In social media content is king.

AuthorSolberg, Monte
PositionEssay

Marshall McLuhan famously observed in the 1960s that the "Medium is the Message" with different media having their own way of impacting the viewer, listener or reader. This article argues that when it comes to social media and its impact on the political process and public policy we need to pay more attention to content rather than conclude that the medium itself is transformational.

There are a lot, of ways to come at the subject of social media, but let us narrow it down by asking some questions.

* What is social media? For our purposes we should focus on blogs, Twitter, You Tube and Facebook, while also noting that technologies like websites, texting and emails often get lumped in to these kinds of discussions.

* How much do social media users influence party and government issues and agenda's? I am going to argue that it is not nearly as much as some people might think, or at least no more than the traditional methods.

* How much do politicians, political parties and their partisans influence the public via social media? I will again argue that the answer is, not very much. It is just another way of communicating.

* Can we tell from analyzing social media whether leaders and their parties have positions and messages that resonate with the public? I would argue that the answer is-somewhat. But it will never be the definitive analysis that political parties or Members of Parliament rely on.

* What are the best ways to use social media? I think the best way to use it is to think of it as an electronic newspaper doing all the things a newspaper does.

But first a little context. When I was the Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat I had a famous political constituent in the person of Senator Bud Olson, a former MP and Liberal Cabinet Minister. One day I was talking with Bud's wife Lucille about what it was like to be the family of an MP in the 1950s. She said that Bud would get on the train to Ottawa in September and they would not see him again until December. She said one time the neighbours stopped by after Bud senior had been in Ottawa for many weeks and asked their very young son Bud Jr. how his dad was. Bud Jr. said, with complete earnestness, "My dad is dead".

Of course Bud was not really dead, it just seemed that way. He just could not easily communicate with his family located 2000 miles away, let alone his constituents. Mailing letters was the primary mode of communication followed by the telephone, though long distance calls were an enormously expensive luxury. Other than that MPs hoped they would get their name in the newspaper for sponsoring a popular private...

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