#politics

I’m embarrassed to admit that I honestly don’t know the first thing about politics.

Nothing.

Nada.

And I bet that many of my Gen-Y peers are much the same too.

I’m of the opinion that the younger generation doesn’t value the importance of politics. Perhaps it’s too convoluted for our short attention spans to grasp.

Based on this generalisation, I’m not surprised to see political campaigns and messages shifting towards social media platforms based on a number of reasons. First, political speeches and debates are often lengthy, full of political jargon and challenging to comprehend for people with little political understanding. Summing up a campaign message in 140 characters on Twitter is a sure-fire strategy to communicate a clear, succinct message to the masses. Second, in Australia there are over 12 million Facebook users, over 2 million Twitterers, over 1 million Instagram users, and YouTube receives more than 11 million unique visits each month (Godfrey 2013). Australians are all over social media. We know how to use it, it’s easy and it’s fun. So, given learning about politics is the exact opposite – complex and boring (in my opinion) – social media seems like a much more stomach-able approach for us Gen-Yers.

It’s clear that Obama’s successful campaign for office perfected the convergence of old and new media, with the inclusion of user-generated content, social media, game-based ads and the overall use of digital media (Jenkins 2014). Jenkins questioned whether the social media presence would come to an end after the election (Jenkins 2014), but it’s pretty apparent that Obama isn’t going anywhere. He is the 4^th most followed person on Twitter after all.

Source: Brunker 2013

After the election, it seems as though social media is a great platform to keep the political conversation flowing with what Jenkins would deem as participatory culture. Social media would easily provide an open forum for the leaders of tomorrow to conduct national discussions about the main issues faced by the country (Jenkins 2014). Encouraging Gen-Yers to join the conversation, hold a political opinion and become actively involved with politics through social media platforms is imperative, as we need to know what is happening in our country, and social media makes it easier to learn.

That said… It makes me wonder where politicians will draw the line though, and to what extent the use of social media is actually appropriate. Politicians are people chasing our respect, support and trust at the end of the day, therefore a social media no-no could lead to all sorts of implications.

I wonder if Kevin Rudd’s cringe-worthy Tweet could have had anything to do with the loss of the 2013 election… 

Source: Leys 2013

References:

Brunker 2013, “Yew we can!”, Sunday World.com, 18 December 2013, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/columnists/amanda-brunker/yew-we-can>

Godfrey 2013, “Facebook checked by 9 million Australians every day”, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 2013, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-checked-by-9-million-australians-every-day-20130820-2s7wo.html>

Jenkins 2014, ‘Obama the candidate for all platforms, November 13 2008, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://henryjenkins.org/2008/11/whew_i_am_still_trying.html>

Leys 2013, “Kevin Rudd – selfie-obsessed PM misses the mark”, The Australian, 10 August 2013, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/kevin-rudd-selfie-obsessed-pm-misses-the-mark/story-e6frg996-1226694575617#>