Explain the impact new media is likely to have on political campaigns and citizens’ political participation.

Explain the impact new media is likely to have on political campaigns and citizens’ political participation.

The media’s impact on politics has certainly grown over the ears, and things like 24 hour news networks have come to keep voters and citizens connected, but may also serve to pull them to one side of an argument over another. The media is meant to serve as a reporter that simply gives facts and reports the goings on of the government in order to keep the population informed. The media also acts as an agenda setter for government because it highlights the social concerns of the population and brings it to the front of the talking points in government. If people are talking about an issue, that issue will receive more time in politics and government to be corrected. The media also acts as an investigator. This is to say that the media serves as a way of keeping government accountable by searching for misguided politics, corruption, and problems in oversight. Recent investigations into the backlogs of veteran’s affairs cases have been a success of investigative journalism, and has pushed the issue forward in political conversations. This occurs both in living rooms as well as the halls of government.

New media forms like social media, blogs, and other forms have come to keep the population informed on a round the clock basis. The ability for people to communicate quickly has increased government accountability to the public because of the constant threat of controversy. It can be seen however, that this constant threat is hurting the potential progress of politics because it may handcuff politicians to not want to take a misstep in their activities as a public servant. Ultimately the new media influence that has been seen in politics has raised the accountability and knowledge in politics which, despite its potential pitfalls of misinformation, is a step in the right direction of an informed electorate.