Questions of ethics and the role of social media - how does social media impact politics?

Albeit social media refers to a technology that allows the exchange of information by interactive modes of communication [1], it is considered a vital ‘institution’ in the political spectrum. Social media sites namely Twitter, Facebook and Instagram provide spaces where users can interact with each other for various purposes - politicians building public trust, government civils to inform laws, news outlets to report daily socio-political and economic news, citizens reacting and researchers disseminating analysis on the certain policies implementation. Henceforth, this essay will explain mechanisms used for social media to impact politics - (1) gatekeeper, (2) scorekeeper and (3) watchdog.

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA FUNCTIONS

To comprehend the mechanisms in-depth, knowing the basic process of how social media functions is important and can be seen in Diagram 1 below. Essentially, information related to politics will be received by a certain authority which will be reported into news, blogpost, podcast and many more through social media. These data then will be viewed by the audience and it will then be evaluated by the recipient to be accepted or rejected depending on their prior knowledge on the topic and beliefs on the topic itself.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A GATEKEEPER

Tapping into the first mechanism of social media influencing politics is by gatekeeping certain information from certain communities. Welbers and Opgenhaffen (2018) argue that social media operates to selectively capture the attention of some parts of the society shows that social media regulates political information aligned with the gatekeeping theory [2]. Media often showcase political information that caters to and suits the public interest as shown in Diagram 2. Through this lens, social media editors gatekeep certain information mainly to boost engagement and interactions towards a certain institute and/or having control over the political narratives being set out. Therefore, certain public interests and agendas based on selective information shown will receive attention and drives the community to address - making government officials and legislators being pressured to seek avenues to respond to them quickly.

Gatekeeping certain information can be good for politicians to build better rapport as it highlights their strengths while hiding their weaknesses towards voters and candidates. Therefore, gatekeeping can shift the narrative on a certain politician, policies, organizations and media outlets images to influence the belief of the public; a wise strategy to allude to the general public in terms of giving a favourable impression. However, this can be damaging as such gatekeeping exhibits misperceptions that amount to negative undertones implied towards certain behaviour or party. As a result, the party will be deemed untrustworthy and unreliable in the political scene.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SCOREKEEPER

Alternatively, social media impacts politics through scorekeeping the political climate. Scorekeeping refers to tracking public opinions and data which may come in various forms but are commonly known as numbers and text files (Broh, 1980). The theory of media acting as a scorekeeper in politics is often derived from the context of election periods whereby polls are often made. Journalists will often adopt horse-race journalism to garner the public's view and certain inclination of interest [3] as seen in Diagram 3.

In politics, candidates running in elections often use the media in this manner to generate campaigns and utilize opinion polls, which are disseminated easily, to formulate strategies in winning the election which the coverage benefits certain stakeholders in having useful manifesto and good approval ratings. As the data from such a scorekeeping mechanism is accessible to the public, researchers and journalists will use to predict behaviour especially in election season whereby they can deduct possible trend and outcome on how the political sphere will look like when a certain politician is now in office for various period of time. Nevertheless, such scorekeeping techniques might impose a different outcome when the polls and survey are done in a biased manner or limitations arisen. As social media is not properly regulated, certain information reported can be misinterpreted which amounts to fake news. For instance, disinformation [4] in spreading political speculations instead of acknowledging it as forecasts. As such, certain figures that are not high or alarming to the public will not be highlighted much in social media which may disregard the importance of such political issues and policies.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A WATCHDOG

Finally, social media often plays the role of being a watchdog in politics. Chan & Suen (2008) defines watchdogs as if they are investigators - often fact-checking and keeping tabs of the politicians and public officials' actions as explained in Diagram 4. Social media ‘checking’ government behaviour allows society to constructively criticise their performance and ensure these authorities are responsible. These reviews are important as some information might be distorted or actions of a certain authority are not aligned with their political stance especially when information and news easily spread out.

This mechanism is good as it eases the way for the citizens to be directly involved in political discussion on whether certain policies implemented and engagement made by officials are in the interest of the people. This form of participation creates a healthy echo chamber of progressive changes whereby political awareness on a matter can be made easier which drives in remarks on better policies or reforms to be made. Therefore, this motivates the citizens or civil society to mobilize campaigns in pressuring the government to act accordingly and evaluate the competency and contribution of politicians and other stakeholders on the matter. However, being a watchdog and calling out certain actions may show xenophobic or hate speeches rhetoric when insults and harassment are made (Zhuravskaya, Petrova, & Enikolopov, 2020).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this essay has reviewed 3 mechanisms on the ways in which social media alters the public and politics are often seen by gatekeeping, scorekeeping or act upon as a watchdog, and its positive and negative effects which come with it. Social media can easily influence public, government officials or even politicians’ opinions. Therefore, each stakeholder has to play the role of social media in impacting politics ethically and make better changes by tackling the concerns we have raised and foresee possible disputes.

[1] Obar & Wildman (2015) argues that the definition of social media is simply broad but caters within the category of it being an interactive technology that allows forming content, exchanging information and ideas and a way to form virtual communities and networks through applications or the internet via the text posts, comments, digital photos and videos.

[2] The gatekeeping theory is coined by Kurt Lewin which refers to information that should or should not be shared within the system of networks; gatekeepers are the ones who give the say of such actions and such gatekeeping actions may be induced by certain factors be it social, cultural, politics or morality views. In the pretext of social media, the editor is the gatekeeper (Roberts, 2005).

[3] The horse-race metaphor is often used as an analysis framework among journalists, similarly on how we opt to judge horses; we do not judge horses by their looks or skills it has, but how fast the horse is compared to other horses. Broh (1980) argued that the mechanism of scorekeeping similarly portrays the framework of the horse-race metaphor; essentially outlining several valuable functions – engaging the public to politics and gauging their interest, having polls to know the interest of certain groups and mitigates the harms of certain media outlets having more influence over the other by providing a neutral stance.

[4] Disinformation refers to misleading information disseminated or shared which may or may not be intentional; often seen to be altering certain phrases or not mentioning the fuller version of the information.

REFERENCES

Broh, C. A. (1980). Horse-Race Journalism: Reporting the Polls in the 1976 Presidential Election. Public Opinion Quarterly, 44, 514-529. doi:10.1086/268620

Chan, J., & Suen, W. (2008). Media as Watchdogs: The Role of News Media in Electoral Competition. Retrieved from hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/129435/1/Content.pdf

Emmanual, M. M. (2021). Muhyiddin’s approval improves to 67pc, Perikatan’s Covid-19 pandemic handling viewed favourably. Retrieved from MalayMail: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/04/23/muhyiddins-approval-improves-to-67pc-perikatans-covid-19-pandemic-handling/1968905

Mellado, C. (2014). Professional Roles in News Content. Journalism Studies, 16(4), 596-614. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080%2F1461670x.2014.922276

Perlstein, R. (2021). Watergate Scandal. Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal

Roberts, C. (2005). Gatekeeping theory: An evolution. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/2757838/Gatekeeping_theory_An_evolution

Welbers, K., & Opgenhaffen, M. (2018). Social media gatekeeping: An analysis of the gatekeeping influence of newspapers' public Facebook pages. Sage Publication Journals, 20(12), 4728-4747. doi:10.1177/1461444818784302

Zhuravskaya, E., Petrova, M., & Enikolopov, R. (2020). Political effects of the internet and social media. Political effects of the internet and social media, 12, 415-438. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-economics-081919-050239#_i8

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Elisa Shafiqah is the Director of Public Relations at Malaysian Youth Diplomacy and currently pursuing her first year in Bachelor of Arts (International and Strategic Studies) at the University of Malaya. The views expressed here are entirely the author’s own opinions and it does not purport to reflect the views of any institution. Should you have any inquiries, do email her at elisashafiqahshahrilnizam@gmail.com.