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Role of Twitter in Politics

Shariq Hamza

12/21/2015

ContentsIntroduction.................................................................................................................3

The Twitter Population................................................................................................3

Effectiveness of Twitter...............................................................................................3

Examples....................................................................................................................4

2012 Election in US.................................................................................................4

Pakistani Politicians.................................................................................................4

Conclusion..................................................................................................................4

References..................................................................................................................5

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Role of Twitter in politics

IntroductionSocial media, especially twitter, has provided a new way to engage ordinary citizens in electoral campaigns and politics. It not only allows the politicians to spread their message faster to potential voters but also allows the voters and citizens to communicate their reactions and feedbacks. Although the presence of social media is spreading and media use patterns are changing, online political engagement is largely restricted to people already active in politics and on the Internet. Other audiences are less responsive. For example, television news together with print and online newspapers is still the most important sources of political information in most areas of Pakistan.

We are only beginning to scratch the surface of developing theories linking twitter usage to political participation and actually beginning to test causal relationships. At the same time, the data being generated by users of twitter represents a completely unprecedented source of data recording how hundreds of millions of people around the globe interact with politics.

The Twitter PopulationInternet has been perhaps most outstanding innovation in the field of communication and research, today a big chunk of world population uses the internet for multi purposes, Internet World Stats (IWS) estimated that there are around 2,267,233,742 internet users in the world which is 32.7% of total world population. While a regional breakup suggest that 44.8% of total internet users are Asians. Interestingly, among World’s top 20 internet user states, China stands at number first, India at third and Pakistan at twentieth. According to the study, In December 2011 Pakistan’s total population was population approximately 180 million out of which around 30 million used internet, which count 15.5 % of total population of Pakistan. Twitter is said to have around more than 3 million users in Pakistan (more than the population of our capital city, Islamabad) and this rate is increasing rapidly. 140 characters of a Twitter post are powerful beyond its size.

Effectiveness of TwitterTwitter is effective in many ways; Firstly, it provides a platform to the people where they can write, share and express their ideas without any fear and compulsion. This can provide a true overview about the inclination of the society as a whole and people can raise political issues that they might not have touched upon before. This provides a platform for people with similar political opinions to unite for a political

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cause. This in turn gives the people a feel of social power and an active role in politics.

Secondly, it informs you well, twitter is the sea of information and one can keep itself well informed and well educated via these forums. It generates and shapes an opinion or policy, Arab spring, UK riots’ and others are the good examples of this.

Examples

2012 Election in USTwitter was a fundamental digital battleground for candidates in 2012, with primary candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney tweeting early and often throughout their respective campaigns. While President Obama’s personal Twitter has only recently become active, his campaign has maintained a consistent feed since 2007, with him frequently contributing posts personally and signing them ‘b.o.’ He used the platform extremely effectively, strengthening his already dominant hold on the younger voters across the country with 140-character chunks of ‘hope’ and ‘change.’ Many of the posts were looser in nature, with Obama even going as far as to tweet out a Spotify playlist highlighting his musical preferences (which he might not have been able to communicate if he were only using direct communication).

Pakistani PoliticiansImran Khan, Marvi Memon, Bilawal Bhutto, Shahbaz Sharif, Perviz Musharaf and others have big fan followers on twitter. This shows their interest to defend their party and engage with people via twitter. However; Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tahreek e Insaf (PTI) is using twitter and other social media more effectively and strategically than others. Diplomatic channels and Diplomats are not behind in this race; they are actively engaged with their fan followers on social media forums. Pakistan ambassador to US Sherry Rehman, former ambassador Hussain Haqqani is amongst.

ConclusionIt will not be unjust to state that twitter is playing a very efficient and productive role in the politics of our country. According to the demographics 50% of the registered voters are between the segments of eighteen to thirty-five years and coincidentally the same demographics are the active twitter users as well. This fact cannot be ignored by the politicians. Twitter is challenging the traditional political patterns and it is introducing the new political paradigms. Our political parties have to own and adopt these new practices because social networks like twitter will definitely make some differences in future elections, and those who will ignore it, may lose.

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References[1] M.A dissertation by Madaline Storck,”The Role of Social Media in Political

Mobilisation: a Case Study of the January 2011 Egyptian Uprising”[2] http://epthinktank.eu/2014/02/12/the-role-played-by-social-media-in-political-

participation-and-electoral-campaigns/, retrieved on 20th Dec 2015[3] “Social media in Pak Politics”, article by Shafiq Solangi in Pakistan Observer

(http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=158448)

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