FOUNDATION UNIVERSITY

Role of Twitter in
Politics
Shariq Hamza

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
The Twitter Population..................................................................................................3
Effectiveness of Twitter.................................................................................................3
Examples......................................................................................................................4
2012 Election in US...................................................................................................4
Pakistani Politicians..................................................................................................4
Conclusion....................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................5

Role of Twitter in politics

Introduction
Social media, especially twitter, has provided a new way to engage ordinary citizens
in electoral campaigns and politics. It not only allows the politicians to spread their
message faster to potential voters but also allows the voters and citizens to
communicate their reactions and feedbacks. Although the presence of social media
is spreading and media use patterns are changing, online political engagement is
largely restricted to people already active in politics and on the Internet. Other
audiences are less responsive. For example, television news together with print and
online newspapers is still the most important sources of political information in most
areas of Pakistan.
We are only beginning to scratch the surface of developing theories linking twitter
usage to political participation and actually beginning to test causal relationships. At
the same time, the data being generated by users of twitter represents a completely
unprecedented source of data recording how hundreds of millions of people around
the globe interact with politics.

The Twitter Population

Internet has been perhaps most outstanding innovation in the field of communication
and research, today a big chunk of world population uses the internet for multi
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purposes, Internet World Stats (IWS) estimated that there are around 2,267,233,742
internet users in the world which is 32.7% of total world population. While a regional
breakup suggest that 44.8% of total internet users are Asians. Interestingly, among
Worlds top 20 internet user states, China stands at number first, India at third and
Pakistan at twentieth. According to the study, In December 2011 Pakistans total
population was population approximately 180 million out of which around 30 million
used internet, which count 15.5 % of total population of Pakistan. Twitter is said to
have around more than 3 million users in Pakistan (more than the population of our
capital city, Islamabad) and this rate is increasing rapidly. 140 characters of a Twitter
post are powerful beyond its size.

Effectiveness of Twitter
Twitter is effective in many ways; Firstly, it provides a platform to the people where
they can write, share and express their ideas without any fear and compulsion. This
can provide a true overview about the inclination of the society as a whole and
people can raise political issues that they might not have touched upon before. This
provides a platform for people with similar political opinions to unite for a political
cause. This in turn gives the people a feel of social power and an active role in
politics.
Secondly, it informs you well, twitter is the sea of information and one can keep itself
well informed and well educated via these forums. It generates and shapes an
opinion or policy, Arab spring, UK riots and others are the good examples of this.

Examples
2012 Election in US
Twitter was a fundamental digital battleground for candidates in 2012, with primary
candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney tweeting early and often throughout
their respective campaigns. While President Obamas personal Twitter has only
recently become active, his campaign has maintained a consistent feed since 2007,
with him frequently contributing posts personally and signing them b.o. He used the
platform extremely effectively, strengthening his already dominant hold on the
younger voters across the country with 140-character chunks of hope and change.
Many of the posts were looser in nature, with Obama even going as far as to tweet
out a Spotify playlist highlighting his musical preferences (which he might not have
been able to communicate if he were only using direct communication).

Pakistani Politicians
Imran Khan, Marvi Memon, Bilawal Bhutto, Shahbaz Sharif, Perviz Musharaf and
others have big fan followers on twitter. This shows their interest to defend their party
and engage with people via twitter. However; Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tahreek e
Insaf (PTI) is using twitter and other social media more effectively and strategically
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than others. Diplomatic channels and Diplomats are not behind in this race; they are
actively engaged with their fan followers on social media forums. Pakistan
ambassador to US Sherry Rehman, former ambassador Hussain Haqqani is
amongst.

Conclusion
It will not be unjust to state that twitter is playing a very efficient and productive role
in the politics of our country. According to the demographics 50% of the registered
voters are between the segments of eighteen to thirty-five years and coincidentally
the same demographics are the active twitter users as well. This fact cannot be
ignored by the politicians. Twitter is challenging the traditional political patterns and it
is introducing the new political paradigms. Our political parties have to own
and adopt these new practices because social networks like twitter will definitely
make some differences in future elections, and those who will ignore it, may lose.

References
[1] M.A dissertation by Madaline Storck,The Role of Social Media in Political
Mobilisation: a Case Study of the January 2011 Egyptian Uprising
[2] http://epthinktank.eu/2014/02/12/the-role-played-by-social-media-in-politicalparticipation-and-electoral-campaigns/, retrieved on 20th Dec 2015
[3] Social media in Pak Politics, article by Shafiq Solangi in Pakistan Observer
(http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=158448)

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