How have social media tools and cyberspace changed elections? How will these changes continue to evolve? How well have your favored candidates or political campaigns made use of these new tools and this new environment?
AOC Fireside Chat
There has been particular buzz about 29 year old Senator Ocasio-Cortez’s use of Instagram. After leveraging social media (and ties to Senator Bernie Sanders) to win the NY Senate Election, Senator Ocasio-Cortez has maintained forward momentum by using an under utilized feature of Instagram to paint a behind the scenes portrait of life as a new politician in D.C.
Covering everything from not having time to do laundry, to the gift tote she was giving, containing a High-Security phone and tablet set up with a secured government email (a gift her 37 year old contemporary Ivanka Trump may appreciate), Senator Ocasio-Cortez’s apparent transparency has been equated to FDR’s Fireside Chats, a radio program where the President spoke candidly to the public.
However, I feel as though Senator Ocasio-Cortez has taken the Fireside Chats to a more intimate level, bringing up the mundane details of modern politics that is rarely covered, from orientation meetings to introductory group tours with her recently elected contemporaries. As Ocasio-Cortez’s Director of Communications Corbin Trent said, [“a big part of what she’s trying to do is include people in the political process,” and that “social media, traditional media in all forms, and emerging new medias that are out there are all going to play a role” in that process.]