Increasingly social media is becoming an important medium in political communication. Out of its thirty million plus citizens Ghana has about 8.8 million users of social media with 89% of all internet users in the country owning a Facebook account. As a result, state institutions now use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to disseminate information to the citizens alongside traditional media channels. Politicians in Ghana have joined the foray and are increasingly using social media as a means of communicating with the people of Ghana. This particularly intensifies during election periods when politicians aim to ensure that their campaign messages travel as fast as possible and reach as wide an audience as possible.
This proliferation of social media in the political sphere presents a great opportunity for political communicators. It is a chance to build trust with audiences, control narratives, test campaign messages and promote election candidates. However, social media usage has drawbacks that make it necessary to be circumspect about how political communicators use these platforms.
Practical Uses of social media in Political Communication
Promoting Electoral Candidates
Electoral campaigns are marketing promotions. It involves convincing audiences to buy into the messages of candidates and the candidates themselves. The younger generation is more digitally connected and thus is easier to reach with campaign messages on digital platforms. In Ghana, many previously relatively known political candidates have acquired massive audiences and digital following through their continuous use of social media to interact with audiences. Social media provides an effective way to reach audiences to sell them a candidate.
Building Trust Through Interaction
Social media reduces the distance between politicians and the people. In recent times politicians can interact directly with citizens on various social media channels. The close nature of these interactions makes citizens feel seen and heard. This ultimately leads to personalized relationships being built between the audience and the political candidate. On Twitter, for example, the “Spaces” feature has facilitated direct communication between audiences and political candidates many times. This allows politicians to directly receive feedback for consideration in policy direction and campaign messaging.
Testing Campaign Messages
The speed of information dissemination and the ease of gathering feedback on social media makes the platform ideal for testing campaign messages. Social media reception of political discourse can inform political communicators on popular thought on issues. In Ghana, however, there are many instances where the response to public policy on social media led to the reconsideration of policies. The E-Levy policy saga is a good example of this phenomenon.
Crises Communication
The use of social media in political communication heightened during the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdowns presented the challenge of meeting citizens directly in their homes and social media became a more prominent communication tool, particularly in health communication. In Ghana, citizens viewed the official social media communication handles of government agencies as credible sources of information. Politicians also used it to assure citizens of the government’s commitment to the safety of Ghanaians during the lockdowns. Additionally, public figures used social media to advise citizens on prescribed safety precautions. Social media was used to reach the younger generation who do not use traditional media as often as they do new media.
Pitfalls of social media in political communication
Loud Voices
The direct communication that social media facilitates between political candidates and audiences has propelled social media to great importance in political communication. However, social media discourse should be mistaken for general public discourse. There is always the tendency for “loud voices” to muffle the opinion of “moderate voices”. If anything, social media can illuminate societal structures that limit public participation. As result, social media can mainly serve as a fragment of reality.
Misinformation and Disinformation
For political communicators, ensuring that audiences can access credible information can be a challenge. This is because the ease of access social media provides users means audiences are susceptible to malicious entities and information. Fake and parody accounts can muddy the waters for audiences who do not take the time to verify false information. The challenge here is for political communicators to be clear and consistent with information dissemination and seek verification on various social media websites to gain credibility.
Conclusion
Political communication using new media and traditional media is similar in the goal of building trust between political figures and the citizens. However, social media’s ability to forge personified relationships between political figures is more pronounced. Nonetheless, the drawbacks of using social media mean that social media does not necessarily make political communication easier, rather political communication is becoming more nuanced and complex.