In the past three chapters, Wiesinger has discussed the different types of media, such as “Legacy Media” and “Digital Media.” The different trends in media and society during the past several years have also been discussed throughout the chapters. In digital media, this type did not exist until the World Wide web was invented and users were able customize the content that they receive. For example, this could be your favorite news source on the web, such as CNN or FOX, enabling them to send you notifications on your phone. In legacy media, this can be limited space in a certain medium, such as a newspaper. There is only room for one front-page story. Whereas, with an online news source, there is no limited space and there can be several top stories at once.
As discussed in our class discussion, on the sports article regarding Ryan Lochte and the botched robbery claim, this online news story, as with many online news stories, has a lot of colorful pictures, contains creative techniques used to attract the reader’s attention. This would be legacy media. The message is always created by the journalist when a certain topic is reported on. According to McLuhan, “the medium is the message” refers to the technology that delivers the message and is behind the change of how we receive the message. In many online stories, updates to the story can be reported more efficiently, and previous developments can easily be stated because there is no restraint on space.
In the evolution of mass media, “crowdsourcing” is when various people choose the content. The model that is usually followed for this is “Crawl”, meaning read-only content, then “Walk” searching for different channels of information, such as a blog, and finally, “Run” which is the interaction for user-engagement. An example of this is if the reader “crawls” for the information, like reading a story online, the reader will then “walk” and search for another source for the story and then finally, “Run” in which the user can try interactive ways to view the story, such as glancing through photos. Political participation can follow this model as well.
There are also different kinds of media and how the reader takes it in. These are “hot” media and “cool” media. “Hot” media is what is trending at the current moment, and “cool” media is the user is posting to a site, such as a blog.
Political participation is used as a collaborative tool on the internet is by the rise in the use of social media. Social media is changing the way that political participation works. According the Joan Subirats of “The Huffington Post”, the internet is changing in the process of creating, shaping and implementing public policy, and forcing political figures to support the specific position. They depend on these for public opinion. Years ago, many elected officials would rely on letters written to them, where now they can just take a look at social media and narrow it down to people living in their prospective area and glance at their opinions.
Another way political participation takes place on the internet is in election campaigns. As seen in many election campaigns, many candidates are taking to social media to connect with the people more personally. Whereas ten or twenty ago, candidates held more town halls and met one-on-one with constituents. This is an example of digital media. If people are on Facebook or Twitter a candidate can hold a “virtual” Town Hall meeting and answer constituents’ questions digitally. This is a fast and efficient way to do it. During debates on TV, at the bottom on your screen there will usually be a little hashtag name, which is the one you use during the debate to discuss your thoughts. This can be a customization for the user.
A third way that political participation is used online is by connecting to young people during the election cycle. Twitter is used in a negative way sometimes, as we’ve seen in this brutal election cycle. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump alike have used it endlessly to criticize each other. This allows them to debate outside of the official TV debates. Issues can also be discussed as well between the candidates. In Chapter 2, Wiesinger mentions the term “Mass adoption.” It is simply defined as the invention that only changes culture if a critical mass of people adapts to use it and uses it. This is exactly what social media is doing. By using many social media platforms, it is better connecting young voters with the candidates. This is shown in this election but it started with President Obama in the 2008 when he used the internet and social media to collect small campaign donations. According to Monica Anderson of “The Pew Research Center,” President Obama today uses his Twitter to connect and recruit young people to volunteer.
In order for people to keep up with anything going on in the world, especially news and politics, they usually will get it via cell phone or mobile device. According to Aaron Smith, of “The Pew Research Center,” in the 2014 midterm election cycle, twenty-eight percent of registered voters have used their cell phone to keep track of political news and campaign coverage. This has increased thirteen percent from the election in 2010. Another statistic to note is sixteen percent of registered voters now follow candidates on social media. This is up six percent from the 2010 election.
In conclusion, political participation is being used as a collaborative tool every day on the web. This is especially true during elections, but also outside of elections, when people exchange their ideas on social media. If this didn’t exist, young people would not be well informed on what is going on the current political state.
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