Social media intrusions central in elections

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2019 (2660 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“How do you do? I’m Wab Kinew.”

The many Manitobans who heard this rhyme when we answered our telephones in recent weeks quickly realized we were not receiving a personal call from the leader of the Manitoba NDP and, despite his question, there was no opportunity to tell him how we are doing.

It was a recording of his voice, of course, an automated phone call of the type that will abound in upcoming months as politicians try to get their message to prospective voters in two nearly simultaneous election campaigns.

Robocalls are one of many methods that will be used in the lead-up to the Manitoba election on Sept. 10 and the federal election on Oct. 21. Some candidates also include emails and text messages in their arsenal of methods to approach voters. One federal party is already texting voters at random, simulating a personal approach by sending the text from “Sarah from the Conservative Party.”

It’s unsurprising that political strategists looking for every advantage will exploit relatively recent technological advances that let them blitz voters with robocalls and social media messages. It’s equally unsurprising that some people resent these methods as invasions of their privacy.

Campaigning politicians use such technology because it allows them to unleash unlimited calls and social media messages, almost for free. It’s a numbers game. They can reach most prospective voters with minimal effort or cost.

Another reason is that politicians can promote themselves and make their claims without the inconvenience of having to answer direct questions from voters and the media. Most technological campaigning is not a conversation, it’s a one-way declaration. The candidate can deliver their carefully scripted message without having their bluff called by an awkward question such as, “You’re promising a lot of new spending, and you also say you’re going to lower taxes. Where will the money come from?”

Is new technology effective in political campaigns? Ask Donald Trump.

It was surprising to many people — including Mr. Trump, according to insiders — that he won the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He had no experience in political office. What he did have, though, was a Twitter account that let him deceive voters directly, bypassing the media and political opponents who could call him on his chronic lapses into what one campaign worker defiantly described as “alternative facts.”

With Mr. Trump, social media is not two-way communication. He currently has 61 million Twitter followers. He follows 47 accounts.

He issues more than 4,000 tweets a year — about 11 per day — and he consistently circulates ignorance and outright untruths. Responsible bodies, including the Washington Post fact-checker, have chronicled more than 10,000 false or misleading things he has expressed, most of them through social media.

The Trump phenomenon is not lost on political candidates everywhere. New technology is now considered an essential campaigning tool, and the targets in upcoming months will be voters in the Manitoba and Canadian elections.

Conscientious voters who want to go deeper than social media claims will still be able to read coverage of the candidates by responsible media, attend debates, ask questions after candidates’ public speeches and perhaps get a door-knocking visit from the candidate herself.

But in 2019, candidates who underestimate the power of electronic campaigning will, when the ballots are counted, find themselves offering congratulations to the winner.

As Conservative party communications director Cory Hann told the Free Press: “We’re continuing to use (texting) for a reason. If it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t use it.”