earticle

영어

The social media is seemingly becoming a big influence in the politics and a core strategy for political campaigns. Social media has become a coordinating tool for almost all of the political movements globally. The prospective of social media is mainly in their support of civil society and the public sphere. Social networking sites have gradually become integral part of people’s everyday life. Internet, through the use of the social media platforms, is now being used to convey messages to a diverse audience more directly. Also, the Internet provides a major technological stimulus to the modernisation and professionalisation of political campaigns. This paper, based on document analysis and insights of data published on the social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, gives a brief discussion on the advent of the social media networks and the politics. Examples of the events where the social media have influenced certain activities or actions in the political landscape across the globe are also briefly cited and discussed in this paper. Some of the events highlighted in this paper which have been influenced by the social media turned out to yield positive outcomes whilst some outcomes are not positive. This paper is concluded with a view that the social media continues to have an influence in the political landscape. Thus, reactions, feedback, conversations and debates are generated online as well as support and participation for offline events. Messages posted to personal networks are multiplied when shared, which allow new audiences to be reached through the social media. However, this obviously does not mean that every political movement that uses these tools will succeed, because some state(s) have not lost the powers to react through banning them or censoring them.