Tuesday, April 14, 2015

#PoliSci

Well politics has been an even bigger hot topic this past week. Who will run, who will win? Having a Bachelor's in Political Science, I seem to find myself immersed in all  of the debates and platforms. Then I often have a fleeting thought...do other countries work like this? How do their campaigns for political office go? Do they participate in the same way Americans do?

Jean Burgess and Axel Bruns really got me to see that often times...nothing changes. People are who they are. Their study looked at Twitter as a microblogging platform and the election related tweets. The researchers discuss how much Twitter impacts a campaign but often times not in the ways it should. It seems that even in places like Australia, the voters seem to mirror only what they are presented. Not a lot of in-depth research is done by the common voters to see what they like and  do not like about candidates. We see that in our own country as well, Americans jumping on board with social campaigns yet never really understanding what they are fully supporting.

The roles change a bit in places like South Africa. The citizens of these areas, as discussed by Marion Walton and Pierreinne Leukes, do not have a direct and readily available connection to the campaigns being given by elected officials. So do they let that stop them, why of course not. While what gets heard and who hears it is closely monitored, mobile use to gain access to these campaigns has increased. These two articles also add to the context of how crucial it is for voters to get involved and how crucial this new emergence of social media campaigns really are.

The final article for this week discusses how blogs and political blogging effect the political discourse of a country. Stefania Vicari discusses how the new political blogging practices are effecting campaigns. Because of this new era, Blogs are bringing light to the issues facing countries and even giving a new era of campaigning a shot.

Overall the issues that face Americans are still prevalent in other countries. Social media is playing a giant role in the politics of today around the world. So as this new era pushes its way through, will we step up and do our part to join in the fight to know the facts and do the research.

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