Social media has almost always been a driving force behind political campaigning, but for a long period of time the extent of social media stopped at the newspaper. Nowadays with technological developments such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube just to name a few- politicians have the capability of blasting their messages on a multitude of different platforms. Not only do they have the ability of widespread media exposure, but more importantly rapid and instantaneous exposure.
As most of us may recall, the election of 2008 was cause for mass analysis of the impact that the social media aspect of the Obama campaign had on the publics perspective of candidates. It is clear that within the society we live in today, social networking is an integral part of our day to day activities.
Political Campaign messages like this one from Ron Paul that attempts to slam the Newt Gingrich campaign reputation- takes advantage of information regarding the high rates of usage for sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Ron Paul is not the only 2012 presidential hopeful using social media exposure extensively throughout their campaigns. Not only are candidates posting videos to their YouTube channels, but they are active participants on Facebook and Twitter as well as their own website management.
The following video made public on YouTube expresses in a very powerful manner, the impact of social media and the transformation of communication.
With political campaign messages coming at us from every direction, remember the internet isn't a fad- it is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate, and as they should-presidential candidates are utilizing these new media tools for exposure. As a consumer it is your job to not only receive their message, but decode it and understand it the best you can. Not all messages will reach you the exact way that is intended by he/she who produced it, but that is part of this new game of social media exposure.
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