The Impact of Twitter on Political Leadership

The Impact of Twitter on Political Leadership

Introduction

Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with each other via messages called tweets. All types of different kinds of news are found on twitter, and this includes breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment, and big event news, among others. The use of twitter is beneficial for both twitter management and political leaders. Postings made by the political leaders attract people to the site, which increases the opportunity of advertising by Twitter.

.           The majority of state leaders embrace social media platforms when going public since it is the best way to influence the people and get the necessary support for their agenda. Political leaders use twitter majorly as a form of two-way communication with their constituents and also to be up to date with what is going on around the world. Approximately eight hundred and fifty-six world leaders are using twitter at the moment. It used by two hundred and seventy-six heads of state and government foreign ministers. The former president of the United States, Barrack Obama, is the most followed head of state with over one hundred and ten million followers. Being consistently active on Twitter is part of what contributed to him winning the presidential bid. This is because he kept on talking to the people, and they got to learn more about him.

Twitter is the prime network used by most of the leaders all around the world. It is used by active and former presidents, house and senate leaders, and members. However, the majority of these leaders do not manage their accounts but instead delegate the duty to someone else, for instance, the public relations team.  The use of twitter has impacted on political leadership both positively and negatively.

Thesis Statement

This paper will relate how state leaders utilize twitter to gain a public opinion both locally and internationally. As mentioned earlier, a state leader might use twitter to engage the public in their governance, and hence, use those reactions to make implementations on the crucial sectors. Although the app has had a significant influence on many presidents and other leaders. Some of them take advantage of the freedom to negate the work of their rivals.  Lastly, it will mention a few leaders who continually depend on twitter and their response. President Trump is well known for his daily tweets on various topics, including the high wall, the war against ISIS community, and terrorism, among others. Some of the messages are received positively, while others lead to unpleasant reactions by the users.

The positive impacts created by twitter on political leadership include:

Twitter facilitates communication.

Just like any other social media platform, twitter facilitates communication between the heads of states and their constituents. It provides a platform of interaction whereby the heads of states can ask a question and get the opinion of the people he or she is representing or vice versa. Even though it may be challenging to meet the head of state in person and air out one’s views about any related issues, twitter has made this simpler and bridged that boundary. This has promoted good governance by the heads of state.

Twitter has promoted campaigns.

It may be difficult to walk all over the country to solicit for votes to win a particular election. In regards to this, most of the aspiring heads of states have taken up the role of campaigning via social media platforms, mostly twitter. These aspiring heads get to air out their manifestos to the target audience and still manage to reach a large number of people. They get to elaborate on what they will do for the people if given a chance to represent them. The audience who would not have attended any of the rallies get reached via twitter. This is easier since the aspirants are just a click away from some of the citizens.

The former president of the United States, Barrack Obama, facilitated some of his campaigns via Twitter, and most of them ended up trending. Up until now, he is still the most followed head of state with one hundred and ten million followers. The number of tweets and the number of followers strengthened his campaigns, which saw him winning the presidency.

Twitter provides a platform for making allies.

Twitter has so many participants, both prominent and non-prominent. Using this platform, heads of state can create new relationships with other leaders of states and other people at large. This is important as it could facilitate the growth of a country when bonds are made with other nations.

Twitter strengthens connections within a democracy.

Democracy is defined as the rule of the people whereby supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them either directly or indirectly, usually through a system of representation involving periodically held elections. For the people to be able to apply this power, they need to be in constant communication with their representatives so that they can say what needs and what needs not to be done. Twitter provides this kind of platform, and through it, the voices of the people get to be heard. This way, democracy is ensured as the people’s opinions are listened to.

Twitter has been used to conduct survey polls.

Before getting to elections, different statistics companies hold opinion polls to see which candidate is ahead of the other. They get people’s opinion on which candidate is the most preferred over the others. The results of the findings are posted all around social media and also aired in the news. These results may be a true representative of what is likely to occur on the ground or not. Not enough people participate in the opinion polls for a clear picture to be drawn. However, no matter what, such surveys always affect how people will vote. Most people tend to go for the leader who is likely to win according to the polls. The voters tend to choose someone who, according to them, will win in the long run. These polls promote a sense of fierce competition among the aspirants, each being so determined to emerge top of the votes. The heads of state have to go through this in every election.

Twitter facilitates the provision of updates by heads of states to the public.

When certain things occur in the country, and the heads of state would like to be in constant communication with the citizens, they get to do this on television or via twitter to reach those who are into social media. Using Twitter as a mode of communication, updates can be made to the people for them to be at per with what is occurring.

Twitter helps the heads of states to gain supporters.

The interaction of the people with their heads of states could help them gain supporters. Talking to the citizens via twitter may help the citizens know their elects well and in such a manner, enabling them to acquire more supporters. Constant conversations between the leaders and the people build trust among them and establish lasting relations. People tend to trust leaders who remain in communication with them even after being elected, unlike those who go silent. This makes them believe that the elects were not only up for the position but also had the people’s interests at heart.

Twitter facilitates the development of relationships between world leaders.

World leaders on twitter get to follow each other and as such, build strong relationships. They get to frequently talk to each other about both public and personal lives. This being the case, the leaders get to engage in matters of development, leading to the growth of better nations. Creating good relationships with other leaders could help one learn a few secrets of better governance that they did not know before.

Twitter may help the heads of state to achieve their policies and political objectives.

When leaders get into power, they set in place specific policies and objectives that they hope to achieve before their term gets over. Most of these often include delivery of better service to the people. In order to learn if the systems they put in place are working, they need to hear from the people about service delivery. Since it is almost impossible to reach every one in person, twitter helps them to get feedback on the intended projects.

Twitter provides a platform to talk amongst all candidates.

Some of the heads of state and other members of the senate do not see eye to eye on everything. Some of them cannot even hold a decent conversation in person. However, on twitter, if one happens to approach the other in the face of the public, the other has to respond well indeed so that they may not show the fact that they have bad blood to the citizens. In different situations, this may foster unity among the candidates and promote a sense of togetherness. Squabbles get to be solved on twitter, and everyone ends up happy.

Despite all the positive impacts that twitter may pose, it comes along with adverse effects too. These may include:

Twitter could lead to the promotion of fake news and rumors.

There are often a lot of stories going around twitter regarding so many things. Most of these stories are correct, but also some of them may not be true. In the current generation, it is hard to tell which story is honest and which one is not.

When running for the head of state position, the aspirants are more likely to experience this. Some of the fake news may be from fellow running mates who want to have an advantage over the rest. Some of the voters usually base their support on an aspirant, depending on what they hear about them on social media. This being the case, such voters are likely to be swayed by the rumors. Before the authenticity of the news is verified, a lot of time may have passed, and the damage already been done.

Twitter may be addictive.

There is a lot of stuff one can learn from twitter. A lot of news, entertainment, sports, gaming, fashion, among others, are all on twitter. Once one logs into twitter, it may become hard to log out, and someone may end up spending the whole day on the internet. Social media, twitter being one of them, may promote laziness.  If heads of state get hooked onto twitter, this will lead to the creation of a lazy nation. A lot will go undone, and the country will end up with no developments at all.

It is for this reason that most of the heads of state Twitter accounts are managed by their public relations managers and not themselves.

Twitter may be subject to hacking.

There are a lot of hackers all around the world. Someone with ill intent may hack the twitter account of a head of state and post negative stuff on their page. People may not understand that it was not the head of state who posted that, but instead, it was the work of hackers. This may lead to contempt from supporters and other people towards the leader. This may, in turn, demoralize the head of state and could be a reason why some of the leaders do not use social media at all.

Twitter is a platform that may promote cyberbullying.

Some of the heads of state may be subject to bullying on Twitter. Some of the twitter users are so mean and take pleasure in demoralizing others. These users may hull insults at heads of state and say to them other mean comments. Such comments are intended to put down these heads of state. Light-hearted heads of states could take this seriously and get their feelings hurt. This could lead to psychological distress and a state of anxiety and depression.

The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, has received so many negative comments from people all around the world. He, however, chooses to see things differently and never allows any of that to get to him.

Twitter may lead to the tarnishing of one’s name or character.

With all the news going around twitter, some may be aimed at tarnishing the political leaders’ proper names. This could result to devastating effects on the leaders as some of the news may not even be genuine at all.

Some of the leaders who continually depend on twitter and their response include:

President Donald Trump, Former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders, among others.

.    While most countries enjoy internet freedom by pressing the government into establishing, some nations like China, Iran, and North Korea no longer access the media, especially Facebook and Twitter.  Kim Jong-un’s government, North Korea, has an oppressive system of rule, and since twitter can connect people from various locations, the best way is to burn the use to avoid public revolts in a view to change the coalition. Ideally, the general opinion matters in leadership, so banning social media access in the state is like cutting off the people’s engagement, and this can result in a divided government as well as rebellions by the residents.  The strife between the USA and China, Iran, and North Korea motivated their withdrawal from twitter due to the online wars between President Trump and the rivalries. These are among the negatives of using twitter to express personal issues as experienced by the mentioned nations (Gill, 2019).

Conclusion

Twitter is generally a valuable tool when it comes to political leadership.  It is useful to politicians when it comes to their governance, and this is major because it facilitates communication between the political leaders and the people they are representing. This helps to keep them on toes in their daily activities. It also gears them towards achieving their manifestos as promised to the people. Twitter is essential for the creation of publicity and for the voices of individuals to be heard. The use of twitter, just like any other social media platform, has its negative impacts as seen above, but such can be controlled.

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