Australian politics was when Treasurer Wayne Swan knocked over a glass of water during a radio interview. Immediately, this was used to discredit Swan as a metaphor to the way he is managing the budget, with supposedly little care.

The relationship between politics and social media is going to grow and strengthen. I think it could become a good way to introduce younger people to politics, through a medium they prefer and are familiar with. As I stated before, social media platforms allow access to a new audience and can be used to discredit political opponents. Social media has its associated risks as well as its benefits concerning politics.