Social Media and Politics

          As Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama spared during the second presidential debate last Tuesday, viewers sounded off on social media. In the moments before last week's much-anticipated rematch debate between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, messages like this showed up online: "Let's skip the play-by-play on Facebook during the presidential debates tonight, folks. If you must, do it on Twitter with #debates. You'll reach those who actually want to be reached."
          Implicit in the post was that our civic, if not necessarily civil, discourse is now also very much a cyber one. America in 2012 fully expects to vent about and follow politics electronically. Not long ago, TV was the overwhelming voice in the political conversation. It consisted of campaigns talking at us, often in ways that drove us batty. Today, the television is but one of the screens battling for voters' attention. The explosion ofTwitterand its ilk -- played out on mobile phones, iPads, laptops and desktops -- lets the electorate talk back. "It's one part effective and one part distracting," said Sarah Wood, secretary and treasurer for theSocial Media Club of Kansas City. "You catch new and different interpretations of what presidential candidates have said, and you can fact check on the fly. "The downside," she said, "is the emotionally charged content and the satire is very distracting."
          Wood is part of the technologically savvy culture that lives to post reactions to the season finale of a favorite television program toFacebookeven while pulling up a weather radar on one screen and a Twitter feed on another to find out when it will rain. During last Tuesday's debate, Wood watched the YouTube live stream on her iPad, while using her iPhone to read real-time posts on her Twitter feed. "This tech-savvy generation wants to be involved in conversations to create a connectivity that a singular viewing of an event cannot produce," she said. "We want other opinions and interpretations to be part of our experience."
          Indeed, following the pattern from the two previous nationally televised debates, tonight's third and final debate between Obama and Romney on foreign policy will surely draw millions to their multiple screens. The debate last Tuesday drew 12.4 million comments on Twitter and Facebook, reported Bluefin Labs, a company that studies social media's reaction to televised events. Compared with other social media events, the debate followed this year's Grammy Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards as the third biggest event ever in social media. The first debate came in fifth. "The growth of social platforms like Twitter and Reddit (where users share links to news) are bringing a whole new experience to the election this year," Evan Conway, president of the Kansas City-basedOneLouder, which makes apps for mobile phones and tablets, said in an email.