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?
Yes, indeed the new media plays a very big part in the politics, quite recent case was that obama uses facebook to gain his place as a president. not only that, because facebook consists of lots of youths and it's easy to get votes from them.
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, using new media is a wonderful way of garnering votes in politics. However, it could also be a good way to show people of the world that change is coming about and that all human are treated equally:
I understand that there has been an inequality issue about the blacks and the whites in America. Having Mr Barack Obama on the internet, using the new media to gather support, brings hope to many of the blacks in America. Regardless of your skin colour, you are still an American;you have your equal rights to be using the new media, the internet, to earn the things you want;you can work towards being an American President.
I am looking forward to Singapore's next general elections. Perhaps they'd be using quite a bit of new media to garner votes too. But personally, i'd prefer that they come up to me personally to obtain my vote. I'm quite sure by the next general elections, all of us in SIWM would be of the right age to cast our votes. So i'm quite keen to find out how the candidates will appeal to us. Frankly speaking i'd be pleasantly surprised if the ministers creates friendster or facebook accounts.
I've really learnt quite alot from your site about using new media in politics. Great information there. :)
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ReplyDeleteI feel that to garner the support of the citizen, a leader must think out of the box in promoting himself. Mr Obama did just that. The traditional method of having rallies, giving out flyers and hanging up posters do gain the votes of people, the older generation to be specific. But for the younger generation, I feel that we would like something new and fresh. Mr Obama for example has posters of himself in popular games such as Need for Speed. This is definitely much more appealing to the younger generation.
ReplyDeleteWould I vote for a future Singapore leader if he makes use of new media such to garner his votes? The answer is an absolute yes. To me, if a leader makes use of new media to promote himself, he is young at heart.
Wei Xi
Using new media, politicians in Singapore definitely can garner more supporters, because nowadays more and more people started using social networking sites like friendster and facebook. In these sites, people can understand more on the politicians kind of views, their age, interest and you could also post your question to them.
ReplyDeleteJieshun
I agree that Mr Obama made good use of the new media to garner more support. I am sure that if a politician in Singapore is to use new media such as facebook or friendster, he or she would surely gain the votes of the younger people. This is because the number of youths that are active at these sites are huge.
ReplyDeleteIf a politician was to add me in Facebook or Friendster, or even just appear on these sites asking for support, I would definitely vote for them. It just tells me that he is thoughtful and that he knows what we, the youths, wants and likes. Who wouldn't want a leader who knows the needs of youths?.
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ReplyDeleteI think it's a clever strategy by Mr Obama. But I agree with #17, it still boils down to the candidate's abilities.
ReplyDeleteIf the candidate is not up to par or may be worse then others, then there is no point in voting for that person even though he or she may be using the new media to garner votes.
Nowadays, people like to make use new media to help them to promote themselves to the public. Different people use it in different ways. In this case for politicians, they use it to tell people how well they can do for their residents and encourage them to vote for them. Not only that, there will have comments on it from the people. This will be a reference for the viewer before making the decision.
ReplyDeleteI agree with #17 and Ling's comments that in order to garner one's vote, it is completely up to the politician's stand and views and abilities.
ReplyDeleteA smart and sharp politician may utilise all the best way to promote himself to the public, but a smart citizen should know how to choose the best candidate and not just vote for the politician because he/she has reached out to the youngsters through the new media.
In the case of the American Elections, although both John McCain and Barack Obama has accounts on social networking sites and other sites, Obama won American's vote as the next president because his message of change appeals to a larger group of people.
It is therefore important to keep in mind that as knowledgeable citizens, one should not base one's vote on the more "hip", "cool", "young at heart" candidates. One should base one's vote on who is best to lead one's country.
As said by #17, getting votes from voters is completely up to the method used. Although I must admit new media is one important way to get votes, they must not neglect the traditional method. Through new media, politicians may appeal to the young crowd, but will not be able to capture the hearts of the old ones.
ReplyDeletei agree with unwilling person, we cannot rule out the traditional method as the old generation votes are equally important as the new grneration ones.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, young voters hardly read newspapers and watch the news and they won't know much about the politics that happening in or out of their country. So I think that new media can easily spread the words to these young voters on who is the best to lead the country.
ReplyDeleteYou mention the US examples - what about locally? What could/should be done?
ReplyDeleteYups i totally agree that the new media have proof to be a better option to reach out to the people in this era. And i feel strongly that Singapore should be using the new media too. But then again, how about the older generations? Will they be able to keep up?
ReplyDelete-Brandon
Good information on the topic.
ReplyDeleteThe more savvy these politicians are, the more interactive the nation can be. This feels even more closer to 'home'. It's an additional features to spice up e political 'scene'.
I agree that votes can be gain through new media. But it is only one aspect that Obama won the election.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how even politicians are bringing such serious affairs like voting for presidency onto the new media where almost everything is hardly ever privatised. However, it has definitely brought political affairs to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteMore people are aware of the various candidates running for presidency and nevertheless, one of the primary intention to bring such an issue up into new media is of course to garner more support and gain recognition and also to have a personal say .
Very interesting topic !
I’ve already commented but didn’t include my name. So I’ll post it again.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if Singaporean politicians were to utilise the new media to promote themselves as they would definitely benefit immensely from it.
Those methods may win my vote but it still boils down to the candidate's abilities and not just because he/she can use the new media.
A good way to reach out to young voters? Internet. Because forums, youtube, social networking sites etc are all part of the internet and it has been a part of their lives since young.
Ze Chuan
I am strongly agree with you, nowadays, new media has become the most popular way to seperate information. Once the information is put on the internet everyone in the world can view it. I believe more and more politicians will use new media to get more support
ReplyDeletenewmediascapes, in my opinion, locally, politicians can tap into the new media as an extra form of reaching out to voters. But compared to USA, locals here are not as computer literate as the US citizens. Many from the older generation do not use the Internet as a tool of communication. Therefore, local politicians can put some effort in promoting themselves through the new media, but the focus should not be put too much here.
ReplyDeleteBrandon, I think the older generation prefers traditional ways of politicking, but times are changing. Althought it may take time, the older generation will eventually come to terms with the new way of politicking. I do not think that everyone will agree with this new way, but by the looks of it, new media politics is gaining popularity. Then again, it will take time to reach mainstream popularity. And again, times are changing :)