SUNDAY 1 JULY, 2018 – UWI TODAY
17
If you are a follower of progressive politics
in the
United States, you may have heard of Shaun King.
More than likely, you have seen his work. King is part
journalist, part activist and even part political strategist
and campaigner.
He worked with NFL player Colin Kaepernick on
his protest against police brutality. Many of the videos
you see on the mainstream US media that depict
police violence or racism came through his hands
first. When a group of white supremacists badly beat a
black counter protester at the protest in Charlottesville
in August 2017, it was King who coordinated the
manhunt to find and capture them. Three of them are
in jail today. For several years King has campaigned
for candidates at the city, state and national level on
the leftwing of the Democratic Party and disseminated
ideas on political strategy and action to the public.
King is one of an emerging breed of political actor,
occupying a new but growing space. He is able to do so
because of one reason – social media. On Twitter he
has nearly one million followers, including politicians,
party operatives, mainstream journalists, academics
and activists. His power is the power of social media
and it can be felt throughout the political process,
including elections.
But what of Trinidad and Tobago? What kind
of impact do social media have in our politics? How
have platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
affected our elections? And what are the benefits and
dangers of this potential disruptive technology, to our
political process, traditional media, and society itself?
These were some of the questions asked and
answered at a recent forum hosted by the Sir Arthur
Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies
(SALISES) of UWI. Entitled “The Role of Social Media
in National Elections in Trinidad and Tobago”, the
forum looked both at the international picture and
the national election in 2015.
“In 2015 both parties used social media to target
the undecided, especially youth,” Dr Indrani Bachan-
Persad said in her presentation at the June 6 forum. Dr
Bachan-Persad is the author of “Mediatised Political
Campaigns: A Caribbean Perspective”. Speaking to an
audience at the Centre for Language Learning (CLL)
Auditorium that included veteran journalists, activists,
politicians and UWI students and staff, she presented
findings from her new research.
Dr Bachan-Persad’s research led her to the
conclusion that the People’s National Movement’s
(PNM’s) more targeted approach social media
approach to win young and undecided voters,
contributed to their victory over the United National
Congress (UNC)/People’s Partnership (PP) in 2015.
“The UNC was not as targeted as the PNM,” she
said, pointing to the PNM’s use of Vestige Services,
a Washington-based digital strategist firm. The
UNC, on the other hand, used several firms and as a
consequence suffered from “mixed messaging”.
Dr Bachan-Persad described a social media
environment in which the PNM, its activists and
community groups created a barrage of content on
sites such as Facebook, content such as music videos
and campaigns that spoke directly to the youth (such
as 3 Canal’s “Beat Out 2015”). In contrast, the UNC
content was longer form and documentary-style,
appealing to an older audience - an audience that could
not determine the election.
In her presentation, Dr Bachan-Persad spoke
about the dangers of social media in a country such
as Trinidad and Tobago where political divisions can
also be racial divisions. The media, she said, is “crucial
inmanaging issues such as race” to prevent them from
becoming “the dominant themes of the campaigns”.
Andwhile she saw traditional media taking up that role
responsibly, “in the absence of equivalent gatekeepers
in social media, the floodgates of unfettered opinion”
could be opened.
The danger of media without gatekeepers,
particularly in an environment of extreme wealth and
power, was one of the themes of Dr Scott Timcke’s
presentation. Dr Timcke is a Lecturer in UWI St
Augustine’s Department of Literary Cultural and
Communications Studies.
Looking at the US in the era of President Donald
Trump, a prolific user of Twitter, Dr Timcke says, “for
Trump social media is the only way to get the truth
out. The Trump administration routinely coordinates
efforts to delegitimize news organisations like Time
and CNN.”
Even more worrying, Trump and his followers
have used social media to encourage the growth of
far right groups that have nationalist and bigoted
ideas, such as the “Alt-Right”. Alt-Right leader
Richard Spencer was one of the architects of the
demonstrations in Charlottesville that culminated in
the killing of Heather Heyer, an activist.
“For totalitarian leaders, truth is simply a matter
of power,” Dr Timcke says, speaking of how powerful
actors operating in bad faith can misuse social media
platforms. “(So they can put out prejudiced messages
such as) African Americans are gang members;
Mexicans are rapists; Muslims are planning to
overthrow the government.”
Perhaps the most positive speaker on the role of
social media in elections was the one whose profession
is being most affected by it. Journalist CurtisWilliams,
speaking on behalf of the Media Association of
Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) acknowledged the
enormous changes taking place in themedia landscape
today.
“The rise of social media has been accompanied
by increased connectivity,” Williams said, citing data
from the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad
and Tobago (TATT) showing fixed line Internet
penetration was as high as 76.9 percent in the last
quarter of 2017 and mobile penetration at 52 percent.
Trinidad and Tobago is now a wired society and
with deep digital penetration comes deep social media
usage. This has major consequences for traditional
media.
“Traditional media are no longer the gatekeeper of
news,”Williams said. “Gone are the days whenwhat we
saw and heard was determined by traditional media.
This is because people now have the power to post
their thoughts, pictures and video, and tell their stories
without having to go through traditional media.”
The MATT representative used the recent
examples of Nafiesa Nakhid, the teacher who was
told she could not wear her hijab at the Lakshmi Girls
Hindu College, and Ajay Aberdeen, the young boy
who posted a video of himself explaining his decision
to farm and sell peppers. In both instances, stories
generated and shared on social media determined the
traditional media news cycle.
Williams said social media was not only driving
news, it was also taking advertising away from
traditional media. However, he believed there was an
opportunity for the traditional media to carve out an
important space by providing the kind of verification
and attention to journalistic standards that social
media does not have.
But he cautioned that traditional media was not
immune to bad actors or practices.
“Propaganda is not new,” he said. “We have seen
political parties or political operatives putting out
information that is clearly incorrect and has not been
fact checked, and some of it is making its way into the
mainstream media.”
For the traditional media tomaintain its relevance
it should offer what social media does not - verified,
trustworthy information.
SIR ARTHUR LEWIS INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STUDIES (SALISES)
How is digital marketing and social media affecting politics?
ELECTIONEERING
in a Digital World
B Y J O E L H E N R Y
