Politics are everywhere this time of year for better or worse. Whether you are a political junkie or could care less it has been a big part of our lives over the past 3 or 4 months. For me, where I have noticed the most political content in new media is on Twitter and Facebook. I think this is a good thing for democracy, even if some voices aren’t the most educated or politically correct. Any way more voices can be heard it is a good thing in the advancement of democracy, and social media outlets offer that. A good example of the way social media and pop culture can effect politics was the Arab Spring, when many ideas and experiences were shared through social media and lead to gatherings and protests which greatly affected the political landscape of the Middle East. Overall I think pop culture and in particular social networks are a great way for us to all have a voice and for us to progress and try to give value to peoples points of view no matter if they are a part of real media or involved in government.
I’m not sure, whether Facebook and Twitter can really contribute that much to making people more involved in politics. Even if you follow political feeds, what you usually get there is one-sided and biased. Moreover I haven’t seen that many people posting political content on Facebook, although this observation is of course not empirical at all.
However, you’re absolutely right that social media was – and is – very important in countries that don’t guarantee the freedom of speech or even censor media and oppress their people, but still I don’t think that the Middle East is comparable to the United States in this regard.
I get most of my political information from Facebook and Twitter as well, and I have to agree with Jonas that most of the stuff I do see is pretty one-sided and biased. There are not too many fact based comments made on Facebook or Twitter. Every now and then I’ll catch some legit posts on politics on either of these social networking sites. For the most part though, it is usually people trolling on others who have differing opinions.
When it comes to comedy in politics being useful, the only outlets I know of that are somewhat legit are The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Even thought they do make fun of a lot of aspects of politics and politicians, there are also a lot of pressing matters and facts also involved in the shows. Things like SNL strictly make fun of the obvious flaws of the politicians.