Unit 5: Community Pages, the Role of Social Media in Politics

Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor of Information Studies, UCLA

For UCLA DIS 19 “The Facebook and Beyond: The Role of Social Network Sites…”

 

 

"The world is but a stage and we are merely players..." – Shakespeare

 

A.     Technical Issues

a.     In the United States

                                                    i.     66% of Americans have high-speed internet at home; 21% do not use the internet (Pew Research Center, 2010)

                                                  ii.     85% of Americans own a cell phone; 35% use smartphones (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2011)

                                                 iii.     Teens text more (n=50) than adults (n=10) (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010)

b.     In the Russian Federation

                                                    i.     Yandex.com, Arkady Volozh (CEO) is the largest internet company

                                                  ii.     Mail.ru, Dmitry Grishin (CEO) is the second largest internet company

                                                 iii.     VK, formerly VKontakte.ru, with more than 116 million accounts is the fourth most popular site, which is closely modeled upon FB

c.      Elsewhere

                                                    i.     5 billion cell phones worldwide (Wikipedia, 2007-2011)

                                                  ii.     “List of countries by number of mobile phones in use”

B.     United States of America

a.     Friends, agreement, and discussions of politics plus private groups

                                                    i.     Sharad Goel, Winter Mason, and Duncan J. Watts, “Real and Perceived Attitude Agreement in Social Networks,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99 (no. 4, 2010): 1-11.

                                                  ii.     Private groups such as PACs or Super PACS

b.     The Democratic Party (DNC)

                                                    i.     President Barack Obama

1.     Domestic Agenda

a.     How effective are his economic policies?

2.     Foreign Policy

a.     How has the President advanced American interests?

3.     His 2008 campaign

a.     Brian Braiker, “The Blanding of America,” Adweek (15 November 2011): online.

                                                  ii.     Statistical Predictions of Re-election

1.     Nate Silver and “Nate Silver Handicaps the 2012 Election”

2.     Fair Model (Yale)

c.      The Republican Party (GOP) 

                                                    i.     Tea Party Patriots

                                                  ii.     “What are the Chances for Republicans?” New York Times Magazine, 3 November 2011.

                                                 iii.     “Republican Presidential Candidates” (see their NYT’s full profiles)

1.     Newt Gingrich (289,471)—“Leadership Now”

2.     Ron Paul (885,623) and RonPaul 2012 (247,000)—“Restore America Now”

3.     Mitt Romney (1.5 million)—“Believe in America”

a.     Restore Our Future, a Super PAC, supporting his campaign

b.     The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

c.      Fawn M. Brodie,  No Man Knows My History, The Life of Joseph Smith (1945)

4.     Rick Santorum (161,571)—“The Courage to Fight for America”

5.     Other former, or still possible candidates (including suspended candidates)

a.     Donald J. Trump (362,925) and DJT for President (2,843)

b.     Herman Cain (376,161)—“It’s Time for A Real Leader with Real Solutions”(YouTube: 9-9-9)

c.      Michele Bachmann (more than 455,000 likes)

1.     “Facebook and the ‘Like Me’ Election,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 21 September 2011.

d.     Jon Huntsman (37,511)—“Be A Part of the Solution”

e.     Gary E. Johnson (928), dropped out in December 2011 to run as the Libertarian Party candidate

f.       Rick Perry (166,000), dropped out in February 2012

g.      Buddy Roemer (15,023)—“Free to Lead” dropped on in February 2012

 

d.     USA Today’s “Presidential Poll Tracker” (online interactive graphing of standing)

e.     Third Party and Independent Candidates in 2012

 

C.     Russian Federation (http://www.russian-federation.ru/)

a.     The Russian Presidential Election, 2012, will be 4 March

b.     The President of Russia

                                                    i.     Twitter: @KremlinRussia_E

                                                   ii.     Twitter: @MrMedvedev

                                                  iii.     Twitter: @MedvedevRussiaE

                                                  iv.     Anti-Putin Party on VKontakte.ru

c.      The Prime Minister of Russia

                                                    i.     Twitter: @Putin

                                                   ii.     “Architect of Putin’s System of Politics Is Reassigned,” New York Times (online)

 

d.      United Russia (Edinaya Rossiya) Party (53% of State Duma, the lower house, with 238 out of 450 seats)

                                                    i.     Chairman: Vladimir Putin

e.      Communist Party (KPRF—20.4% of Duma with 92 seats)

f.       A Just or Fair Russia, the social democratic party (64 seats, 14%, in the Duma)

g.      The Liberal Democratic Party (56 seats, 12.4%, in the Duma)

h.     Mikhail D. Prokhorov, declared candidacy on 13 December 201; pro-business party, Right Cause

i.       “Eight Major Political Parties of the Russian Federation” (2007)

j.       Sean Guilory’s Russian Youth Organizations

k.      Youth Policy and Youth Movements (Russian)

 

D.     The Arab Spring of 2011 in North Africa and the Middle East

a.     IT Issues: proxy server, VPN, machine generated journalism, content farming, satellite channels

b.     Background readings:

                                                    i.     Albrecht Hofheinz, “The Internet in the Arab World: Playground for Political Liberalization,” (2005).

                                                  ii.     David Ignatius, “What Happens When The Arab Spring Turns to Summer: Ruminations on the Revolutions of 2011? Foreign Policy 22 (2011): (online).

                                                 iii.     John Pollock, “How Egyptian and Tunisian Youth Hacked the Arab Spring,” MIT Technology Review (September/October 2011): online.

                                                 iv.     Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, rev. ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

c.      Countries:

                                                    i.     Egypt—Ramesh Srinivasan, “Seeking the True Role of Social media in Revolt,” UCLA Today, 12 August 2011 (online).

                                                  ii.     Libya

                                                 iii.     Oman

                                                 iv.     Syria (Arab Spring – Syrian Uprising)

                                                   v.     Tunisia--Rania Abouzeid, “Mohamed Bouazizi: The Man Who Set Himself and Tunisia on Fire,” Time (21 January 2011): (online).

                                                 vi.     Yemen

 

 

Updated: 29 February 2012; created: 3 October 2011