Social media: An introduction to practical uses during elections.

1. Social media: An introduction to practical uses
during elections
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Editor, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org)

2. what is social media?
• Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform
broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues
(many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and
information, transforming people from content consumers into content
producers. (Wikipedia)

4. new media & technologies in elections
• Blogs
• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace)
• Google Maps
• Mobiles: SMS, MMS, Mobile photography and video
• VoIP: Skype
• 3G: HSPA wireless broadband, ADSL

5. what’s new
• Ubiquity of two way communications
• Addressable peoples, even those who IDPs or refugees
• Election monitoring and campaigning tied to communications and technology
• First stories of violations come from citizens
• Low resolution content broadcast on high definition media
• Content from ordinary peoples juxtaposed with professional journalists

6. enduring challenges
• Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain
• Torrent of information. Trickle of knowledge.
• Post-disaster communications can be unreliable and difficult
• Information of election violence do not mean political parties beha

7. The use of social media in the US

8. Source Watch: Crowdsourcing

9. 10 questions: YouTube for accountability

10. Obama’s election campaign
“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be
president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not
have been the nominee”
Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post

11. Obama’s election campaign
The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008, April 2009, Pew Internet & American Life Project

12. Obama’s election campaign
The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008, April 2009, Pew Internet & American Life Project

13. Obama’s election campaign
The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008, April 2009, Pew Internet & American Life Project

14. Obama’s election campaign
The Internet's Role in Campaign
2008, April 2009, Pew Internet &
American Life Project

15. The use of social media in Sri Lanka
during Presidential Campaign 2010

16. flickr in election campaigns

17. flickr in election campaigns

18. facebook in election campaigns

19. facebook in election campaigns

20. youtube in election campaigns

21. youtube in election campaigns

22. twitter in election campaigns

23. wikipedia in election campaigns

24. Uses of social media in election
monitoring

25. online video in election monitoring

26. facebook in election monitoring

27. twitter in election monitoring

28. flickr in election monitoring

29. twitter to get more perspectives

30. know your twitter hastags (#haiti)

31. know your twitter hastags (#slelections)

32. google maps in elections monitoring

33. groundviews.org: blogs for information on
elections

34. Producing content

35. wordpress.com: blogging

36. ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC

37. bambuser.com: mobile phone broadcasting

38. drop.io: reports through audio

39. Pulling it all in and keep abreast

40. Google Reader: a web based RSS reader

41. Spy: http://spy.appspot.com

42. Google: Updates from social media

43. Twitter: (twitter.com/slelections) Aggregation from
social media

44. election reporting toolkit

45. key points: recap
• New technologies potentially give voice to all citizens
• Be sceptical of new information, but use new media to push and pull content
• Develop media literacy to embrace new technologies

46. Thank you