Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Twitter Politics

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27464.html

Everyone has heard of Twitter, but now people in Congress are using it too. In terms of Twitter, Republicans are far ahead of the game, with twice the number of Republicans with Twitter accounts than Democrats and nearly four times the tweets. Most notably, Senator John McCain has the most subscribers on his Twitter, making you wonder whether Democrats should step up their twittering and up their grass-root movements. Twitter seems to be a good way to be transparent to the people and help rally people by getting closer.

The article notes that people who use Twitter are more likely to lean left, and that this demographic doesn't seem to help the Republicans, however this will probably sway many people toward the right. Democrats better pick up the pace and start those tweets. A new age of campaigning has begun.

-Weilu Jia

6 comments:

Armaan Vachani said...

I honestly don't understand what the point of twitter is. Someone explain it to me?

WAYLOO said...

It's a micro-blogging site. Essentially, instead of posting a paragraph or so for each blog post, you post sentences less than 140 characters, mostly through the use of text messaging. This way, you can post your daily life in form of these 140 character "tweets."

I hope that answered your question. A quick Google of Twitter will probably clarify anything else

Amanda Rosas said...

I dont even twitter nor do i get it at all. But way to go for those going the extra step to reacho out into the world and to the oung voters of tommrow. But John McCain Twtting is ceepy to me.

Goldie said...

Hmm i find it interesting that there are more Republicans in Congress that use twitter than the Democrats since twitter is generally used by the younger generations. Maybe because the Republicans are trying to reach out to the younger generation which have influence there ideas to swift more to the right side?

Goldie said...

which will influence their*

Derek White said...

I believe twitter is a double-edge sword. If used properly, it could be beneficial to our country, but from what I have seen in politics, it is a distraction. From my viewpoint, twitter has only caused another distraction for politicians who should be focusing on legislation instead of posting ridiculous amounts of "tweets". Instead of paying attention to key speaches, they are typing away on their iPhone to say some smart remark. Our congressmen and congresswomen should use this technology to connect with their constituents, but not to direct their minds away from their jobs.

-Derek