The news is no longer news, the traditional media sources are struggling to keep up with the pace of the digital media. The 2015 election has proved that on average the incidence can be reported on social media number of times before it becomes a news to be reported on a newspaper or other traditional media platforms such as TV stations and Radio stations.
Social Media has rapidly grown in importance as a forum for political activism in its different forms. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube provide new ways to stimulate citizen engagement in political life, where elections and electoral campaigns have a central role. The recently trends of President JPM is the proof of that. #WhatWouldMagufuliDo hashtag has managed to create 3 million overall tweet impressions according to the tool hashtracking.com
Personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens in a more targeted manner and vice versa, without the intermediate role of mass media.
POMBE MAGUFULI DECLARED WINNER OF TANZANIAN ELECTIONS #tanzaniadecides #Tanzaniaelection
https://t.co/hCR0e19nEm pic.twitter.com/m8cHMWaVa0
— WatchDog (@WatchDogUganda) October 29, 2015
— Mwananchi Newspapers (@MwananchiNews) November 3, 2015
Social media has reshaped structures and methods of contemporary political communication by influencing the way politicians interact with citizens and each other. However, the role of this phenomenon in increasing political engagement and electoral participation is neither clear nor simple.
One of the clear advantages on social media is bridging the gap of youth engagement in politics, as they are the biggest beneficiaries of online communications. In Tanzania, there were 115,000 Internet users in 2000, but there is 7,590,794 Internet users in 2015, 14.9% of the population, the mobile penetration rate stands at 70 percent reaching even the most interior parts of the country. With the recent statistics of TCRA which was reported by IPP Media through their digital magazine, it is reported over 90 percent of internet users in Tanzania prefer using Social Media platforms compared to other online resources with Facebook taking the large portion of the share.
The age of data journalism and citizen journalism is already here, the hashtags (tools to share stories) of #HapaKaziTu and #Mabadiliko2015 created more contents, more views, more reach and more news than all the other traditional media put together in urban areas.
Social Media influence is not something to be neglected on any general election and it has been used as a tool to track transparency, accountability and citizens engagement during the election in different countries. For example, Reclaim Naija platform which uses Ushahidi to report election incidences in Nigeria.
Data Journalism is a journalism specialty reflecting the increased role that numerical data is used in the production and distribution of information in the digital era. - Online Definition
Citizen Journalism the collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the Internet.- Online Definition
Social Media influence is not something to be neglected on any general election and it has been used as a tool to track transparency, accountability and citizens engagement during the election in different countries. For example, Reclaim Naija platform which uses Ushahidi to report election incidences in Nigeria.
Ushahidi translates to “testimony” in Swahili, was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008. Since then, thousands have used our crowdsourcing tools to raise their voice. We’re a technology leader in Africa, headquartered in Nairobi, with a global team.
Through social media platforms, people can express their views in real time and engage with their leaders and decision makers directly. For example, the official Twitter account of President John P. Magufuli has almost 60,000 followers, meaning that over 59,000 people can reach out to the office of the President and share their opinions and this is very common to other countries already. For example, the official account of President Uhuru Kenyatta has more than a million followers.
Wonderful piece brother, social media platforms have played major role in this year's election and the good of it is it has reached more of the youths! a good thing.
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