Real-Time Impact of Social Media: Is Twitter Good for Democracy?
By emeadows
October 8, 2012
October 8, 2012
- According to numbers from Twitter, the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was the most tweeted about political event in U.S. history. Twitter logged 10.3 million tweets about the debate with more than 250,000 mentioning Big Bird (in response to Romney’s PBS comments).
- Although Twitter has only been around since 2006, “in that short time Twitter and other social media platforms have fundamentally changed the political landscape,” writes BBC News.
- “Anytime you get more people engaged and fired up about politics and the vote they have a right to make, that’s a great thing,” says Clay Schossow, co-founder of New Media Campaigns, a Web design & development firm in North Carolina.
- “People are telling [journalists] what stories they want to see,” Schossow adds, noting that trending Twitter themes impact the next day’s news.
- But being so engaged in Twitter during a debate or other event could cause some to miss out on key moments, notes Patrick Ruffini, president of Engage, LLC, a Washington, DC political media firm. “I find myself missing big lines,” he points out. “I’m engrossed in Twitter and engrossed in my own personal consumption of the debate itself as opposed to what’s said on screen.”
- Some analysts are concerned that the real-time nature of social media will have a negative, perhaps reactionary impact on news coverage and shaping the post-debate narrative. Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, turns off Twitter during the debate and recommends that journalists do the same.
- “More and more people are turning to Twitter to discuss their political views, and don’t show any indication of turning back,” suggests BBC News. “Twitter users — and the American electorate — will learn to adapt accordingly.”
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