I have a vivid memories of the ABC news as a child and remember how boring I would find it, especially when 'that short man with the glasses and funny voice' came on (aka. John Howard).
So I can safely say that politics has never been my favourite topic.
I knew the week would come that I would have to write a blog about politics and I was left pleasantly surprised when I actually became interested in how politicians use social media to reach their citizens.
When I think about it, it's fair enough that politicians want to interact with the community, especially their younger audiences, through websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube however, what was really wrong before? Australia still needed to elect a Prime Minister 10 years ago before the traditional ways of political campaigns were subsided by social media. If anything, wouldn't you agree that seeing leaders such as Barack Obama, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd on these social media websites lessens their credibility? Knowing that world leaders can send a simple tweet or uploading a status to a nation seems a little informal to me. Would you agree?
In saying this, and I recognise that I'm contradicting myself, I must applaud Barack Obama's efforts with his recent campaign and how it involved social media. MyBarackObama.com was created to assist with Obama's campaign and lead to the creation of popular meme "Obama girl" (obama girl, 2013). With Obama girl receiving millions of views online and on television, especially from the vital under 30s, Obama's campaign soared to success and he was elected for Present in the US for a second term.
In 2007, when Kevin Rudd was running for Prime Minister in Australia, the Kevin07 campaign used various social media sites, particularly YouTube, to reach their target audience. Again, the campaign was a success and was popular among younger voters resulting in Rudd being elected as Prime Minister in that year. I was not old enough to vote in 2007, however, I remember the campaign and although I had no interest in who the next Prime Minister was, I was pleased when Kevin Rudd was elected because I felt as though I knew him on another level. He used the same websites I used and to me, this was "cool".
It would seem that the use of social media during a campaign is the new fad in politics. I commend the use of social media and believe it is a crafty way to reach a wider audience, particularly because of the high percentage of voters being involved with social media one way or another.
However, I don't believe using social media helps with politicians credibility. After visiting Barack Obama's twitter profile (see here), I find it a bit Kim Kardashian and consider it to be too informal and, to an extent, lazy.
To conclude, citizens want an honest, strong and admirable leader who does right for their country. Social media use should be left behind in their personal lives.
In 2007, when Kevin Rudd was running for Prime Minister in Australia, the Kevin07 campaign used various social media sites, particularly YouTube, to reach their target audience. Again, the campaign was a success and was popular among younger voters resulting in Rudd being elected as Prime Minister in that year. I was not old enough to vote in 2007, however, I remember the campaign and although I had no interest in who the next Prime Minister was, I was pleased when Kevin Rudd was elected because I felt as though I knew him on another level. He used the same websites I used and to me, this was "cool".
It would seem that the use of social media during a campaign is the new fad in politics. I commend the use of social media and believe it is a crafty way to reach a wider audience, particularly because of the high percentage of voters being involved with social media one way or another.
However, I don't believe using social media helps with politicians credibility. After visiting Barack Obama's twitter profile (see here), I find it a bit Kim Kardashian and consider it to be too informal and, to an extent, lazy.
To conclude, citizens want an honest, strong and admirable leader who does right for their country. Social media use should be left behind in their personal lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment