Low engagement of citizens in politics and ever declining voters turnout were observed as evidence of a democratic deficit in the Tanzania. Political parties, the government and other non-government organizations took charges to promote more citizens participation in political decisions.
By providing a new form of communication among politicians and citizens, social media may provide a way of increasing citizen involvement in political life, especially during election campaigns.
Though few number of Tanzanians use social media comparing to those who don't but social media have important role to influence offline society. For example, They can be used to organise or reinforce participation in ‘offline' events, and can increase the personal appeal of a candidate. The network effects of social media, amplifying as they do the transmission of a political message through social connections, make social media a valuable part of an election campaign.
Social media is increasingly used in campaigns across Tanzania, the ultimate effect of this usage becomes clear.Some attribute the increasing levels of political activity on the internet to citizens. It may be that social media have only a limited effect but at least they can play a role in getting disengaged citizens to engage, even just to go out to vote.
The following are the roles of social media to this year political campaigns
1. Bypassing Media filters
Social Media serves as an alternative to mainstream media such as the press, television and radio by bringing out raw news. This may help to overcome bias claimed to be put forward by some traditional media bodies.
Social media allow candidates to communicate directly with citizens, keeping control of the content, distribution and timing of their messages,as well as reducing their dependence on traditional intermediaries such as journalists. New or less established parties in particular may find social media an easier path to getting their voice heard. Strong social media societies have been established to convey campaign messages directly to citizens. Some candidate pages and profiles have been verified, For example a Facebook page of Dr John Magufuli (CCM presidential candidate) and a twitter account and Facebook page of Edward Lowassa (Chadema presidential candidate) with over 430,000 total fans. Other politicians example January Makamba social pages has been eye marked by socialbakers – Online stats network to be among fast growing pages
2. User generated content
User-generated content supporting a party or candidate is another way to bypass traditional mass media. Campaigns can encourage supporters to upload their own video and photo material about the candidate. User created photos and videos about candidates and campaign events created and shared through various social media channels. The authenticity of such user-generated content is always not guaranteed and is not without risks, user-supplied content may end up abusing candidates, muddying or even contradicting the official message that a candidate wants to put out.
Early before election the president signed the most challenged bill for the new law on cyber crime that will give power to convict online abusers, however the new law still claimed by the large mass to grab their rights of the freedom of press.
3. Influencing mass media
Social media can also serve as an indirect influence on the stories that mass media present. In order to compete in a fast-moving media environment, journalists increasingly rely on political blogs, Twitter conversations and user video and photo content as sources for their stories.
By using social media to raise an issue, react to a story or give a response, a politician may be able to spark a new story in the press or broadcast media, or at least to influence how journalists frame the news. Their message can then reach many more potential voters as the story is broadcast through media such as radio which remains to be the most important source of political news
4. Providing a view of the electorate
Social media also provide a way for politicians to monitor what is happening in the public sphere during an election campaign. Although sometimes relying too much on messages appearing in social media might give an incorrect impression of what the electorate as a whole feels about an issue.
Some experts suggest that candidates and parties should identify influential social media users (‘opinion leaders' in traditional political science terms) and focus on following their discussions to get insight into public perceptions and optimize
5. Micro targeting
Social media can be used as a means to direct political messages to certain target groups. Of course not all citizens have access to the Internet and social media, so a part of society may be excluded from political discussion on social media due to this ‘digital divide'.
Although social media cannot replace face-to-face contact with all Tanzanians, but they can be a useful additional tool to deliberately target young people (the age group most likely to participate in this year election) because they are more likely to use social media.
Young people are more active users of social media functions than other age groups, including creating blogs, posting content or sending messages via social media
Perhaps the most important aspect of social media is the' network' effect produced when someone who has seen a video, visited a page or read a tweet passes on the same message or a reference to all of their friends or followers. These' second degree' networks (i.e. followers of followers) may represent weak social ties, but can be very large.
The extreme case of this network effect is that of a campaign item which ‘goes viral', i.e. is distributed or seen by large numbers of social media users in a short period of time.
People are divided, however, on how effective these network effects are in convincing voters to cast their ballot for the candidate or party involved. Some fear that social media networks only create ‘echo chambers' where messages get passed between like-minded people who are already likely to vote for a given candidate or party.
Others point to evidence that social media networks are composed of heterogeneous groups: a given person's friends will not necessarily share their political views, and these friends are more likely to be convinced by someone they know than by a campaign speech or a party leaflet.
The fundamental question is whether social media are effective in mobilizing those who are engaged online to become engaged ‘offline' (i.e. in the real world) and thereby to reduce democratic deficits.
The fact is there are indeed signs of increasing political awareness in the country through the Internet and social media. However, it will take some time at least this election to measure the exactly impact of social media on actual people political decisions to election results.
This election will be the perfect test since the National electoral committee confirmed youth who are the obvious users of social media as the age group who registered in large number and mostly expected to participate
Sharing
Authors
Erick Semiono
By providing a new form of communication among politicians and citizens, social media may provide a way of increasing citizen involvement in political life, especially during election campaigns.
Though few number of Tanzanians use social media comparing to those who don't but social media have important role to influence offline society. For example, They can be used to organise or reinforce participation in ‘offline' events, and can increase the personal appeal of a candidate. The network effects of social media, amplifying as they do the transmission of a political message through social connections, make social media a valuable part of an election campaign.
Social media is increasingly used in campaigns across Tanzania, the ultimate effect of this usage becomes clear.Some attribute the increasing levels of political activity on the internet to citizens. It may be that social media have only a limited effect but at least they can play a role in getting disengaged citizens to engage, even just to go out to vote.
The following are the roles of social media to this year political campaigns
1. Bypassing Media filters
Social Media serves as an alternative to mainstream media such as the press, television and radio by bringing out raw news. This may help to overcome bias claimed to be put forward by some traditional media bodies.
Social media allow candidates to communicate directly with citizens, keeping control of the content, distribution and timing of their messages,as well as reducing their dependence on traditional intermediaries such as journalists. New or less established parties in particular may find social media an easier path to getting their voice heard. Strong social media societies have been established to convey campaign messages directly to citizens. Some candidate pages and profiles have been verified, For example a Facebook page of Dr John Magufuli (CCM presidential candidate) and a twitter account and Facebook page of Edward Lowassa (Chadema presidential candidate) with over 430,000 total fans. Other politicians example January Makamba social pages has been eye marked by socialbakers – Online stats network to be among fast growing pages
2. User generated content
User-generated content supporting a party or candidate is another way to bypass traditional mass media. Campaigns can encourage supporters to upload their own video and photo material about the candidate. User created photos and videos about candidates and campaign events created and shared through various social media channels. The authenticity of such user-generated content is always not guaranteed and is not without risks, user-supplied content may end up abusing candidates, muddying or even contradicting the official message that a candidate wants to put out.
Early before election the president signed the most challenged bill for the new law on cyber crime that will give power to convict online abusers, however the new law still claimed by the large mass to grab their rights of the freedom of press.
3. Influencing mass media
Social media can also serve as an indirect influence on the stories that mass media present. In order to compete in a fast-moving media environment, journalists increasingly rely on political blogs, Twitter conversations and user video and photo content as sources for their stories.
By using social media to raise an issue, react to a story or give a response, a politician may be able to spark a new story in the press or broadcast media, or at least to influence how journalists frame the news. Their message can then reach many more potential voters as the story is broadcast through media such as radio which remains to be the most important source of political news
4. Providing a view of the electorate
Social media also provide a way for politicians to monitor what is happening in the public sphere during an election campaign. Although sometimes relying too much on messages appearing in social media might give an incorrect impression of what the electorate as a whole feels about an issue.
Some experts suggest that candidates and parties should identify influential social media users (‘opinion leaders' in traditional political science terms) and focus on following their discussions to get insight into public perceptions and optimize
5. Micro targeting
Social media can be used as a means to direct political messages to certain target groups. Of course not all citizens have access to the Internet and social media, so a part of society may be excluded from political discussion on social media due to this ‘digital divide'.
Although social media cannot replace face-to-face contact with all Tanzanians, but they can be a useful additional tool to deliberately target young people (the age group most likely to participate in this year election) because they are more likely to use social media.
Young people are more active users of social media functions than other age groups, including creating blogs, posting content or sending messages via social media
Perhaps the most important aspect of social media is the' network' effect produced when someone who has seen a video, visited a page or read a tweet passes on the same message or a reference to all of their friends or followers. These' second degree' networks (i.e. followers of followers) may represent weak social ties, but can be very large.
The extreme case of this network effect is that of a campaign item which ‘goes viral', i.e. is distributed or seen by large numbers of social media users in a short period of time.
People are divided, however, on how effective these network effects are in convincing voters to cast their ballot for the candidate or party involved. Some fear that social media networks only create ‘echo chambers' where messages get passed between like-minded people who are already likely to vote for a given candidate or party.
Others point to evidence that social media networks are composed of heterogeneous groups: a given person's friends will not necessarily share their political views, and these friends are more likely to be convinced by someone they know than by a campaign speech or a party leaflet.
The fundamental question is whether social media are effective in mobilizing those who are engaged online to become engaged ‘offline' (i.e. in the real world) and thereby to reduce democratic deficits.
The fact is there are indeed signs of increasing political awareness in the country through the Internet and social media. However, it will take some time at least this election to measure the exactly impact of social media on actual people political decisions to election results.
This election will be the perfect test since the National electoral committee confirmed youth who are the obvious users of social media as the age group who registered in large number and mostly expected to participate
Sharing
Authors
Erick Semiono