Analyzing Social Media's Role in Modern Democracy: A Critical Essay

This essay examines the multifaceted relationship between social media and democracy. It begins by defining social media and highlighting its increasing significance as a communication tool, especially for young people. The essay then explores both the positive and negative impacts of social media on democratic processes. It discusses how social media facilitates information sharing, enables mobilization, and amplifies voices, thereby supporting democratic ideals. However, it also acknowledges the potential for social media to spread misinformation, promote hate speech, and undermine democratic institutions through foreign interference and cyberbullying. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for responsible social media usage and the importance of defining freedom of speech to mitigate the negative effects while harnessing its potential for good.

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Social Media and Democracy
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Introduction
According to Castells (2011), social media refers to a collection of online communications
channels which serves various purposes like, getting a community’s input, content sharing,
interactions, and collaboration. This kind of networking is aided by websites and application that
enable the creation and sharing of content efficiently and in time. Social media is the fastest
means of c communication used today. Due to is efficiency in terms of timesaving, reliability
and its ability to connect to the people globally it has gained significant interest to all groups of
people both young and the old hence becoming the most used form of communication of the 19th
century (Ceron and Memoli, 2016). Examples of applications used for social networking are,
Facebook, twitter, google+, Wikis, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many more. Social media is used in a
wide range from, blogging, social networking, and businesses to matters politics and democracy,
among others. In the contemporary days, we are living in social media is becoming the true
reflection of freedom in the sense that it gives people the autonomy to express themselves and
provide an opinion on various matters without fear or compromise (McChesney, 2015). It is the
most used platform in elections and campaigns to amass multitudes bring people together
through the creation of social media groups and sharing of vital information concerning the
candidate in question in the public domains where many people can assess them.
With the increased use of social media it has been used for both right and wrong purposes,
especially due to its free user nature. While some people think it is not suitable for democracy,
its benefits are numerous, and I believe if used well social media is the best platform to bring
about the change we so desire in our communities. Therefore, social media is good for
democracy.

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Is social media good or bad for democracy?
Social media is a good source of information. In the dynamic world, we are living in today social
media is becoming a significant source of news as youths have resorted to platforms like
Facebook for news (Fuchs, 2017). Due to its participatory nature, most media houses post their
story in platforms like Facebook as it gives an overview of people’s opinion. The kind of news
shared in the social media platforms include the issues of democracy including matters of
controversy in the governments, achievements of a government and its failures and any news as
it pertains any country’s government. The use of social media is among the ways people make
their cry to be heard by those in governance position (Tucker et al 2017). Social media like
Facebook provides a platform for all including the minority, the poor, and those excluded by the
media to be heard, therefore encouraging democracy, which means the rule of the people by the
people. The voice of the mass is powerful, and when people come together to push for a matter,
it moves the responsible people into action.
Through social media, essential issues and voices are amplified. The views can either be from
influential people in a country/government or peoples voice. Unlike the tradition media, today’s
media gives the readers a chance to respond and give their point of view on matters of
democracy.The tradition media includes information on magazines written by editors while the
current media uses social media platform where everyone has an equal chance to give their
opinion. In today’s era, however, social media has set a platform where people become co-
authors and can amplify the editors and newsmakers opinion through posting their point of view.
Social media, especially Facebook, has been used to amplify issues of importance in
communities through the creation of videos which go viral to reach the targeted people for

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action. Example, the campaign used by the invisible children in 2012 using a manipulative video
and a strategy of using online influencers to share the video. Within a short, while the video was
shared by most of the American young people and the goal of the campaign was by influential
US Congress. Opinion leaders are very powerful people, and social media is one of the largest
platforms used today by opinion leaders, especially in the matters affecting people; hence it’s
one of the significant tools for democracy.
Given that most of the countries today exercise democracy, social media provides a space for
mobilization especially in political matters (Unwin 2012). Social media has been used in
elections campaigns to recruit people to participate in rallies, to mobilize funds for candidates
and in overthrowing a government and products boycott. Social media is becoming a powerful
tool for mobilizing people for social movements and even meetings offline; thus, an online
mobilization is a vital tool in the modern civic toolkit.
Social media connects people from all walks of the world; therefore, it enables for an informed
decision (Bode, 2016). We come from different countries with different political structures,
organizations, education systems, and social structure, among others. Social media allows
sharing of information from one country to another as it connects people all over the world
through social platforms. The information shared includes effective ways of governance.
Social media has become a widely used platform to enhance democratic governance has it allows
for people’s opinions. It is diverse and allows for real time news. Gone are the days when people
waited for 7 o’clock news to get a glimpse of what the nation happenings. Today with the aid of
the social media news are posted as they happen, which keeps one updated on current
happenings, especially things that affect the government and representation of the people in the

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government (Lee et al 2018). This knowledge allows for further push or online campaigning on
the matters that people feel need to be prioritized or where they are not contented.
Despite the numerous benefits of social media for good democracy, its use to spread bad
democracy cannot be overlooked. As we discussed earlier in this paper, social media has been
used for both good and bad democracy. An example of bad democracy is spreading false
information about a person or state to give a bad look or picture of the people in question, as a
way of creating a divided government. Social media has been used for wrong purposes in today’s
democracy to divide governments (Sunstein, 2018). Division in governments has created
opposition in many countries, and while good opposition is good, some oppositions have been
used for wrong purposes to undermine good agendas by the government.
Other media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been used to undermine the process of
democracy in elections. Allowing hostile foreign governments with selfish interests to interfere
with an election in another country, especially the developing countries, is one way of
undermining democracy voting (Highfield, 2017). Most often propaganda and wrong
information concerning a candidate that is being tainted is given to sway the voters to the
unsuitable candidates who do not have the best interest of the country at heart, therefore, leading
to a dictatorship kind of governance, which interferes with democracy (Carpini, 2019.).
Social media has been used to promote hate speech and social bullying, especially across ethnic
lines. Hate speech is the primary cause of division in most of the countries, and this undermines
development. Social media being a platform where an individual can express their views
concerning any issue of life including political matters has led to escalated deviation from
pushing for common interest of citizens to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying includes which includes
hate speech to attack one another due to selfish interests, disagreeing ideas, or just because a

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person does not like someone else in authority. Cyberbullying is strengthened in the United
States by the fact that it doesn’t have a legal definition in the US law just like there is no legal
definition for rudeness (Chadwick, 2017). Furthermore, freedom of speech is a human right,
which includes expression of views on the things an individual hate. The undermining of hate
speech, however, can bring severe implications in democracy as it is used to taint and destroy
good people leaving the greedy and people with bad governance in leadership positions.
It may be argued that propaganda, hate speech, and cyberbullying is not a new phenomenon and
are not unique to social media; therefore, social media should not be blamed for the same. But
you can all agree with me that the kind of bullying that happens in social media is wanting as it is
done with a wrong motive and if not checked it can lead to crippling of a country’s economic
development as it destroys good governance. Although hate speech does not have a legal
definition in America, this should not be the reason for spreading hatred against each other as it
leads to divisions and uncalled for hate for each other therefore undermining development.
Spreading hatred about an individual with a motive of painting bad picture of the person is
unethical and therefore should not be tolerated.
Conclusion
According to the above discussion, it can be concluded that good use of social media can yield
good democracy. As we have seen, there are numerous advantages of using the social platform in
the modern day in matters democracy as it easily connects to a wide range of people and in time,
as compared to other means of communication. Social media is becoming the most used source
of information today, by both young and the old in equal measure. However, people should be
enlightened on how to use social media platforms for the benefits of everybody. The freedom of
speech should not be misused to attack one another and instigate hatred especially by influential

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personalities. A good definition of what freedom of speech means should be well explained, and
boundaries be put in place to avoid some eventualities like the spread of hatred on social media.
References
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