5 Ways Social Media Has Impacted The Singapore General Election

As the dust settles on what many observers have been calling a watershed election, we look at how the Internet and social media have played their part in this Singapore General Election (GE).

Unlike 5 years ago, where campaigning through Facebook, Twitter and podcasts were banned, the rules on Internet election advertising were relaxed in this GE, allowing communication of political messages on any conceivable new media platform.

Below, we look at 5 ways on how the Internet , and social media in particular, has impacted GE 2011.

1. Social connections bring more opinions

While most information was received from daily broadsheets 5 years ago, social media played a big part in this year’s GE. With Facebook and Twitter, one’s feed was constantly flooded with varying opinions, ranging on which candidate was not worthy and where the hottest battles were shaping up.

Observing status updates, lengthy notes, friends liking Facebook pages of various parties and videos on YouTube , affected our decision in one way or another. You have may been politically apathetic or an activist, but there is no denying all these ‘likes’ and shares helped shape our decision. There was simply no way to avoid social influence.

2. Broader discussions with people you don’t even know

Besides Internet forums, where topics regarding the GE were discussed readily by forum members familiar with each other, this election will be noted as one that allowed complete strangers to connect instantly via social media.

With #sgelections, #sgelection and various other party hashtags being used, it was easy to follow what people where talking about the elections on Twitter. Indeed, I myself kept #sgelections active on my Twitter client to track conversations about the GE. The hashtags provided a single information stream for people to view, retweet, and reply tweets they wanted to comment on. This led to strangers having heated debates, rebutting comments contrary to their political beliefs, and even going as far as blocking users who disagreed with them.

Apart from the usual suspects, such as popular online blogger Mr Brown, ST Online and The Online Citizen, who accounted for a large amount of conversation on Twitter, it was great to see virtual ‘commoners’ having their thoughts retweeted and discussed.

The sharing of notes of political opinions also allowed strangers to comment and discuss further. Even prolific blogger Xiaxue got into the act, writing a note about her dismay of the lack of Facebook Likes for Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. The sharing of that note also led to a parody note by another Facebook user.

Common folks also connected directly with politicians, who before the elections, were strangers to most of us. Candidates such as George Yeo, Nicole Seah, and Chen Show Mao maintained an active presence on Facebook, which no doubt increased their popularity. Fans of these politicians, with similar political inclinations, gathered on these pages and carried out conversations.

3. The Bigger Picture

4. Everything becomes faster

5. The battle starts online and earlier

Conclusion