Can Social Media Reinvigorate American Democracy?

July 13, 2011

There is no question that the rise of social media has impacted the way that American and global citizens interact with one another. The rapid transfer of ideas and perspectives across geographical boundaries encourages innovation and discussion in a way that the world has never seen before. The proliferation of new media is occurring so quickly that even those at the forefront struggle to keep up. But the major question still remains: In what ways can social media reinvigorate American democracy?

The Brookings Institute initiated this conversation on June 28th in a discussion titled, ~1@BODYURL[id=114kcurl116]@ Led by Darrell M. West, VP and Director of Governance Studies for the Brooking Institute, four distinguished panelists discussed ways that Social Media can improve campaign engagement and reinvigorate American Democracy. Panelists included Mindy Finn, Partner for Engage DC; Diana Owen, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of American Studies at Georgetown University; Macon Phillips, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy at the White House and Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Panelists were asked a series of questions focused around social media as it relates to civic and political engagement and voter empowerment.

During the lecture, three points stood out in discussing the ways that social media might improve campaign engagement and reinvigorate American democracy.

1. Social Networks now act as “trust filters” for individuals in the political sphere and can seriously affect future political effectiveness.
With the increase in online interaction through Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other social networking sites, people have the ability to post and check facts. Not only are civilians targets of propaganda, they are now agents or publishers of valuable information. With a variety of news sources and influential bias it is becoming more and more difficult to sort fact from fiction. The free flow of information is valuable in the access that it provides to everyday citizens, but it is making the job of activists progressively more and more difficult by holding them accountable to their words and actions. In order to be successful in fostering a community of trust, activists must act and speak with integrity. In this age of social media, panel members argued that facilitating and keeping trust will be more difficult. Nonpartisan, fact-checking organizations such as www.politifact.com hold individuals more accountable by rating the truth of statements made.

2. Many ideas and topics for political discussion will be introduced through grassroots networks where the public will have the power to push ideas that they value and think are important.
Individuals who once felt that they could not participate in political conversations now have the ability to express themselves and their opinions online. The anonymity of social media also enables people to express their thoughts, opinions and ideas by allowing them to post statements without any personal accountability. Panelists at the Brookings Institute predicted that this introduction of social media as a tool for information sharing will impact the political discussion and issues raised over the upcoming election period. Lee Raine developed this point further by saying that campaigns have in fact become more decentralized as a result of increasing interaction through social media. She predicts that the barrier to entry will slowly disappear as people now have the ability to impact the election with their own voice. Raine believes that politicians will now be confronted with ideas that are from “the people” thanks to social media. As a result, politicians will be forced to address specific problems that the public is concerned with. Politicians are already using social media to engage the public and appeal to a wider audience. New York Senator, Greg Ball, recently turned to his 2,500+ Twitter followers to discuss his voting decision regarding gay marriage. This increased interaction online is beneficial to both parties because it allows the general public to feel more engaged, but also gives politicians a better understanding of what the people stand for.

3. Behavior advertising and geo-location will play a greater role than ever – allowing activists to cater advertisements to their audience and target specific populations.
A complex, yet important component of social media today is geolocation. Geolocation is the option that people have to share their location with websites and people that they trust. Through geolocation, websites have the ability to predict preferences and cater advertisements based on personal preferences. Advertisements will change based on ones age, gender, sexual preference and location in a process known as microtargeting. Microtargeting shares information based on expressed or applied interests and potentially limits people from gaining information about areas that may not be of initial interest to them. Panelists expressed concern about advancement of the filter bubble saying that there is danger of living in a self-reinforcing world when facebook and Google have the ability to provide individuals with relevant material rather than exposing people to new ideas. The ability to manipulate what people can and cannot see is something that could potentially be limiting in providing people with the most diverse information. That being said, Geolocation and behavior advertising offer the potential to engage different audiences by catering to individual preferences. By creating advertisements that target certain populations; activists will be able to share different messages with different types of people. For example, an advertisement on the profile of a teenage girl will look drastically different than that on the homepage of a middle aged man. While there is argument that microtargeting can be limiting, there is also a lot of flexibility and opportunity to share.

So, What Does the Future of Social Media Campaigning Look Like?

In 2008 the white house hired Katie Jacobs Stanton, an ex-Google project manager, as the President’s Director of Citizen Participation. Her role was to reach out to citizens via social media outlets. Some argue that one reason Obama’s campaign was successful is because Stanton used social media to engage a wider audience and target the younger populations. Past presidents have used local speeches, radio and television, but as social media expands candidates will be encouraged to communicate with the public through this outlet. On July 6th the Obama campaign announced that they will be holding a “Twitter forum” for 30 of the 2 million White House followers. In an effort to reach people in the information age, the forum will consist of people asking questions using the hash tag #AskObama. This is only one of the many ways that all parties are using social media to engage different audiences. There is no doubt that candidates will be using social media in the upcoming election, but the major question is in what creative ways will candidates utilize the tools accessible to them through social media to draw attention to their campaign?

The world will be waiting in anticipation of how new media will change the face of the 2012 election.