How Social Media Affect Political Campaigns
Student’s Name
University Affiliation
Social media has been established to play a significant role, especially in democratic countries. The primary use of social media as such is to spread the news and allow for citizen participation in varied topics. The usage of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and even YouTube in the aspect of politics has dramatically changed how political campaigns are run. Social media does not only influence campaigns but also influence how politicians interact with the electorate. The prevalence of social media, as such, has led to elected officials becoming more accountable as well as accessible to voters than never before. Therefore, social media is an instrument that affects various aspects of politics and party-political campaigns.
Smith, K. N. (2011). Social media and political campaigns. University of Tennessee – Knoxville,
According to Smith (2011), social media has been used and continues to be used as a tool in political campaigns. The author goes forth to give an example of the 2008 presidential campaign by the former United States president Barrack Obama. Social media, in a real sense, played a role in Obama’s victory. The author further outlines that social media becomes instrumental in political campaigns because it is a way through which a large audience can be reached within a short period. It also allows political aspirants to engage directly with their audience.
Ross, K., & Bürger, T. (2014). Face to face (book) Social media, political campaigning, and the unbearable lightness of being there. Political Science, 66(1), 46-62.
According to this article, it is an undeniable fact that social media such as Twitter and Facebook are impacting how politicians are engaging the general public. This phenomenon is quite advantageous in the sense that there are no longer gatekeeping aspects of the traditional media, and the political aspirants are free to broadcast their messages to an audience ready to listen to them. This article outlines that social media is influencing political campaigns in the sense that politicians use it as a means of distributing information, making them visible to the public. The argument, however, is that social media should be complementary to other broad-based forms of communication and that it should not be used as a replacement for traditional campaign strategies.
Kumar, K. A., & Natarajan, S. (2016). Role of Social Media in Political Campaigning and its Evaluation Methodology: A Review. Global Management Review, 10(3), 1–12. Retrieved from
According to the authors of this article, the growth of the internet has thus led to a different pathway in politics, which is the utilization of social media as a strategic instrument. The authors argue that social media has dramatically transformed the manner of political communiqué in the sense that political parties, as well as politicians, are opting for social media to reach their voters. This means that the use of social media is evolving into a campaign strategy which most politicians are looking forward to exploiting in different ways. The main reason why social media is becoming popular among political campaigns is that, in the current world, almost everyone is trying to be present in the social media platform since everything is tending towards the digital era. The authors of this article further cite that political campaigns are similar in characteristics with commercial campaigns, and since there has been successfully realized on commercial campaigns, political campaigns as well might succeed through the use of social media.
Rao, H. N. (2019). The role of new media in political campaigns: A case study of social media campaigning for the 2019 general elections. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR), 8(4), 228–240. Retrieved from
According to Rao (2019), the best form of governance is a democracy. Political processes are part of democracy. However, democracies might have some flaws, but it triumphs compared to the rest. Rao (2019) goes forth to explain that politicians and political parties compete in ideologies, and the people, on the other hand, evaluate these to vote for good governance. In the midst of all these, the media plays a vital role, especially social media. The forms of communication today have been revolutionized by social media in the sense that it has become a ubiquitous means of sharing content. To this end, the author of this article argues that political parties are exploiting social media such as Facebook and Twitter to reach their voters to influence them. The author suggests that parliamentary elections have since increased their social media use since it is the easiest and the cheapest way through which they can reach a broader target audience.
Auter, Z. J., & Fine, J. A. (2018). Social Media Campaigning: Mobilization and Fundraising on Facebook. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 99(1), 185–200.
This article mentions the top ten most visited social media platforms to include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others. According to the authors, almost every member of Congress has a social media presence.
Additionally, these politicians tend to share their social media handles in every platform available. The authors of this article argue that politicians adopt social media sites intending to tap on the followers’ network to redistribute their mobilization messages. This is one of the most successful ways through which politicians can reach the voters, and as such social media becomes the cheapest means of a political campaign. The authors of this article further argue that it is through social media that politicians can organize what has become known as online mobilization, even to raise funds for their campaigns on other platforms.
Stieglitz, S., & Dang-Xuan, L. (2013). Social media and political communication: a social media analytics framework. Social network analysis and mining, 3(4), 1277-1291.
According to the authors of this article, the use of social media platforms has been very fundamental for the Politian in their campaigns. Social media platforms like twitter have taken a more significant role in ensuring that people express their political views towards a particular political party. Facebook pages give people a platform to communicate directly with their political party leaders. Political experts always use these social media platforms to gauge the opinions of people towards the political system of the country. The heavy uses of social media in any state can be used in influencing the political fate of the country. For instance, social media can make a specific political leader in a given country gain many followers. A political leader may gain more followers based on the perception and the way people view him/her on the various social media platforms. Many people at the moment are on different social media platforms, which makes it very easier to access a large number of people within a short period. The authors of this article suggest that social media offers a platform for communication for citizens in a given country. It links the politicians and the people, especially on coming up with solutions towards problems facing a given state.
Kushin, M. J., & Yamamoto, M. (2013). Did social media matter? College students’ use of online media and political decision making in the 2008 election. In New Media, Campaigning and the 2008 Facebook Election (pp. 63-86). Routledge.
According to the author of this article, young voters aged 28 years and below heavily rely on social media as a source of information regarding the political state of a given country. Much of the news comes from the traditional sources but usually end up in the social media platforms. Young people prefer accessing this information through these social media platforms. They find it more comfortable and convenient as compared to another related source. Social media provides platforms where people can easily communicate and give their political views towards the various political parties. As a result, the young have a chance to debate amongst themselves with people from different parts of the country whom they have even never met before. It clearly shows that social media gives an opportunity for people to contribute to the political makeup of the country. The author also clearly states that not everyone would agree with the political discussion on social media. As a result, they end up disliking specific political posts. The authors of these articles indicate that social media has a lot of influence on the youth as compared to the elderly. The youth find it very comfortable discussing political matters on social media.
Ouma, F. K. (2016). Can social media enhance service delivery? Lessons and best practices.
The authors of this article illustrate that social media can be used as a tool by the government to deliver services to its citizens. The government can get enough information about the needs of its citizens from social media. The article also describes social media as the technological aspects that provide the people an opportunity to communicate to the state. The government and the people can link up easily via social media. The people can comfortably express their opinion about the perception of their government through social media. The government, through the ministry of communication, can access these views and be in apposition to improve on the way it delivers its services. The author also gives an example of how Obama encouraged the Americans to use social media platforms to provide their opinions about his governance. In the end, he ended up meeting the expectations of the American citizens. The government can follow up on the way its citizens argue and express their view on social media hence be in a position to determine what it needs to deliver to the people. The authors of this article elaborate that the use of social media can impact the way a given government delivers its services to the citizens.
Ratkiewicz, J., Conover, M. D., Meiss, M., Gonçalves, B., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. M. (2011, July). Detecting and tracking political abuse in social media. In the fifth international AAAI conference on weblogs and social media.
According to this article, the authors elaborate on how social media provide enough platform for people to express their political opinion in the country. People from a different political stand, social, economic class, and geographical regions can easily relate and share their views about their political stands. The article talks about the use of memes in triggering the mindset of the people. Memes are funny pictures or videos with hidden messages. Political parties can apply the use of memes to gain more and more followers through memes since they are believed to entice people. Before an election is carried out, social media can be used as a tool to find out the nature in which the people think about the various political positions in the country. It can be used to foretell the outcome of any election. The authors in this article suggest that social media influences the mindset of people towards a given political party.
Dimitrova, D. V., Shehata, A., Strömbäck, J., & Nord, L. W. (2014). The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data. Communication Research, 41(1), 95-118.
The authors of this article suggest that social media has a direct influence on the political state in any country. The internet affects the blogging activities, opinion polls as well the political web sites. Now, these platforms usually determine which political party or leaders will be in office after an election. The online media allows the people to have direct contact with their leaders hence enabling them to know how and what they need to do in their political offices. Moreover, these political media make it very accessible for the political leaders to directly present their manifestos to the average citizen in a given country. Social media always encourages people to participate more and more in politics of any given state. The people would want to visit political sites more frequently to get political information. In summary, the author suggests that social media provides political parties an opportunity to access a large audience within a short time.
Garrett, R. K. (2019). Social media’s contribution to political misperceptions in U.S. Presidential elections. PloS one, 14(3), e0213500.
According to the author of this article, social media is a channel for communication which can be exploited by politicians. As a tool of communication, social media can be used to spread falsehood or misperceptions during the political campaign process. The author points out a case example of the 2012 President Obama election campaigns. In this manner, the author agrees to the fact that social media, especially Facebook, has transformed the way people get political news.
Further, social media can be used as a conduit over which misinformation is spread. Politicians are fond of using propaganda to taint the reputation of their rivals in political. This further explains the fact that social media can be the most suitable tool to spread such falsehoods during political campaigns.
Kiyohara, S. (2016). An Analysis of the Campaign Context in the U.S.: How did Political Parties Use Social Media in the 2014 Midterm Election
According to the author of this article, there are circumstantial factors that impact the ways through which social media can be used in a political election campaign. The author analyses the situation of the 2014 United States midterm election campaigns. The finds are that social media affect political campaigns because they can be used to advertise campaign strategies to voters. Additionally, social does affect political parties and their campaigns because it is a form of technological advancement, and political parties, as such, should change with technology. In essence, digital media is the new wave, and the most common means through which political campaigns are carried. It is because a good proportion of the population has a presence on social media, making them easily reachable.
References
Auter, Z. J., & Fine, J. A. (2018). Social Media Campaigning: Mobilization and Fundraising on Facebook. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 99(1), 185–200.
Dimitrova, D. V., Shehata, A., Strömbäck, J., & Nord, L. W. (2014). The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data. Communication Research, 41(1), 95-118.
Garrett, R. K. (2019). Social media’s contribution to political misperceptions in U.S. Presidential elections. PloS one, 14(3), e0213500.
Kiyohara, S. (2016). An Analysis of the Campaign Context in the U.S.: How did Political Parties Use Social Media in the 2014 Midterm Election
Kumar, K. A., & Natarajan, S. (2016). Role of Social Media in Political Campaigning and its Evaluation Methodology: A Review. Global Management Review, 10(3), 1–12. Retrieved from
Kushin, M. J., & Yamamoto, M. (2013). Did social media matter? College students’ use of online media and political decision making in the 2008 election. In New Media, Campaigning and the 2008 Facebook Election (pp. 63-86). Routledge.
Ouma, F. K. (2016). Can social media enhance service delivery? Lessons and best practices.
Rao, H. N. (2019). The role of new media in political campaigns: A case study of social media campaigning for the 2019 general elections. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR), 8(4), 228–240. Retrieved from
Ratkiewicz, J., Conover, M. D., Meiss, M., Gonçalves, B., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. M. (2011, July). Detecting and tracking political abuse in social media. In the fifth international AAAI conference on weblogs and social media.
Ross, K., & Bürger, T. (2014). Face to face (book) Social media, political campaigning, and the unbearable lightness of being there. Political Science, 66(1), 46-62.
Smith, K. N. (2011). Social media and political campaigns. University of Tennessee – Knoxville,
Stieglitz, S., & Dang-Xuan, L. (2013). Social media and political communication: a social media analytics framework. Social network analysis and mining, 3(4), 1277-1291.