CHAPTER 6.

Election in the Internet Age

 Explain the significance of social media and the internet for as a political platform;
 Discuss how social media and technology was utilized by significant figures in modern
day politics;

 Distinguish and differentiate the electoral campaigns of the internet Age from the
previous years
 Explain how and social media changed politics

With the continuous growth of social media presence around the world, the Philippines, dubbed
as the "Social Networking Capital of the World" (Liao, 2008) has been using the Internet for
various purposes ranging from entertainment, source of information, collaborations and other
conventional purposes. The introduction of the Information Age, or Digital Age superficially
empowered the people of various background in voicing out their thoughts, opinions as well as
the online partisans of different sectors and beliefs spreading their information through the way
the people want to today - efficient and convenient. The thought of data and credibility being
the key commodity of everything in this digital age throughout the plethora of social networking
sites, it was only a matter of time when people realize the power tool that is social media -
more specifically as a political platform by different government officials, political figures and
socialites.

Lesson 1. Social Media as a Political Platform

Social media today is thought of as an "Online World for Young People and Political News,"
(Nieman Reports, 2008) as it offers the plethora of enjoyment, satisfaction and as a source of
information that is very evident for the growth of one's personal and professional interest. As
prominent as it is, social media are inclined towards younger audience specifically those
considered to be a part Millennials and Gen Z generation. It has offered them a wide online
virtual space for them to interact, trade opinions with each other and have their voices be heard
no matter their social status, profession and life background. In the spark of this, social media
platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have slowly gained credibility as it slowly takes the
form of an online newspaper - a newspaper not taking the form of a daily print of morning
paper that one reads as they drink their coffee nor the evening news that highlights the events
of the whole day. Today, through these social media platforms it is finally available when and
where we want it to be and so it was only a matter of time before any form of politics enters
the scene.

Fast and Real Time

The political aspect has drastically changed in the last couple of decades with the Internet and
Social Media playing such a large role in this change. It is now considered a vital role in political
campaigns and movements as well as the way it can affect the views of the people - and with
the influences of their votes. These days, candidates and their supporters constantly "flood"
different social networking sites such as the giants Facebook and Twitter in the form of their
own respective pages, twitter accounts and advertisements which would broadcast their
propagandas. Not only does it gain traction for its users, but also the sympathy and emotions of
the people being their key of garnering their votes (Caleb, 2018).

Shares and Retweets

Another great factor is concerned regarding the real time capability and updates of news
virtually anytime and anywhere, one way that social media turned into this powerful tool is its
undefeated speed in sharing news, poll surveys and even propagandas and rumors. As much as
we'd like to deny it, while we are capable of going to an online website to read news, people of
any age these days prefer to spend their time on Facebook and Twitter rather than any serious
toned websites like CNN and New York Times. This means that we often get all the trending
facts and stories through our online friends that appear in our feed.

At your Fingertips
One of the most vital parts of social media is its capability of having direct interaction with
politicians. In previous years during election periods, the only time that people would be able to
interact with their hopeful candidates are through meeting de avance or MDAs or if the political
or candidate decides to do a publicity stunt to gain the favor of the people and it is proven that
it does help in their respective campaigns and anyone who does fail to do so has a slimmer
chance of winning. Thanks to modern technology, a politician could simply utilize social media
to announce an online event whether in the form of AMAS (Ask me Anything), going live on
Facebook for announcements and to interact with its viewers and who knows, maybe even
virtual reality might be used for political purposes. When it comes to the social media platform,
the possibilities are going to be limitless in the way how the politician and its own advisors
could think of utilizing this power.

Everything Is Permitted
In terms of demographics however, politicians are capable of targeting certain audiences to
make sure that their voice and messages are being heard by the right audience. May it be for a
certain gender, age group, ethnicity, social background and place of residency they are able to
tailor their advertisements through Facebook's algorithm and analytics for targeted advertising.
You may not notice it but you might feel that a certain advertisement is talking to you
personally, you mustn't be surprised that it was not any form of coincidence. It was specifically
made for you.

Lies and Deceit

One of the other ways social media is turning into a political platform is its capabilities of
spreading lies and deceit in the forms of rumors, fake news and conspiracies for the opposition
of a certain candidate. Political campaigns are now influenced by almost any story, regardless if
it's proven true or false, as long as its spread like wildfire in social media, it has then done its
part of influencing the people. And with the spread of such concept online, one does tend to
get confused or worst believe the lies created by anonymous people online. Memes for example
are a mixture of the reality of the situation, satirical implications, direct lies as well as
unconventional speculations that affect even the most dedicated supporters of each candidate.
Satirical news sites for example may look authentic and legitimate enough to be believed by the
common man, even taking the form of click bait stories or trolls that use misleading headlines
to gain traction after all, people would prefer reading short one liners that spending their time
reading and doing their own research in the topic to find out the truth. Another one is the
political biases of certain sites for their chosen candidates. As a quick tip, a great deal of
diligence is needed to believe anything - one should take the time to research in finding out the
truth rather than regret it once the wrong man is seated in the office.

Sense of Confirmation
Another factor often misunderstood is the so-called power of confirmation bias. Facebook and
Twitter are created to connect with people, specifically those that are close to you enough such
as family members and close friends and more often than not the opinions between you and
them are similar to each other which is why most of the time you and they share the same
sympathies on different issues, including politics. Vast majorities of Facebook Posts and Tweets
tend to express a specific point of view, specifically the one that you already hold. This creates
this illusion online that everybody thinks the same way as you do online which creates the
filtered bias between you and your friends. This is the reason why certain opinions are
disregarded because it goes against the embedded beliefs that one already holds and not even
admitting that they are also just influenced as well. More often than not, social media tell you
what you wanted to hear as a form of validation and the so-called fortification of a certain
mindset between one another. For this reason, social media may reinforce our opinions and
have us close minded to a certain point of view that it will be heinous enough for us to
entertain nor consider the unconventional opinions of others. However, if you do make an effort
to connect with various people with diverse standpoints and believes, you can overcome this
bias and create this virtual space a healthy, anonymous and open space for open-minded
people. Throughout the years, the future of politics will still find different ways that we may
have not thought of today. With social media still being relatively new as well as its continuous
improvement, we're just starting to see its impact on society. even if it does look like it has
greatly impacted the course of life right now. Many political changes are surely to be improved
and crumbled through social media.

Lesson 2. Media and Cyberspace impacts to elections-Future of Politics in the digital age
Judging from the development of the Internet and Technology up to now, one can easily
visualize that the further development of technology and devices will result in an innovative and
more viable tools with features not yet even comprehensible today. Should that advancement
go forth, it will be unlikely that the current discussion of ways to avoid problems and current
issues will provide us a clear solution and possibly a well-defined standard. Government officials
and politicians already have a wide array of tools to use to spread their information and name
during election periods. Blogs are easily made, a single post on Facebook is a few clicks away,
and a picture speaks a thousand words. Moving forward, it is a must for candidates to build up
the ropes to providing information without unintentionally misleading them. The netizens as
well should also realize that it is possible that the next elections would be more censored or
controlled due to numerous bans and laws enacted upon the cyberspace. This ban, while
intentional, aims to ensure a level of fairness between each hopeful during the electoral period.
We only hope that these government officials do not fret on the sight of maintaining focus on
the debate of using the Internet for applicable purposes and as a political tool in general. Ask
any politician these days and he'll tell you that journalist and the media wield the power over
the political process of any country. It is for a fact that media continuously play a major role in
politics with regards to the freedom of the press thanks to Democracy. It is only just that voters
require the information to make educated decisions and it is a journalist's task to provide it to
them. The media can alter the outcome of an election often relating it to "Rigging the Elections"
through media coverage often seen as biased. The media landscape has greatly impact how
they are able to interact with various candidates, social media, the cyberspace in general and
even the millions of voters. It was at this time that the country would feel distrust towards
these giant media companies and yet they are still the main source of valid and unhindered
news.
Are we Covering This?
As any news, it is up to the jurisdiction and choice of journalists in choosing which candidates
to cover and evidently how much. Those choices alone are already a deciding factor who would
get more public exposure, both acceptance and outrage as a simple name recognition plays a
big factor to drive their campaigns during their elections. This is the main reason as to why
some candidates felt invisible as they cannot win enough interest from the media. The best
example being Trump's outsized proportion of media coverage due to his unfiltered tweets on
Twitter, public speaking and outright accusations in his campaigns that have given him National
and International Coverage he needs to stand out in the crowd. And with the integration of
social media for these journalists, it will always be fast enough that are capable of updating the
public in a matter of seconds.

Biases and Scripts

Based on a research by Pew Research Center, many media outlets attract partisan audiences
thus radiate political biases in their coverage. With today's news consumers getting their facts
with a simple click and flick of the wrist on their personal computers and mobile devices from a
quick internet search, many have started to differentiate themselves by shifting from news to a
more contextual and analytical manner of news. However, this isn't always the case as selective
exposure provides the tendency the general public had to seek out valid sources that wouldn't
challenge our intellects and beliefs about the world. It is for a fact that there is relationship
between selective exposure and the division of political favors in any electoral campaign in any
nation and it is clearly related to the rise of partisans delight in their media sources, the blogs
and websites they visit as well as the ideological bias.

Checking the Facts - Authentic or Not?

Just like any other news, it should be considered that facts must be checked out and verified to
be real and accurate. Delivery rushed news based from speculations are surely going to be an
issue that could even affect the name of these media groups. One of the most notable
developments in journalism is its capability of leading the outcomes of the elections. (Radcliffe,
2019) It should also be considered that while certain news from even the biggest names of
media corporation might be made up or considered fake- it isn't always the case as you have to
consider that these media groups also aim to be the very first source of everything as they are
still a business in mind. It is in their best interest the name of the company that they represent.
It is still however a fact that the netizens still exercise their diligence to find out what's reliable
facts to those that aren't.

TEACHER’S INSIGHT
This chapter tackles about the effects of the Internet on elections in association to the
continuous development of technology, recognizing it as a form of political platform through
different social networking sites, blogs and websites, emails and any form of transmitting
information online. It provides an overview on different ways winning candidates from recently
prominent figures of the past decades have utilized the World Wide Web as their ticket to not
just winning the presidential seat but the Internet as well. The chapter also discussed some of
the political strategies considered and facts related to it that shows how the Internet has
shaped their campaign for their own purposes. The chapter also discussed key components of
the impacts of social is for the Digital Age associating it to the winning factor of certain
politicians Social media, while aimed as being a way to communicate with people online, have
continuously been recognized as more than that as it was used for political purposes, thus
igniting more ways how the Internet could be molded for the next years to come The netizens,
however, should still practice their diligence in terms of politics and recognizing all the facts
taken and presented from the internet; it must also be considered that the Internet merely
being a political tool is an understatement, rather they must consider it a major transmission of
data that could curve the waves towards the politicians' goal of achieving what they want.

RELATE TO PRACTICE
Write a reflection on the topic “How Internet influence people to vote to their candidates in a
political position?” Place your answer on a short bond paper (either handwritten or encoded
may do) using intended WORK SHEET that is part of the Appendices. Those who are using LMS,
must submit the output online while those who are using IG (offline), must compile their output
in the learning Portfolio to be submitted (schedule to be announced soon).

SELF-ASSESSMENT. Answer the following questions. Place your answer in a separate sheet of
paper.
1. Who won the 2008 US Presidential Election and how did they utilize the Internet?
2. How can social media boost the campaign of an electoral politician?
3. What could be the impact of social media, with regards to building the trust and eventually
getting the votes of the people?
4. In your own words, what is the most prominent way how social media and the media
companies were able to mold and shape the elections?
5. What's the significance of diligence to your daily life on social media? Explain at least 3
significance in terms of personal, private and political affairs.
6. If you're given a chance to be a politician, how could you utilize social media to provide you
the exposure that you need to win the hearts of thousands and even millions?

REFERENCES:

TEXTBOOK:

REVANO , T. (2019). Living in the Information Technology Era (1 st Edition), Mindshapers Co.,
Inc.

INTERNET:

(n.d.). Retrieved September 06, 2020, from https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/me/onePage

What happens when politicians buy Facebook fan pages? (n.d.). Retrieved September 06, 2020,
from https://www.cnn.ph/life/culture/politics/2020/8/17/facebook-fan-pages-politicians.html
Six ways the media influence elections. (2018, December 04). Retrieved September 06, 2020,
from https://journalism.uoregon.edu/news/six-ways-media-influences-elections

Barnhart, B. (2020, August 17). Social media and politics: 10 best practices for campaigns to
know. Retrieved September 06, 2020, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-
political-campaigns/

Garrett, R. (n.d.). Social media's contribution to political misperceptions in U.S. Presidential

elections. Retrieved September 06, 2020, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?
id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213500

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Myint, M., & Nicola Nixon, M. (2016, May 05). Social Media: A Game Changer in Philippine
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