Twitter has changed the way of how a lot of people communicate and/or retrieve news. Especially, this micro-blogging service is also in the process of changing the way of how politics is practiced and covered, and some people may add “fundamentally”.
Getting banned by the government surely means something serious, and yes, Twitter is blocked in a few countries including China. China has one of the most sophisticated systems of internet censorship in the world. The Chinese government claims that western websites such as Twitter are also required to follow the country’s laws, in other words, “to serve the interests of people” (Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, said in an interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUP7tON1U2s). Rumours are that the Chinese government employs tens of thousands of people to monitor the internet. These people will delete any content against the government or any top officials. They will also write content favourable to the government. However, there are still people who use proxy to access Twitter from China. The blocking of its service in a number of countries reflects, in one way or another, that Twitter is playing some role in the political game in the information age.
Looking back, Twitter has changed the world of politics in a number of ways. In short, Twitter provides a brand new platform for political news/scandals both large and small on which the speed and scope of campaigns and campaign coverage have been dramatically increased.
A number of politicians have been tripped by their own tweets. The most “famous” example is Anthony Weiner. The former New York congressman’s political lift free fall began with only a single tweet containing a lewd image of himself. He resigned at the end.
The biggest different Twitter has made is that it has enabled direct communication between politicians and the rest of the world. On top of that, this communication is immediate and unfiltered. This kind of direct communication can be extremely dangerous for politicians who usually carefully prepare and select talking points.
Twitter has been the catalyst to increase the speed and scope of campaigns and campaign coverage. This micro-blogging service acts as a medium for journalists to push quick bits of breaking news, scandals, and analysis out to the entire world in an instant. The publishing process now becomes typing up to 140 characters and hitting “send”. News now can be updated at real-time and journalists are able to communicate directly with readers/viewers at real-time. Twitter conversation can happen even as the real event is happening. By the time the real event ends, Twitter users may have already rendered their judgement. The 140 characters also has an impact on the political conversation. At 140 characters or less, the complete piece of information is at its core, and it is only presented with the most essential of facts. “It’s become the new conventional wisdom setter, and that conventional wisdom gets amplified as well, because you have editors sitting in bureaus watching this stuff. When everything is in 140 characters, it gives a skewed version of reality, and that impacts how editors think about what reporters should be covering, and it impacts what reporters think is important.” (Associated Press political editor Liz Sidoti, https://twitter.com/lsidoti). Therefore, Twitter has become an important tool for elected officials.
A prime example, this 2012 election night tweet from Barack Obama quickly became his most retweeded ever (https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/266031293945503744/photo/1).
However, as Twitter now plays an increasingly important role in political conversations, it has failed to be a spot-on reflector of public opinions. For example, while Twitter tone favoured Obama during the first presidential debate of 2012, polling showed that Mitt Romney was the winner. A couple of other political events were studied by Pew Research Center (http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/03/04/twitter-reaction-to-events-often-at-odds-with-overall-public-opinion/) and they found out that the reactions on Twitter were often at odds with the opinions expressed in the polls.
The influences of Twitter on political conversations can be discussed at great length and are going to be the subject of debate in many terms. However, one thing is for sure, Twitter does leave a mark on #politics.