ORONO- Since President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008, social networking has become a useful and almost necessary tool for politicians to reach potential voters.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow politicians to get their message out to a wider audience, more specifically, young voters. University of Maine student Kristyn Anderson believes that social networking sites are an affective tool for campaigning.
‘Everyone is on Facebook, everyone is on the computer,’ says Anderson, adding, ‘if we are not looking at news websites, we are looking at Facebook.’
Signs on the side of the road and leaflets in the mail are still widely used but with the amount of time young people spend on Facebook, candidates believe they can truly reach the young voter in an element that is familiar to them.
Almost every candidate running in Maine’s mid-term elections has a Facebook and/or a Twitter page. Republican Gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage’s Facebook page greets the user with a campaign video, a video biography and a big red button that says ‘CONTRIBUTE’ that links the user to LePage donation website. Republican Congressional candidate Jason Levesque has integrated social networking features into his professional website, giving the user direct links to his Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages.
Dena Worster is a volunteer for LePage and believes that ‘Facebook seems to be the way to go, to communicate these days.’ She adds ‘the candidates can actually post comments and have their group pages and can communicate with all of their followers.’ Worster believes that social networking is an asset for not just the candidates but also for the volunteers and the supporters.
There are risks politicians have to face when using these sites, the biggest risk being fake accounts. Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell’s Twitter, username and @LibbyForGov, is not flashy. It uses the basic layout and includes a picture of her. Mitchel uses this page to share election updates, news stories, and endorsements with her supporters. A very similar looking Twitter page with the username @LibbyForGuv is actually run by an impostor. To the casual observer, the pages look identical. The same layout is used and even the same photo is used. On the fake Twitter page under information, it says “A parody of Libby Mitchell, who is herself a parody of herself.” The tweets make Mitchell out to be sarcastic and unprofessional.
‘Shawn What’s-his-name and Kevin Something-or-other are totally legitimate candidates & deserve to be included’ and ‘I’m only sorry that I forgot to include Cheney in the terrorist photo’ are just two of the many sarcastic tweets found on the @LibbyForGuv page.
University of Maine student Shannon Ouellette is aware of defamatory and fake social networking sties and adds ‘you just have to know the facts, you have to understand that the candidates wouldn’t normally run their mouths that badly, especially with the election so close.’
Similar twitter accounts to @LibbyForGuv can be found for LePage and Independent candidate Eliot Cutler.
Social networking sites can be a great way for politicians to get their message out to potential voters and are a great way to interact with supporters but with the lack of personal verification on these sites, they can be very damaging.
For more election coverage, check out Amy Becker’s report on the apathy of youth voters and Emma Thieme’s recap of the gubernatorial candidate’s forum in Bangor.
For more election coverage, check out Amy Becker’s report on the apathy of youth voters and Emma Thieme’s recap of the gubernatorial candidate’s forum in Bangor.
The Works of Bryan Roche 