Social Media and Politics
The internet, social media and big data have recently become a key player in presidential campaigns as well as social movements around the world. It is clear that the internet, social media and big data have played a significant role in politics and political campaigns. However, there are still some inherent factors that remain as crucial elements to strengthening democracy such as accountability, rule of law, transparency and freedom of speech.
Social media and big data played a major role in the 2008 United States presidential election. This completely revolutionized and changed political campaigns immensely. Political campaigns will never be the same after that election. Now social media and big data are being used all over the global to communicate with voters and win elections. Social media has also proved to be highly effective in garnering social mobility and bring awareness to various issues. Social media and big data offer several benefits to politics while they also house several threats. Social media and big data have the potential to strength democracy by creating more freedom of speech, transparency and accountability amongst civil society and government.
Social media and big data are relatively new phenomenon and will continue to evolve over time. This in a since makes social media innovative and revolutionary. There are some political theorist that are skeptical of social media and big data as they do not believe it is highly effective and it is a fad that will eventually become obsolete. On the other hand, there are political theorists who believe that social media and big data are changing the world and it has the potential to develop into something spectacular.
The truth is social media and big data are relatively new and current events have proven to be highly influential and highly coveted by political strategist. Only time will tell if social media and big data are a fad but this is the information age so it will not likely become obsolete anytime soon. The fact that people are coming together and communicating their ideas and needs is a huge step for democracy and humanity.