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Did John Boehner just say “PWNED”? The Politics of Social Media
Yes, a press release at the behest of the House Minority Leader just used a term invented and perpetuated by gamers whenever they were on a “killing spree” in Quake 3: Arena. It’s a term I haven’t heard since my days of online competitive gaming, sessions in which I was constantly bombarded with really quite nefarious trash talk. Hearing it used by someone outside of the spectrum of adolescent-minded gamers was both amusing and somewhat unsettling; particularly given the distinctly non-gamer context of the meat of the release.
The GOP has recently publicized its prolific use of social media. The popular fact checking site Politifact confirms that the release is, by and large, quite accurate. House Republicans dominate Twitter. Nine of the top 10 most followed Representatives are Republicans, considerably more of whom use Twitter at all than Democrats. Boehner himself has over 18,500 followers. Additionally, Republican legislators are more active posters and earn more average viewers per video on Youtube.
This is a quick reversal from the popular perception of so-called “net-roots” during the 2004 and 2008 Presidential campaigns. Howard Dean was originally considered the pioneer of online tools for energizing a base, and strong social networking movements were given much due credit in President Obama’s successful run. Furthermore, the political left is more traditionally associated with youth, which is in turn more traditionally associated with the internet.
So why the shift? I hypothesize two reasons.
Many stat-processors, particularly companies like Nielsen, have been releasing studies over the past year that suggest that Twitter is not heavily fueled by the 24 and under demographic. In fact, mom and dad are far more likely than their cellphone chatting teenage son or daughter to be retweeting their favorite blogger. This, coupled with the ever broadening community of Facebook, represents a sort of coming out party for adults on the web; and adults tend to be far more polarized than youths when it comes to political beliefs. Given that the average age of a Congressional Representative is 55, an older audience is more likely to gel with their content output.
The second portion of my theory involves both ease of use and human behavior. We have a liberalized (note: not liberal as in contemporary left wing, but as in the actual meaning of the word) view on political speech in this country. It’s mostly free, as guaranteed by the first amendment. When people feel tred upon or otherwise locked into a minority, their desire to exercise their freedom of speech increases dramatically. This is only natural, we don’t like to feel as though we aren’t being heard. The internet is, if nothing else, a platform. Social media sites have defined that platform and streamlined its use into a more confined yet graspable skill-set. When the democrats were the total minority from 2000-2006, it was only logical that the internet would be an excellent place to vent and gather momentum. Likewise, in the current political climate, the right has virtually no power on Capitol Hill aside from the weighty filibuster. So it’s only logical that those on the right would be exceedingly ready to voice their grievances in the easiest and most practical way possible, online. The same goes for their constituents, who feel like now more than ever their voices need to be heard.
So perhaps if or when the pendulum of political power glides back to the right, the satiated GOP will no longer be inclined to post so actively online. It may truly be the case that the internet is the popular tool of the minority. After all, you don’t need a permit to protest on Twitter, and when all you can do is filibuster you’ve got plenty of time to kill.
Categories Digital Media, Outside the Square
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