WHAT IS POLITICS Politics can be defined as the theory and mechanism governments use to control societies on planet earth. This is done via system of mutual respectful manner and well defined rules in an effort to maintain law and order. This is the total opposite to a dictatorship or monarchy where citizens are forcefully told what do. Politics governments uses to run a country are divided into many ideologies with some of the most notable ones of the last 200 years being: Socialism, Progressivism, Communism, Conservatism, Liberalism and Marxism.

HISTORY OF POLICTICS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA The origins of the political system as we know today and can be traced back to French Revolution. This revolution that was lead by Napoleon Bonaparte, destroyed the old system of monarchy control of society in the most violent manner conceivable in human history. From this point the idea of modern political system that governments was born. Fast forward to 1961, when the John F. Kennedy became the 35 th United States President, one of the many notable things of his campaign was its use of television. The Richard Nixon era in the early 1970s continued this trend. For Kennedy’s “Baby Boomers” voters who were already the first generation to be heavily influenced by social dynamics of television coverage and the previous “Silent Generation” – this played in big part in how these citizens observed, dissected and eventually voted in the election for Kennedy. Similarly the effects of his tragic and well publicized death two years later was fully felt by the public because of television.

HISTORY OF POLITICS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 2 In 2013 Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center made a very apt historical conclusion. “It’s easy to forget, given how ubiquitous social media is today, that in 2008 sending out voting reminders on Twitter and interacting with people on Facebook was a big deal. When Obama announced his candidacy in 2007, Twitter had only just started and there wasn’t even an iPhone yet.” 47 years later after Kennedy’s election, the 2008 and election of the first Black President of the United States – Barack Obama, highlighted this as his campaign used similar tactics for social media as Kennedy did with Television. His key target was to gain the large youth voting base which derived from the “Echo Generation” who are the stronger users of social media.

Barack Obama’s 2012 Election Campaign During the 2012 Election campaign, Mitt Romney and his campaign did a better job of utilizing social media than John McCain did in However by having a four year head start in the game, Obama campaign was able to take advantage of a few key statistical factors that researched found that social media influenced. -American adults who use social networks were at 69%; that was up significantly from the 37% who had social network profiles in % of social media users actively engage in political activism online, which researched have noticed to be the equivalent of 39% of all American adults. -20% of political voters online during the 2012 campaign were urged to vote via social media by family, friends or social network connections. -20% voters online in the 2012 campaign actively encouraged others and 22% posted their decision when they voted.

Video: 2012 Election – Obama vs Romney

DISCUSSION -Recollection: Where were you and how did you watch Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration speech -Do you follow Obama

BIBLOGRAPHY Miller, Clair Cain “How Obama’s internet campaign changed politics” from Retrieved on March 10 th, 2016 from Pinero, Rebecca “Electioneering: The political and cultural influences of social media in the 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections” from Retrieved on March 10, 2016 from of-social-media-in-the-2008-and-2012-presidential-elections of-social-media-in-the-2008-and-2012-presidential-elections Rutledge, Pamela “How Obama won the social media battle in 2012 Presidential campaign” from Retrieved on March 9th, 2016 from Pew Research Center. “Obama outpaces Romney in Social Media campaign” from Retrieved on August 8 th 2012 from