“In the twenty-first century, the proliferation of
electronic social media portals, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Blogs,
deployed on laptops and handheld mobile devices, are new, powerful
communication tools capable of influencing users’ opinions in the realms of
politics and policy” (Auer, 2011). None of these portals were specifically
designed for collecting or sharing information on politics or public affairs,
but much of the internet’s present-day functions go well beyond the purposes.
One realm of social media I would use to promote my policy
on early childhood curriculum and development would be Twitter because the use
of tweets, #hashtags, and "followers" can spread an educational trend globally in
a matter of moments. “Evidence of this trend, for example, are the half-million
followers of tweets transmitted by two, young State Department officials. The
New York Times reports the pair’s tweets have become an integral part of a new
State Department effort to bring diplomacy into the digital age, by using
widely available technologies to reach out to citizens, companies, and other
non-state actors” (Auer, 2011). The audience
following Twitter is immense, and although it only offers a 140 character limit
per message, a “trending” or “viral” policy could create global change by the
gathering, processing, and dissemination of information relevant to the policy.
Another realm of social media I would use to share my policy would be a professional
blog because this avenue also creates a platform in which to mediate public
understanding of important events, trends, and decisions. By building a
reputation fueled with dependability and comprehensiveness, I can build a solid
reputation that attracts followers to receive my cumulative decisions of the
policy. Although this avenue may not reach as many users, it provides a fast and
low cost way to disseminate policy information, while still attaining public
feedback and communication with the citizens.
The benefit of using social media such as Twitter or a
professional blog is that it opens up communication channels by virtually
anyone with an iPhone, smartphone, or high-speed modem, to disseminate
people’s immediate impressions on a policy. Additionally, as the writer of the
policy, I can post messages to social media platforms without interference from
editors or censors. One challenge in
examining social media includes a present concern that social media does not
offer an “official” stance on a policy, just a mere opinion, leading to the dependability
or credibility aspects to the audience reading information from social media.
Reference
Auer, M. R. (2011). The policy sciences of social media.
Policy Studies Journal, 39(4), 709–736.Retrieved from the Walden Library
databases.
