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How did the advent of new media influence the political culture, political processes and/or
political structures of the United States?

New media has hugely influenced the political culture and processes in the United States,
especially around how people seek and receive political information, in all aspects of life,
ranging from getting involved with political elections, to simply engaging in political activities.
Throughout the years, political information has been transmitted via different channels, namely
newspapers, radio, television, and in recent years, via word of mouth, the Internet and social
media. This flow of information across channels has hugely impacted how people seek political
information and participate in political activities, both online and offline, such as voting at
elections or simply engaging in a political discussions on the Internet. This essay will analyse
some key aspects around the role of one of the newest forms of media - social media and social
networking sites - as a source of knowledge, a tool for democratisation (or not), its influence on
people’s political behaviour, especially for young people, as well as its role in the context of the
most recent presidential elections.

There is no doubt that modern citizens are embracing social media platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, etc. and making use of them in ways that work for them; the majority to
communicate with peers, buy and sell items through marketplaces, expressing themselves
through writing, or keep themselves up to date on news of all sorts, including political news to an
extent. These social media platforms were created to enable people to communicate online,
without the need to be present in person, creating a communications channel that are fast,
convenient and updated in real time. These social media channels tend to attract a younger cohort
of users, whom we’ve seen a shift in preferences in recent years compared to the older
generations, characterised by a preference for instant gratification and real time updates, being
on trend with new technologies and knowledge, or being the first to experience new products.

Since social media platforms facilitate a vast flow of information with speed, it is expected to
also be a source of political information, through which the learning of political information is
also facilitated, sped up and able to reach a wider audience, besides the people who are already
interested in politics, who would typically acquire political information through traditional news
channels. With mediums such as Facebook whose main feature allows person-to-person
communication, people use that medium primarily for social interaction rather than for other
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types of needs, such as seeking political information. However, through being active on social
media, users are exposed to political information incidentally whilst doing other things, and can

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​Ancu, M., & Cozma, R. (2009). MySpace politics: Uses and gratifications of befriending candidates.
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​ 3​(4), 567-583.
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gain political knowledge as a result (in the short term). This is called passive learning -
characterised by a low-choice media environment, which happens when the users aren’t actively
seeking for political knowledge on these platforms and just happen to come across them whilst
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engaging in other activities. Facebook in particular is an effective tool in this regard, because of
its ability to advertise directly to users on their news feed, reaching people that aren’t necessarily
actively seeking political information otherwise. Therefore, even though attention may be low at
a given time, a long series of daily exposure can accumulate so that significant knowledge is
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acquired. Besides, some people don’t know what they are potentially interested in until the
information is right in front of their eyes, which could encourage further engagement later on due
to curiosity. Furthermore, social media enables users to participate in campaigns whilst
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simultaneously enjoy the comfort of their own home. Through watching entertainment-based
programmes that contain small amount of news (either political or not), political learning occurs
incidentally as a by-product of seeking entertainment by people who otherwise aren’t inclined to
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follow the news, which all in all offer greater expected benefits for consumers. It was also found
that the more people learn incidentally about politics via soft news media, the more they are to
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participate in the future via more conventional means.

This also partly explained the rise in social media usage by political candidates as a way to reach
a larger audience than ever before, including the most disinterested individuals, because these
social networking sites have acted as a major political campaign message dissemination tool in
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general elections. There is evidence showing that social network usages are strongly related to
overall political involvement across levels, for example, involvement in local elections, or purely
political discussions in the daily life. The reason for this is that social networking sites consist of
users and their network, and these networks consist of people each with differing opinions.
Therefore if more than one users choose to share their political opinions online, their network
benefits as it makes it possible for users to access multiple aspects of political issues, by
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increasing the number of people who can provide them with political information online. These

2
​Bode, L. (2016). Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media. ​Mass
Communication and Society,​ ​19​(1), 24-48.
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​Krugman, H. E. (1965). The impact of television advertising: Learning without involvement. ​Public
opinion quarterly,​ ​29​(3), 349-356.
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​Chaffee, S. H., & Kanihan, S. F. (1997). Learning about politics from the mass media. ​Political
communication​, ​14(​ 4), 421-430.
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​Papacharissi, Z. A., & Papacharissi, Z. (2010). ​A private sphere: Democracy in a digital age​. Polity.
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​Baum, M. A. (2002). Sex, lies, and war: How soft news brings foreign policy to the inattentive public.
American Political Science Review,​ ​96​(1), 91-109.
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​Baum, M. A. (2003). Soft news and political knowledge: Evidence of absence or absence of evidence?.
Political Communication​, ​20​(2), 173-190.
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​Robertson, S. P., & Vatrapu, R. K. (2010). Digital government. ​Annual review of information science and
technology​, ​44(​ 1), 317-364.
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​Miller, J. M., & Krosnick, J. A. (2004). Threat as a motivator of political activism: A field experiment.
Political Psychology,​ ​25​(4), 507-523.
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interactions can lead users to be more active in offline political activities, such as voting and
campaigning. This is because relationship formations on social networks happen in real time,
through the ease of clicking a button or commenting on posts, enabling people to be more easily
connected to political parties and social movements using social networks.

With regards to political behaviours on social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter, there is
a slight difference between the user cohort of these two platforms. Whilst Twitter extracts an
audience that is heavily invested in news and current events, meaning the network is oriented
towards public figures or people that the user doesn’t know, Facebook user networks are the
opposite, consisting more of people that the user personally knows. Nonetheless, both networks
typically consist of people with a variety of political beliefs, creating the perfect platform that is
ripe for discussions, especially since many users view social media as places they would say
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things that they would not in person. This is partly why many users discovered through their
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friend’s posts that their political beliefs were different than they thought.

With special regards to US Presidential Elections, in particular, the 2008 Presidential Election
has seen social media being utilised by presidential candidates like never before. Nearly all
major party candidates used social media, with some beginning their use in the 2006 midterm
elections. It was evident that the one-way model of mass media was fading, instead it is being
replaced by interactive media technologies, that allow the audience to play a more active role.
Indeed, people were able to contribute to a real-time feedback loop around each individual
campaign, have an ability to shape the narrative from every candidate and knock them off their
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talking points, right there and then on social media. Referred to as the ​fifth estate​, social media
is a new form of social accountability. Traditional media formats are still relevant, but they are
no longer the only politically relevant forms of media. This is because of social media’s ability to
facilitate widespread information, regardless of whether the information is true of false, due to
the fact that there is no gatekeeper or fact checker, as with traditional media.

Two powerful examples to demonstrate the power of social media with regards to the 2008
Presidential Elections were those used by Barack Obama campaigns. It was considered the best
known example of a politician successfully using social media to mobilise electoral support,
especially his grassroot supporters. The first video was titled “​I got a crush on… Obama”​, made
by independent filmmakers unassociated with the campaigns, featuring a seductive young
woman singing about her crush on Senator Obama. The second video, titled ​“Yes We Can”, ​was

10
Duggan, M. and Smith, A. ​Political content on social media.
https://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/political-content-on-social-media/
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​Rainie, L., & Smith, A. (2012). Social networking sites and politics. ​Washington, DC: Pew Internet &
American Life Project. Retrieved June,​ ​12​, 2012.
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​Metzgar, E., & Maruggi, A. (2009). Social media and the 2008 US presidential election. ​Journal of New
Communications Research​, ​4​(1).
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edited to appear like Obama was singing with Will.i.am, which was a highlight example of
user-generated content. The two videos were watched 11.6 and 13 million times, respectively,
which is an equivalent of millions of dollars in broadcast air time, suggesting that these content
certainly had an impact on the campaign’s outcome, to an extent. The fact that the Democratic
Party did not attempt to curb the spread of these unauthorised, fan-created videos show the
differences in their approach to social media compared to the Republican Party. On the one hand,
the Democratic Party, as a more heterogeneous group, utilises social media more intensively. On
the other hand, the Republican Party, being a more top-down hierarchical group, chooses not to
delegate the responsibility of message generation and broadcast to people outside of the party
structure. These two examples in Obama’s campaign also work to highlight Obama’s strategy in
positioning him as a down-to-earth person, a politician who does not mind a bit of fun
sometimes, creating an invisible human connection with his supporters. With regards to
encouraging user-generated content, past debate sponsored by Youtube and/or CNN has taken
questions from user-generated videos, as opposed to a moderator. This simple change encourages
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emergent phenomenon of user-generated political video expressions.

Another equally popular social media platform that was utilised intensively during campaigns
was Twitter, which no doubt was President Donald Trump’s best friend during and after he won
the Presidential elections in 2016. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter has an
‘asymmetric model’ of human relationships that enables more conducive to political interactions
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than symmetrical, privacy-focused social networks like Facebook. With Twitter, user tweets are
visible to both subscribers and non-subscribers alike, unlike Facebook where two users can only
see each other’s posts if they both agree to exchange information. This makes Twitter more
effective as a digital, social-political medium than the youth- and privacy-oriented Facebook.
Besides using Twitter to communicate with voters and supporters, interestingly, it was found that
Congress members consider Twitter as a vehicle for self-promotion, to share information and
links to news articles about themselves, as well as report on their daily activities. Perhaps, this is
an effort to humanise themselves, as well as keeping the audience up to date with activities that
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show they are suitable to be elected.

In general, social media is particularly useful in facilitating the distribution of campaign

messages, through offering a mechanism for ongoing engagement by those who were moved by
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​Kushin, M. J., & Yamamoto, M. (2013). Did social media really matter? College students’ use of online
media and political decision making in the 2008 election. In ​New Media, Campaigning and the 2008
Facebook Election​ (pp. 63-86). Routledge.
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​Hong, S., & Nadler, D. (2011, June). Does the early bird move the polls?: The use of the social media
tool 'Twitter' by US politicians and its impact on public opinion. In ​Proceedings of the 12th Annual
International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging
Times​ (pp. 182-186). ACM.
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​Golbeck, J., Grimes, J. M., & Rogers, A. (2010). Twitter use by the US Congress. ​Journal of the
American Society for Information Science and Technology​, ​61(​ 8), 1612-1621.
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the campaign messages. This is not to say that the information spread by social media is any
different from the one on traditional media. In fact, it is the same, however, social media merely
acts as an aggregator of information that is mined from traditional media. However, via social
media, the nature of shared stories means the news cycles are shortened, leading to more
roller-coaster like reactions from voters compared to traditional media followers. This is all made
possible by the Internet, which was considered a democratising medium, as it increases access
for citizens, allowing citizens to voice and exchange opinions, in the process, bringing them into
political processes. However, there are two sides to everything. As mentioned above, in the case
of Facebook, users’ networks mainly consists of people that the user knows and potentially share
the same opinions and beliefs. Therefore, the Internet can also be a polarising medium that
allows like-minded individuals to re-enforce their existing beliefs, rather than being open to
consider differing opinions. In fact, when users encounter political content that they disagree
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with on social media, they tend to ignore it rather than engage.

Furthermore, with the rising popularity of social channels as a source of news, this means a shift
away from mainstream media and ‘professional gatekeepers’ who make editorial decisions on
news articles. People have increasingly been relying on diverse sources of news whose voices
appeal to individual citizen’s unique interests. Coupled with the nature of Facebook as a news
source, which prioritises posts from friends and direct connections, people often get more of
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what they want or like, rather than what they need or should see. As mentioned above, many
people would block or filter out voices or (political) ideas they don’t want to encounter (66% of
people would ignore political posts from friends that they disagree with, or would unfriend them)
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. As technology has made filtering out negative opinions of others so easy, people probably
engage in democracy less than before, albeit spending more time with technology and have
better access to information than ever before.

On the other hand, specifically with younger generations of voters, Internet use is positively
associated with political outcomes, including political involvement and participation, particularly
thanks to the involvement of celebrities. A concern was that the younger generations of voters
have been increasingly cynical towards political issues and participation, are either apathetic or
complacent, or both. Since a healthy democracy is dependent on continued involvement of new
participants, much effort has been put into engaging this difficult age group of citizens.
Interestingly, it was found that when political campaigns were associated with celebrities that

16
Duggan, M. and Smith, A. ​Political content on social media.
https://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/political-content-on-social-media/
17
​Kent, M. L. (2013). Using social media dialogically: Public relations role in reviving democracy. ​Public
relations review​, ​39(​ 4), 337-345.
18
​Rainie, L., & Smith, A. (2012). Social networking sites and politics. ​Washington, DC: Pew Internet &
American Life Project. Retrieved June,​ ​12​, 2012.
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appeal to youth were able to motivate more engagement in civic affairs. This was because the
media figures were drawing attention to a set of societal concerns and portraying them as
personally relevant to the viewers, increasing their personal interest in those concerns.

This suggests campaigns would do better by tapping into the psychology of different groups of
voters. In this case, it is the need to think of these individuals within the venues they consider
their own and where they are comfortable with; specifically for younger voters, it is the social
associations, that could help build trust that leads to civic engagement. Therefore, outreach
strategies that tap into those connections, whether through real life relationships, or aspiring
reference groups, would seem to be successful - which is evident through the case of using
celebrity endorsements on social media. It worked because once the individual associate
themselves with the characteristics portrayed by the celebrity and form a connection with the
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celebrity, they will perform the behaviours that are advocated by the celebrity.

Two examples that utilised celebrity endorsement include ​Declare Yourself, which was a
non-profit campaign starting in 2004, to rally young American through music tours of college
campuses, where Christina Aguilera joined fans and young potential voters and launched the
Declare Yourself Yahoo! online voter registration drive. The second example was Sean Combs
founding Citizen Change to ‘make voting hot, sexy and relevant to a generation that hasn’t
reached full participation in the political process’. Even though the celebrities might not
completely grasp the issues they are promoting for, having their presence is already beneficial in
driving information seeking behaviour, which hopefully helps young voter develop the skills and
knowledge needed for long-term participation.

Another channel of new media that has arisen in popularity in recent years is blogs, which has
also influenced political behaviour to a large extent. Most blogs are individual, online interactive
journals, that can have many functions and content, depending on the person that owns the blog,
from sports commentaries, to daily diaries, etc, that do not abide to any rules or is subject to any
third party reviews or edits. This characteristic enable blogs to be a powerful channel in which a
citizen’s voice is expressed. The fact that content on blogs is not restricted, this gives everyone
the opportunity to participate and express their opinions without intellectual or political
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restrictions. Compared to traditional media such as broadcasting and print, blogs allow for

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​Austin, E. W., Vord, R. V. D., Pinkleton, B. E., & Epstein, E. (2008). Celebrity endorsements and their
potential to motivate young voters. ​Mass communication and society,​ ​11​(4), 420-436.
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​McDevitt, M., & Chaffee, S. H. (1998). Second chance political socialization:“Trickle-up” effects of
children on parents. ​Engaging the public: How government and the media can reinvigorate American
democracy,​ 57-66.
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​Gil de Zúñiga, H., Puig-i-Abril, E., & Rojas, H. (2009). Weblogs, traditional sources online and political
participation: An assessment of how the Internet is changing the political environment. ​New media &
society​, ​11(​ 4), 553-574.
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two-way communication, just like social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Coupled with the ease of setting up a blog, blogs have outpaced online news outlets and
broadcast media, in building a community, virtually, of like-minded individuals. With regards to
political campaigns, blogs have been used by politicians to communicate with citizens, with an
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emphasis on young voters.

A notable example of blogs being used by politicians is Blog for America, by Governor Howard
Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004, to coordinate campaign activities. As his blog subscribers
grew, the number of his campaign supporters also grew proportionally. Through the blog, Dean
was able to establish himself as a voice for disaffected Democrats. Blog for America was
structured to be highly interactive, to facilitate feedback and participation amongst its members,
and was able to build high engagement amongst its readers and supporters, who gathered as a
community, holding the most creative events. One of which was called ​“Dean Visibility Days”​,
where supporters would plan and blog about innovative ways to get the most press for the
campaign, by showing up en mass in Dean posters and t-shirts at events such as ball games and
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state fairs. All in all, this example shows the power of blogs to be able to mobilise supporters
and as an effective channel through which important campaign messages are disseminated.

In conclusion, the advent of new media, especially social media and social networking sites,
have hugely influenced the way Americans think about and engage in politics, as well as
attitudes towards political events and differing political opinions. Social media platforms have
opened doors to enable a more inclusive process, in which more people are engaging in political
activities after engaging in political discussions or be exposed to political information online.
Politicians now have a better means to reach a bigger audience, especially including young
voters or citizens that are often disinterested in politics, through micro-targeting based on the
user’s demographic and likely political preferences, or engaging celebrity endorsement to
establish a sense of connection. The outlook is bright with the involvement of social media
platforms in reshaping American political process and cultures in the future.

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​Sweetser Trammell, K. D. (2007). Candidate campaign blogs: Directly reaching out to the youth vote.
American Behavioral Scientist,​ ​50(​ 9), 1255-1263.
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​Kerbel, M. R., & Bloom, J. D. (2005). Blog for America and civic involvement. ​Harvard International
Journal of Press/Politics​, ​10​(4), 3-27.