The Significance of Politics to Social Media

The role of the research paper is to elaborate on specific based on the findings of the researcher. During class discussion, members of the class covered various topics which include PR journalism, regulation, politics, and marketing. In this last assignment, it will narrow down to the topic of politics and research on it based on various requirements. The first step in coming up with this research is to identify one scholarly book and a journal article. Secondly, it will provide summaries what the journal and the academic book talks about concerning politics. After that, the solution will research the significance of politics to social media. Lastly, it will give a personal opinion about the issue, politics and the impact of politics on social media.

What the journal article and the scholarly book talks about concerning politics. 

Bender, (2017) say that, politics refers to the method in which people living together come up with various. A nation may comprise of people from different tribes and have a different culture. However, the significant issue is that these people should live together as members of one country. When people live together, they must agree on various matters affecting their country. The process of accepting and disagreeing on multiple issues relating to the nation is what is called politics.

Consequently, members of the nation may be many and sometimes time to agree on the matters is limited. In such occasion, the country may elect or select specific people to decide for them beginning from the grassroots to the national level according to Bode, (2016). These representatives are called politicians. The method of choosing or electing these representatives differ from one nation to another. Many countries have adopted election process whereby the people who are interested in the position come out with their manifestos and sell them to the citizens. The citizens have the opportunity to listen to the contestant’s views and decide the suitable person to represent them in a specific position. After the election, the body conducting the poll announce the results and the winners form the government. The government will now be responsible for addressing various issues facing the citizens regarding health, economy, education among other sectors in reference to Trottier & Fuchs, (2014).

On the other hand, Perrin, (2015) claims that the decisions that politicians make every day affect the nation negatively and positively. For instance, the authority can make decisions on the health sector to have the citizens have universal health care without considering the cost hence forcing the citizens to struggle to accommodate the policy in reference to Highfield, (2017). On the positive side, the government may agree to come up with a subsidized education system which will enable the less fortunate members of the society to access education according to Curran, Fenton & Freedman, (2016). The form of government differs from one country another; some countries use the presidential system while others adopt kingship. Apart from that, another important factor in politics is political parties. A political party is a group of people having similar ideologies, and they have come together to transform the nation through their doctrines. Political parties mainly exist in democratic government whereby one is free to move out of the government is the authority is not running the government the way he or she expects.  

Personal Opinion Concerning Politics and Social Media

The primary reason why people engage in politics is to express their thoughts concerning various issues in the community and at the end of the day come up with a conclusion that helps every member of the society. However, the politicians are the one who takes part in these debates while in parliament — the decision that the majority agree on forms the rule. These rules affect all the sectors. Consequently, social media is one of the industries that is affected by the regulations. There are different ways in which politic impact social media. One of the primary significance of politics to social media is that the laws the politicians come up with providing a conducive environment for journalist and other social media users for working peacefully according to Hartley, (2017). For instance, when the social media industry started operating, their freedom was limited to what they cover and how they operate. However, as time goes, the politicians began fighting for the journalist to get their freedom. The role of media is to inform the citizens what is going on in the government and how citizens should give their ideas to ensure that they also have their say within the laws. However, when they have their freedom snatched, they may not operate efficiently. Politics contribute to the achievement of the independence of journalists.

Apart from the above impact, Bonilla & Rosa, (2015) argues that another impact of politics on social media is that the rules that politicians come up with regulate what anyone can post on social media thus the bad image of social. There are instances where people post weird things- for example, things relating to terrorist activities, pornographic pictures, images of severely injured people among others. Such materials make people judge social media as the source of problems facing youths in society such as early pregnancies, prostitution, and terrorism. However, the politicians help in a way that they come up with various laws that regulate what people do and post on social media. The people who go against the regulation face the full wrath of the law. Hence bringing some level of moral and responsibility to the nation.

The other crucial significance of politics to social media is protecting journalist and media house owners from abuse by the public and other private sectors. In many years ago, the journalist has been facing several violations from the public and the police while they are rendering their duty. In many countries there exist many cases in court whereby the journalist was attacked and injured while covering an important event. These people are hurt because they lack security, they releasing some information to the public because of the risk of being attacked by the public. The role of the politicians is to come up with the law that ensures that a journalist has security while reporting in various places according to Newman, (2017). There is also the issue of tax that the media owners pay to the government. However, the politicians elected by the citizens are the once that regulate the amount they spend. They always consider the environment before determining the amount the media house will pay.

Politics around the world have evolved. Members of the society give their views now and then to the leaders who represent them in higher levels. However, in my personal opinion, the level of representation in most cases is not appropriate. Many leaders have turned political positions to be an exploiting opportunity. After they rise to power, they look public property and do not give their views concerning the problems facing ordinary citizens according to Bruns, Enli, Skogerbo, Larsson & Christensen, (2015). On the other side what interferes with politics is the issue of political parties. Many leaders whom the citizens trust, form their political parties and determine who will be in which political position. For example, if a political party is accessible in a given area, many people struggle to get the certificate from that party to the extent of giving out a huge sum of money to the party leaders to secure the position. However, the challenge always comes when the person has achieved the dream of representing people in that position. Graber & Dunaway, (2017) says that the leader turns away from the people and only serve the interest of the party. Such circumstance is a betrayal to the ordinary citizens. My opinion is that leaders should not use the citizens as their voting machines but aim at effectively representing the people. By representation, it means that the leader should continuously listen to what the citizens are saying and forwarding the opinions to the national level. Many leaders do not secure a second term during many election periods because they failed to address what the citizens expected them to send in their previous term.

Chadwick, (2017) argues that social media and politics go hand in hand. Politics defines how social media operates. However, the relationship between politics and social media have evolved. In a democratic nation, the association has continued to grow stronger due to the flexibility of the authority. For example, in some countries, media were not allowed to access administrative buildings to report what is going on in the premises during the debate.

Consequently, several leaders have agitated for the rights and freedom of the media, up to now the citizens are getting live updates from the parliamentary buildings. The media expose those leaders who are not contributing to the debates in the parliament. Apart from that, they reveal the leaders who perpetrate corruption and hatred within the government and nation at large.

Conclusion

Media and politics influence each other. The politicians need social media to tell people what they are planning to do. On the other side, media need politicians to debate on laws that with making the working environment-friendly. What matters in politics is that citizens should be careful while electing leaders to represent them while discussing national issues. Some leaders take advantage that many people live below level and entice them with money to get to the political positions.

References

Bender, B. (2017). Social Media and Politics: The 2016 US Presidential Election. Pridobljeno, 20(5), 2018.

Bode, L. (2016). Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media. Mass Communication and Society, 19(1), 24-48.

Bonilla, Y., & Rosa, J. (2015). # Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American Ethnologist, 42(1), 4-17.

Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbo, E., Larsson, A. O., & Christensen, C. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge companion to social media and politics. Routledge.

Chadwick, A. (2017). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. Oxford University Press.

Curran, J., Fenton, N., & Freedman, D. (2016). Misunderstanding the internet. Routledge. 

Graber, D. A., & Dunaway, J. (2017). Mass media and American politics. Cq Press.

Hartley, J. (2017). The Politics of Pictures: the creation of the public in the age of the popular media. Routledge.

Highfield, T. (2017). Social media and everyday politics. John Wiley & Sons.

Newman, T. P. (2017). Tracking the release of IPCC AR5 on Twitter: Users, comments, and sources following the release of the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers. Public Understanding of Science, 26(7), 815-825.

Perrin, A. (2015). Social media usage. Pew research center, 52-68.

Trottier, D., & Fuchs, C. (Eds.). (2014). Social media, politics and the state: Protests, revolutions, riots, crime and policing in the age of facebook, twitter and youtube (Vol. 16). Routledge.