Impacts of Social Media on Politics

Baker (2009) also notes that there are times in which social media becomes very relevant about political information and the government. The Internet in which different social media forums are based is a very important tool not only for passing political knowledge to American citizens but also for enhancing the engagement of the citizens in the process of commanding political resources with the aim of ensuring that they are effectively used to enhance self-governance. Social media is currently viewed as one of the most important tools through which citizens directly engage themselves in political processes that take place at different times in the United States. Among the sites that have been effective in facilitating enhanced engagement of American citizens in various political processes are Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace (Baker, 2009).

According to Loader & Mercea (2011), one of the most important traits of social media that enhance its impact on politics is its collaborative and open trait. One of the social media sites that have made a direct impact on modern politics is Twitter that is characterized by many engagements among politicians, citizens, journalist, and political strategists. It is through this social media site that many political issues are negotiated by different personalities (Ausserhofer & Maireder, 2013). The interactions between these four categories of people directly impact the way in which current political matters are understood and the strategies that are taken by the politicians, political strategists, and the journalists in improving the state of politics in the Nation. Ausserhofer & Maireder (2013) use an example of mass media discussions that are held on the media through Twitter and about the existing state of the national politics or any emerging political issues.

Mass media forums such as television stations mostly post various political issues on Twitter for discussion and collection of views about certain political aspects. After winning the 2008 United States Elections, Barrack Obama was inaugurated as the new U. S president. In his first speech, he spoke about that powerful role that youth mobilization played in winning his presidential election. Among the sites that were used for mobilizing millions of youths to voting for Obama were Facebook and Twitter. A powerful social movement and the internet were a major factor in his victory. The social media, in this case, created a global opposition movement that was against the leader (Enli, 2017). Based on the research question of what kind of tweets have created the most engagement for Donald Trump during his first year of presidency (1/20/17-1/20/18) including those on personal attacks, attacks on the media, attacks on foreign officials, and others, it is much evident from the review above that the kind of messages shared on social media and the social media itself has a great impact on the politics of United States.