Political Engagement

Key Words: political discourse, political action, social media, news networks

Political engagement "is defined as a cognitive process of the brain becomes stimulated by the political stimuli, elaboration occurs with the connecting thoughts, recognizing new information as important and relevant, and process that leads to an attitudinal reaction". Within the scopes of social media, it has given a rise to a new era of political discourse that allows for a greater amount of information to be communicated and individual participation  that ultimately works toward improving society. It has heavily impacted the way individuals discuss politics, along with broadening the scope of political discourse to international bounds. Nonetheless, a greater amount of communication between individuals can also spark problems that divides the people and prevents effective political discourse, such as polarization and the spread of misinformation.

Transforming Political Discourse
Political discourse has transformed in recent years due to the transition from using traditional news sources, such as television and radios, to using internet news sources and social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. This new technology has spread political news that has lead to younger audiences being more engaged in politics. There are two factors that contribute to this transformation in younger generations. One, that younger generations are more likely to be technologically adept and are more likely than older generations to use technology, and two, that being on social media increases the chances of accidentally or purposefully coming into contact with political news. These factors indicate that the increased exposure to political news allows younger individuals to be more knowledgeable about the political news and ultimately be more likely to participate in political discourse. An example of this is increased voting.

Impact of Social Media
Social media sees the widest daily use by the younger generations, with Generation Z being the most active. In just about every prominent social media app, major news networks and politicians make posts covering current events and issues in politics. In addition, many individual users make posts expressing their own political views or spreading awareness of popular social movements. Due to the large amount of political content on platforms used so widely by the younger generations, it is often through social media that youths become politically conscious. Young social media users often do not consume traditional forms of media such as newspapers or even television. They rely on news and political accounts to serve as their primary source of political information. It would be accurate to say social media increases political engagement among the masses, because they expose younger audiences to political movements, information, and commentary more than any other platform.

Social media has been seen as a platform to get young people politically engaged, since there has been a decline in youth political participation. The technological revolution brought by the internet has played an essential proliferating role in political action and expression. The beneficial factors include: lowered costs, increased access to information, information can be spread rapidly, and no longer reliant of the news or journalist to publish information. Social media can increase people's exposure to political information and social mobilization when family or friends post links to news stories or express political opinion. In addition, social media provides more first hand accounts of major events. An example of this is when people video and upload their a first hand account.

Facebook hosted a trial and found that many users are more likely to participate in voting for information they saw in others social media networks or pages. Since young adults are preoccupied with their daily life activities, With the tools that online provides young adults use the tools to help address any inter- generational imbalance in political engagement.

While social media have had many positive impacts on politics, they have drawbacks as well. Online communities and algorithms can lead to or exacerbate polarization, and allow the spread of misinformation.

Candidate Use
Due to the movement of political discourse to social media, there has been a shift in government officials spreading information to the people through social media. The earliest examples of these actions can be seen in advertisements on platforms such as YouTube, and through texting-based applications used in the 2018 midterm elections as a way for the voters to ask questions directly to government workers.

Nevertheless, the most notable example of this shift today is through former President Trump's Twitter usage. Regardless of his information being reliable or not, Trump started a movement of using Twitter to actively communicate and interact with the American people, particularly his voter base. Due to this, many other politicians made the transition to social media and began to express their opinions and beliefs, subsequently allowing more people to become knowledgeable of politician's beliefs and respond to them with either praise or criticism. Overall, social media has paved the way for individuals to discuss political topics directly to government officials who can enact quick change to government policies