The Use of Digital and Social Media in Politics

Therefore, they can express their political suggestions in these platforms. Nowadays, many people get to know what is happening in politics through social media platforms. The social media is the fastest means of communication in the world today. A person can change the view of people on a particular topic of politics using social media. It is incredible how ideas are rapidly communicated through the social media and able to raise emotions from people. But this changed when the use of social media was introduced in the country. When social media was introduced in the country people were able to air their views more openly. The introduction of social media led to an uprising that forced the dictatorship government to resign ( Tufekci & Wilson 2012).

Using social media bloggers were able to communicate with each other and also to the people. The discussions on the social media platform also motivated people to engage in face to face discussion that helped in reaching out to more people. All was not in vain as Tahrir protest leads to resigning of President Mubarak. Another way in which social media was used in politics is during the 2012 Obama campaigns (Scherer 2012). At that time when Obama knew that for him to win the elections, he had to incorporate the youths in his campaigns. His campaign team came up with a Facebook application that targets the youth. His supporters were advised to get the application on their phones to reach out to their friends who had not registered as voters.

Each party opens social media pages where they get to display their agendas and ask for donations. A case in the example of how social media has influenced politics is how Donald Trump uses the social media to get into the presidency. The current president of America knew that by using the social media, he could reach out to the youths who are the primary uses of the platform (Serplogic 2017). The President would regularly post his opinions on Facebook and Twitter, and by doing so, was able to convince more people to vote for him. He has continuously displayed his views on the social media some of which are accepted and other critiqued ( Serplogic 2017). On other occasions, the opposition used the social media to call on its supporters during rallies, and this enables them to acquire more followers during the rallies.

The Kenyan government has also used the social media to advocate for peace and unity. During the elections, the government used the social media to influence them to vote come to the D-day (Standard Digital 2017). Moreover, many are the time the government has used the social media to affect politics. Social media is an efficient way to communicate to the people unlike the traditional methods such as newspapers, radios which are less active in the era of technology. Moreover, the social media can be used to impact polls by this running mates can see his/her chances of winning. The surveys are mostly carried on Facebook where people get to participate in the surveys although many say the polls are not accurate they can be used to predict the outcome of the election (Sysomos 2017).