So almost a week ago I blogged about the upcoming WLUSU elections, and the new endeavors that the elections team was putting forth in an attempt to increase the voting turnout this year. As outlined in the post below, one of the main initiatives was hosting and broadcasting a presidential debate while streaming it live online. The broadcast of the debate was supposed to help the student body get further involved in the election process by informing them of the presidential platforms in hopes of getting a greater voting turnout out at the polls on February 4th.
Well, as of approximately 2:30 am on February 5th the results are in. According to the article in The Cord, voter turnout was approximately 2600 students, which equates to about 20% of Laurier students. This number is down a couple hundred votes from last year's elections, which suggests that the new election initiatives put forth this year, such as using social media to stream to the inaugural presidential debate, were a failure because the overall voter turnout decreased. However, despite the results, I fail to believe that further informing students using social media such as broadcasting open forums and debates on election topics at The Cord's website, could ever be a hindrance or downfall to the democratic process of voting.
Yet taking the low voter turnout at this year's elections into account, I wonder what it takes to increase student's interest in university politics and the student union elections? Is the use of social media beneficial to this process? Does the use of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and live streaming forums need to be altered or let go altogether? I suppose only time will tell.
Until Next Time...
14 years ago
In thinking about alterations that need to be made to the way elections, democracy and social media overlap, perhaps greater attention needs to be paid to how online media can be further used.
ReplyDeleteAn article in The Cord made note that the Graduate Studies Association used an advanced form of e-mail voting in their most recent elections. The paper quotes a student in saying, the electronic ballots were "sent out to everyone, just in case (a student) could not attend the general meeting, they could still send out their vote". So perhaps if WLUSU employed a similar online medium for voting, in which they personally send out a ballot to each student, there would be a higher voter turnout. Perhaps, despite the dismal shadow it casts on democracy, an organization needs to personally invite and hold each voter's hand through the election process.
Despite the increased use of social media for this year's elections, there was a lower turnout of voter than last year...hmmm. I doubt the lack of voting had anything to do with the new election initiatives. Perhaps these initiatives did raise the voting turnout - without social media awareness, the turnout likely would have been much lower than 20%. To me, this seems like it's more about the citizens themselves than the technology. This occurrence shows me that it's more about the actions of individuals than the potential of the technology. We can have advanced and intricate technologies with the potential to change the world, but if people choose not to participate, the technology itself is of no use. I think the awareness about the elections online is a good thing and can probably only help, but ultimately it is up to each individual to decide what to do with that information.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the last post. It is so interesting that with the increase of citizen media that the numbers still have not increased. It clearly is not a problem with the media forms they are using but instead with the people choosing to vote or not. It is great to have new technologies, but it is making people aware of such technologies and getting them to use and engage in them that is the challenging part. I agree with the last post that the use of new forms of media certainly does not hurt the campaign. I do not think it is a problem with the forms of social media, but rather, a problem with the people voting. Maybe it is something bigger than the forms of social media campaigners are using that need to be revitalized? Either way, it is disappointing that only 20% of Laurier decided the outcomes of this election. Hard fora democracy to work if only 20% of people are determining the outcome...
ReplyDeleteWhat it comes down to is that regardless of the impressive use of new media as a publicity tool, people must be engaged in the issues or they will not be motivated to vote. This has always been an issue that politicians have struggled with, even before the onslaught of social media. I believe that the course of social media pursued today by many political parties, as a means to rally support or to create awareness, is because they feel that it is the most efficient way to reach a wide range of potential supporters – in terms of cost and time.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the latest WLUSU election, I thought the use of social media was actually a success. The night of the election I was too busy with school work to wait around at Wilf’s for the announcement of the results, which was plagued by a number of delays. However, with the use of social media, I was able to find out the successful presidential candidate via-Twitter – just seconds after it was announced at Wilf’s. For this reason, I believe that we have yet to see the full potential of social media for student politics be realized just yet. I agree that more time is necessary in order to evaluate the situation fairly, as well as to allow for more people to learn how to effectively use social media.
Thanks everyone for your ideas, and I would agree with all of you; that inevitably the problem (and the potential for change) lies within the hands of the voters themselves. The question is then how to get the voters involved with the issues? Can social media be effectively used to rally support as well as getting informed about the deeper issues of any given election?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last comment that such social media as Facebook for raising awareness and campaigning, as well as Twitter for updates and election results were greatly beneficial this year. But can this be furthered to increase voter turnout? Or are these the only benefits of such social media in the election process? Do you think the outcome is capable of change?