Politicians have chosen the new media as their new outlet of spreading their propaganda because messages could be spread towards a large audience. More importantly, politicians can garner more support from the younger generation who utilise the new media completely, from blogging to social networking, to podcasting.
Engaging in the new media has spelled success for politicians. Taking the example from the recently concluded American election where Barack Obama has been voted as the next President of the United States of America, the new media has proven to be a resourceful outlet in garnering support from voters.
Obama's success has been credited to having tapped into the new media such as famous social networking sites, with millions of users, many of whom are youths and young adults, and podcasting. Obama’s team has set up pages on Facebook, youtube, Myspace and Twitter so that they can reach out to more potential voters.
The new media is a better choice in spreading messages because politicians and political parties are able to send their messages to the masses directly, bypassing the old media. The new media is also credited to having a more personal approach to the politicians themselves. Blogs, podcasts and vodcast by the politicians for example, gives the general public the chance to listen to the politicians’ point of view directly. Politicians are also able to connect to the public on a personal level as seen in Obama’s case. He has mentioned on his Facebook profile his favourite musicians such as Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Dylan and his hobbies are playing basketball, writing and loafing with his chidren.
Obama on FacebookSource: http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2008/11/19/barack-obama-and-the-facebook-election/photos/
Obama on FriendsterA sharp politician must know the best way to garner support and reach out to people and by the looks of it, new media is the way to go. It must be cautioned here that while new media has proven itself to be an effective outlet for spreading news and information, it has to work along with the old media in order for political parties to reach a wider base of voters.
Times have changed and so must the politicians. They need to be aware of global trends of communicating instead of just sticking to tried and tested old methods of politicking. In this era of information technology, they need to reach out to the voters and engage them on a more personal level so that people can connect to them personally, instead of just standing infront of a microphone and talk. Politicians also shouldn’t neglect the young voters who could be the swing vote they need to win.
The question now is can politicians in Singapore benefit from the new media? Can the same methods of using social networking sites and vodcasting garner the same success that Obama has achieved for Singaporean politicians? Being the youth of Singapore yourself, do you think these methods would win your vote? In your opinion, what would be a good way in order for politicians to reach out to young voters?
