Social Media and Political Discourse

The use of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter has become prevalent among politicians and revolutionaries, according to Bauman (52). Most of the United States politicians use one or more of these social media tools to initiate political discourse. For example, in 2008, President Obama launched MyBarackObama.com, a personal social network, to help him stay active and politically successful on the local political front (Howard 11). His political counterpart Howard Dean had launched his meetup.

com before him. McCain also found his McCainSpace for similar purposes (Kushin 3). According to Smith (1), “social media has become a regular part of voters’ political environment in the 2010 midyear elections”. Politicians who use social media and especially social networking tools in the Western World are more in touch with the public than those who have decided to take a back seat and concentrate on the old way of dealing with politics. Players in the political field use social media to sell their ideas and get their views about those ideas.

Using social media to engage with constituents is a cheap and convenient option for many politicians who would not want to lose their grip on their supporters.

&nbsp.Smith (par 3) states that “The social networking population as a whole has grown larger and demographically more diverse in recent years, and the same is true when it comes to political activity on social networking sites.” During the last four years or so, American citizens have aired their opinions about what congress should pass in terms of legislation.

For instance, before the healthcare and economic stimulus plan bills were enacted, millions of people used social media to discuss how the two bills would affect them. many people, both critics, and proposers were given a chance to talk about why they disagreed or agreed with the contents of the two bills. The American citizens’ views on these critical issues that affected their lives did not go unnoticed by politicians and policymakers who used the arguments presented by the masses to either support or shoot down the bills.