I read an article that talks about how social media is important, but can be a bad thing. The things we have gained from media are that it has created a world where people can easily find information about what it going on and that people can research complicated ideas. However, politicians are now making decisions based on what they think the public wants to hear. The article says, "politicians aren't voting their conscience, they're voting to placate blog commenters, and that's no way to run government." Also, when people are putting things in the media, they are sometimes twisting the words of the politicians. The example I gave in class was that if a politician says a program should not get fundimg anymore, it can be twisted slightly to say that the politician is trying to eliminate that program. The article says that everyone involved in the political process should make sure media is being used for the benefit.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/opinion/donehue-social-media-politics/index.html
My probing question: Do you think there is a way to make sure that media is being used effectively? If yes, what do you think can be done? If no, why do you think this and also do you think there may be something in the future that can be done?
I think that the media should be able to be used effectively during a political campaign. I think that politicians can use the media to their advantage by clearly stating what they are saying. If they make it clear exactly what they are going to say, then their words can't be twisted, or people can look back and see exactly what they said. I also think that politicians should use social media as a way to get their ideas out, not to see what people think of them. If they just said their ideas and didn't pay attention to the comments, then they would be able to stick to their campaign. If they put what they believe in in writing, then nobody can change what they said.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayla when she said that politicians should make it very clear what their intentions are, and that way they cannot be misinterpreted. I think that social media is one of the most effective ways to communicated ideas, especially if you are a politician and because so many people are involved with it, they can all see your ideas. I think that people should not believe everything they here in the media regarding politicians, since most sources are biased in some way. If a media source is more liberal, they may describe a conservative candidate's actions differently that a conservative source would. I do not think it is likely that social media will stop being biased, but I think people can get their information from the politician directly, that way the politician's words and ideas cannot be misunderstood. As for what can be done about politicians simply saying what the people watching TV or on the internet want to hear, I think that this is an inevitability and that it would be very hard to find the "real truth". You may be able to look at this politician's untwisted words, but their is no way to tell if these words are their real ideas for the future or just what the public wants to hear. Overall, I think that all politicians should use social media to inform people of their ideas and intentions, even if some bad ones do not plan on acting on their ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayla and David. Politician's during their campaigns and public statements need to word their opinions in a way that leaves no room for any misgivings about their meaning and intention. Bloggers on the internet constantly take items from the political news and discuss them publicly, and more often then not, they don't fully understand the issue at hand. This can be dangerous, not only to a politician's career, but to our country. If the masses are being misinformed about candidate's true intentions, they could potentially not make the wisest choice when it's time to elect our leaders. Politicians need to stop "telling us what we want to hear". They do this by reading these opinion articles, Twitter, and other social networking sites to see what people think of their ideas, and then warp them to make them fit our ideals. Like David said, social media will never stop being biased, but politicians and the masses need to stop relying on it to get the straight facts about potential political candidates.
ReplyDeleteI think that the only way for social media politics to be effective is if both sides of the campaign are involved and, if possible, both sides not lying about what they are trying to do. Another option would be to have just a third party source informing the masses with simple terms for everyone to understand about what each president is trying/planning to do. In the future, social media could even be used to have more of the public's involvement in what the government is doing. As long as there was reliable information telling the people straight facts, there would be an informed vote that would be a lot more reliable than the system that we have now.
ReplyDeleteIf politicians speak honestly, and are very careful with their statements, then media can be a very effective way for them to reach many voters. If they aren't careful though, like Laura said, their words can be twisted to mean something worse. If they say a program shouldn't get any more funding, they need to explain why. "It's too expensive" or "this program does the same thing for cheaper" might save them a lot of trouble.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayla and my classmate that media could be used very effectively for a politician during a political campaign. Politicians could use media during their campaign to get their ideas and where they stand, online for advertisement. Politicians could definitely gain more votes through the advertising via media. During interviews and public speaking, if Politicians speak clearly, online will be their words and their words only. Interviews wouldn’t twist their words and it would be easier for people to become educator on who they do or do not want to vote for. Media is really bad in the sense that Politicians have to be on the constant look out to see what the public are saying and commenting about their campaign on line and through media. If politicians were to just solely use media to get their information and side of the campaign out there, no one would be able to twist and change their words and it would get around to the people just as fast with today’s technology.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the government needs to make sure that the politicians use their twitters and Facebook to spread what they believe and think and not propaganda about issues going on or spam about the other candidates.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of my classmates that have posted so far. Social media sites are very powerful tools that politicians can use to their advantage. With the number of users of popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter growing everyday, there doesn't seem to be a better way to reach the masses. Although reaching hundreds of thousand, if not millions of people, sounds great in theory, but clearly the article Laura presented said otherwise. The words of the politicians can be twisted and warped to a point where the initial message differs greatly from the one received. This is a problem that obviously needs to be fixed. One way that I think this problem can be laid to rest would be by having the politician 'okay' all information that went on on his or her behalf. This would hopefully prevent any misleading and\or false information. I think that this would be the best and most direct way to filter out any information that the politician does not want to be sent out.
ReplyDeleteI am going to disagree with all of my classmates. To avoid all of the bias that Kayla and David spoke of, the media and social networking systems should not have a place in politics. Though it is an easy way to access information as Laura stated during her current event, I think that everything that comes along with it such as the misleading statements completely takes away from the politics. False and misleading information is so easily distributed on the internet that I do not think it is fair to the politicians or the common people to base their political views based on this information. I agree with Nate's statement that politicians should be able to "okay" everything being said to avoid this misleading information because I know that it is completely unrealistic for media to stop because it is such a fast-growing entity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the people above. I believe that social media should be used. It is a very effective way to get points across in today's society, everyone uses social media. There is no difference between a commercial and a web post. Although it might hurt some candidates like Andrea said above, It could have false or misleading statements. Stuff like this should be closely monitored to keep the negative comments from doing any harm.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayla that politicians should just make their message clear. They shouldn't try to give anything that people might perceive as a subtle message. Just say it as straight-forward as possible so everyone will know exactly where they stand. And if people truly agree with them, then they will vote for them. That's the most honest way these politicians can use the media effectively. But as we all know, politicians are not the most honest people. So they probably like appeasing potential voters by saying whatever makes them happy. People can't depend on what politicians say on social media sites, and should just stick to the legit political sites for experts' takes on them. These politicians can be some sneaky people sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI think I agree with Andrea. Media and social networking should not have any part in politics due to the fact that opinions can be biased and statements can be twisted into words that are completely not true. The way I look at it is that media can be used for good in spreading politicians true ideas, but it also can be bad by changing politicians ideas and almost becoming a competition with which politician can get the most publicity. I think that if media is used appropriately it can be effective, but if not, it can be used as a tool that is not permitting the correct views politicians try to portray.
ReplyDeleteI think that politics should stay away from media & social networking, anything politics say can be misinterpreted and can lead to an issue. The media can be a good thing, but like Crystal said words can be twisted, and it can turn into a competition. Unless, politics use media & social networking to spread positive and good ideas without misinterpreting then it could work out, but if its leading to problems, then probably not.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not think that there is a way to regulate social media. People have the freedom of speech and expression, and that will not change. An amendment changing that would be one that would definitely be skewed and twisted by all kinds of people everywhere. On the other hand, I think there is a solution to this problem. I think that the American Public should decide to: a) not use social media outlets as a source of information and b) look down on people who put things on social media outlets that are attacks against others. Since these politicians are using these outlets as an advantage, if it ceased to be an advantage, they would not use them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrea that social media not have any part in politics. Like Crystal stated how words can be twisted and used in the wrong way very easily. Media is a good way to spreed the ideas of polititions if the information is passed correctly, everyone knows for the children's game "telephone" that this does not always happen. As information passes from person to person it begins to stray further away from the truth. The media can be used to pass information but it has to be used effectively and carefully so ideas are not misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that the government can control the media. The media is there and will not be going away anytime soon. The problem with people changing the words of what politicians say is that unless people do further research on the topic they may not fully understand what the persons actual point my be. But as a first amendment we have the freedom of speech and to voice your opinion, and this cares over into the media. So this can not be stopped it is just up to American citizens to be knowledgeable and took look at the facts from reliable sources and to not believe everything heard and seen on the media as many things out there are very untrue.
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