Social Networking and Politics Essay Example

Social Networking and Politics Essay The recent political turbulence, which lasted nearly three months from April to May 2010, was the latest in a series of political unrest in the city of Bangkok. It was the most violent political event causing severe disunity in Thailand. Never before in the history have the Thais been tremendously divided into different beliefs and lived in intense hatred. Apparently, there has been one common question raised amidst the crisis: â€Å"Which color are you?† If the answer is different from the beliefs of the person who asked the question, then they automatically become opponents. Both the Yellow and the Red shirts’ leaders have been using all the ploys and plots to convince the masses to join them. Clearly, the most powerful instrument is the media. Mr. Thaksin, as a former communication business man has been effectively using various kinds of media such as the Internet, phone-in conference, and Twitter to communicate with his loyal followers. However, among the other medi a, the Red shirts’ leaders have been using the radio shows that broadcast mainly in the North and North Eastern regions to attack the Yellow shirts and the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. They successfully cultivated the loyalty to the former, now in exile, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinnawatra and incite hatred against Mr. Abhisit. On the other hand, the Yellow shirts achieved their goal in gathering the supporters by hosting the political forums in public places and broadcast through their cable television. It is clearly seen that media has continuously played a crucial role in Thai politics in raising awareness of the political participation. Not only the old media and the new well-known media, but also the emerging use of social media that has shaped a new way of expressing political thoughts. Research Problem The social media was introduced to Thai people years ago as a newly innovated way to communicate socially. It has become popular especially among the teenagers, cyber citizen and working people in the business arena. The use of the social media such as social networking sites, instant messaging or Twitter was originally used to update news, exchange information, share experiences with photos and videos, and connect with people from every corner of the world. Nowadays, the social media are increasingly used for various activities. It has become a public place where the users not only communicate but also to share the common interests, likeness, or even hatred with other users. Groups are created to attract people of the same interest, to support the same idol and most notably, to be the use for politics. Politics entered the cyber world long time ago and, yet, it was still limited to websites, which provides one-way communication. Realizing that the social network is the faster way to reach the public as it connects millions of millions users together, the politicians then make the use of social media to promote their campaigns and to get the public’s attention. Vice-versa, the public uses the social media to express their opinions about politics and the politicians, to give support and to show hatred. The recent gatherings of the Multi-colored shirts group to demonstrate against the Red shirts and its requirement for parliament dissolution can be viewed as a good example to the use of social media by public. It is a new phenomenon that happened in Thai politics in relation to civic participation, which served as a surprise for the politicians, society and especially to the Red shirts. The appearance of the No Parliament Dissolution Group or known as the Multi-colored shirts leads to the following question: How has the social networking sites, for the first time, become the vehicle for the Thai Internet users to participate in politics, in the recent poli tical unrest? We will write a custom essay sample on Social Networking and Politics specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Social Networking and Politics specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Social Networking and Politics specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Expected Findings The dissertation examines the role of Facebook in Thai politics, with specific interest in the recent political turmoil. It is expected to reveal what influences the Facebook users, who ever or never before, been interested in politics, to came out to express their opinions and show support to the Prime Minister. The aim of the study is to find out that, for the first time in Thai politics, how and why the social networking site is used as a vehicle for political participation. Background of the Study Thai Political Background Present Political Environment. Thailand is a country with a very unique and complex political history. Following the 1932 revolution, it has become a constitutional monarchy, struggling to develop democracy through numerous Coup d’à ©tat and governments. Nevertheless, apart from the student revolution in 1971 and 1973 and the Black May in 1992, there had never been such a tragic political event similar to the recent event that happened in Bangkok. The conflict, which had divided the homogeneity of the Thais into two completely contrasting believes, caused intolerable pains. Likewise, the contradiction that exists can never be simply restored through the reconciliation plan in a few years. Thailand has undergone persistent political upheavals since Thaksin Shinawatra, a man from a business background became Thailand’s 23rd Prime Minister in 2001. Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party have changed the face of Thai political history forever. He succeeded in gaining votes from the rural people, which comprises the majority of the country’s population of by using the populist policy. As an astute leader, he has awakened the sleeping rural class to be conscious of their basic rights and that politics affects them directly. James Stent (2010) stated that Thaksin recognized that the majority of voters were resident in the countryside, and that they had, over the preceding decades of steady economic development, become a sleeping but nonetheless restless giant that was just waiting to be awakened. Once awaken, the rural electorate has not returned to sleep. The success of his populist policies had benefited him in gaining landslide votes in the general election in 2005 and then became prime minister for the second term.   As there were efforts to increase efficiency and accountability, Thaksin’s administration had brought many changes to the bureaucratic system. Challenges to change had been expected to operate well according to plan. However, the far-sighted telecom tycoon did not accomplish what he had intended to do. Thaksin faced the legislation issues involving his family’s free tax sales of shares of the Shin Corp to the giant Singaporean telecom company, Temasek. There were several protests against his business scandal calling him to resign. The key player in the protest against Thaksin was his former business partner, Sondhi Limthongkul, who lost his interests from the cable television. He accused Thaksin for his loss and turned to be his enemy using the media in revealing the truth about Thaksin’s busines s and his corruptions. Not long after the scandal, Thaksin dissolved the parliament and called for an election. However, the election was unsuccessful as there were boycotts from the opposition parties resulting to the Supreme Court declaring the election as invalid. The new election date was set after the declaration of the Supreme Court, until then, Thaksin was to remain the caretaker of the government. However, the military general Sonthi Boonyaratglin led a bloodless coup d’à ©tat on the nightfall of 19 September, 2006 and ousted Thaksin and his party from power. Thailand was again ruled under the military regime and later become a state under the problematic constitution. Since the overthrowing of Thaksin, Thailand has been in the period of political instability with four Prime Ministers in a three-year-span and numerous protests and insurgencies. Yellow Shirts. The term â€Å"Yellow Shirts† refers to the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). They are an alliance of anti-Thaksin groups, formed by the former business partner of Thaksin, Sonthi Limthongkul. Their first protest under yellow shirt was in 2006 to dispel then-Prime Minister Thaksin, who they viewed as a corrupted dictator. Sonthi, a media mogul, succeeded in gathering a large crowd by broadcasting a talk show about Thai politics â€Å"Muang Thai Rai Sapda† (Thailand Weekly) from many different places in Bangkok. As the show went on, more individuals from the government attended the congregation every Saturday evening. They have selected yellow, the color of the King’s Birthday as the theme color, impliedly symbolize their loyalty to the monarchy. Since then, the term â€Å"yellow shirt† was used to describe the people who are pro-royalist and have the objective of eliminating Thaksin Shinawatra (Hewison, 2010). Yellow shirts are a composition of elite, academics and the majority of the middle class in Bangkok (Stent, 2010). That is to say, they are educated protesters, demonstrated against the whole regime of Thaksin, who was selected Prime Minister by landslide votes from the people in rural areas. After an extended period of movements and protests, the yellow shirts had eventually achieved success when the military led a coup overthrowing Thaksin and his regime. This political event can be described by the famous theory â€Å"A two tales of democracies† of Anek Laothamatas (1996), a respected political academic that â€Å"the provinces elect governments, Bangkok overthrows them† (Glassman, 2009). Nevertheless, after the new election was held under the 2008 Constitution and two allied- governments in succession of Thaksin returned to office, the Yellow shirts movement re-emerged again. The most notable event was the closure of the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which was done for the purpose of demanding the resignation of then-Prime minister Somchai Wongsawat.   The seizure of the airport was widely criticized as a criminal action and has caused troubles to the passengers from flights cancellation and heavy loss to business sector. The Asian Human Rights Commission [a1]  (2008) released a statement about the takeover of the airport saying that Some commentators and opponents of the alliance have described its agenda as fascist. This is not an exaggeration. Experience shows that the types of systemic changes and regimes that follow such movements, although they may not describe themselves as fascist, have fascist qualities.[a2] Red Shirts. The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD)  or commonly known as the â€Å"Red Shirts† is the political movement group whose position is to support the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. By supporting Thaksin, the group is opposed to the PAD or the Yellow Shirts who they accused of backing the military in the 2006 Coup to overthrow Thaksin. Whereas the Yellow Shirts is composed primarily of the middle class, academics and elites, the majority of the Red Shirts are poor working class from rural areas, where they benefited from the populist policies when Thaksin was still in power. These people in the remote provinces remain faithful and supportive of Thanksin because they felt ignored in the national policies by every government except under Thaksin’s administration. Their loyalty to Thaksin has driven them to fight for him when he was deposed by the coup and subjected to numerous convictions by the Thai court. From the Yellow shirts p oint of view, the Red shirts were brainwashed by Thaksin and his loyal followers, mostly because they are uneducated, manipulated and were paid to support and attend the protests (Stent, 2010). Contrary to these claims, the Red shirts leaders argue that these rural people are the majority of the country and are not ignorant despite being poor. They know their rights as citizens and have now realized that they can participate in politics to defend their rights. Their main objective is to fight for democracy, justice and against the intervention in politics by the Amat (conservative elites) (Petty, 2010). Having extremely different political views, series of clashes and confrontations between the Red and the Yellow shirts have taken place periodically since 2006. The Red shirt leaders, from generation to generation, have been playing pivotal roles in propelling the against-dictatorship movements. The most prominent among them are Veera Musikapong, chairman of the UDD; Doctor Weng Tojirakarn, the most moderate leaders among all; Jatuporn Prompan, a former government spokesman; Nattawut Saikua, a singer; Arisman Pongruangrong and; Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol, chief of the security guard who was assassinated during the recent upheaval. The leaders are responsible for organizing the gatherings and leading the masses in the demonstrations, however, important decisions need to be discussed first with Thaksin. The recent political unrest and the Multi-colored Shirts. The series of protests in Thailand in recent years has started in early 2006, when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra decided to sell his family’s shares in one of Thailands biggest telecom groups, Shin Corp. The deal netted his family and friends $1.9bn, which angered many urban Thais, who complained that the Thaksin family had avoided paying tax and passed control of an important national asset to Singaporean investors. Later on, Thailand’s politics has been rotating around Thaksin. Thaksin’s remaining ally tried to get control of the Cabinet, while the rest gathered against them. This political atmosphere led the country to a series of protests, in which the demonstrators are mainly divided into the anti-Thaksin Yellow-Shirts (People Alliance for Democracy-PAD) and the Red-Shirts (National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship-UDD). Each side took to the street when the other succeeded in taking the chair. The political vacuum reached its peak in March 2010, when the Red-Shirts paralyzed parts of central Bangkok for two months, causing huge economic loss and discontent among urban residents. The UDD supporters demanded for the dissolution of the House of Representatives and holding of general elections. By the end of March, a group called â€Å"No Dissolution of Parliament† was created on Facebook by people who opposed the protest. To represent the middle ground for the current colored political crisis in the country, the group later called themselves â€Å"The Multi-colored Shirts†.  As of May 7, 2010, the number of group supporters reached over 1,200. The group comprises mostly of the Bangkok middle class, office employees, college students, and well-known celebrities from the entertainment industry. Moreover, the group also collaborated with other local civil society groups and the Pink-Shirts, which consisted of academics and alumni of Thailand’s oldest university, Chulalongkorn University. The main purpose of the gatherings was to protest against the demanded parliament dissolution from the Red shirts, to support the Prime Minister Abhisit and to show the power of unity of the Thais under the Monarchy with the love to the King. Significantly, some Bangkok ians that joined the gatherings do not have any interest in political matters but they came out to call for peace as the violence and the occupancy of the central district caused inevitable difficulties in living for them. Structure of the Dissertation The first chapter of this research looks at the background of Thai politics with details about the main important player in the recent crisis; the Yellow shirts, the Red shirts and the Multi-colored shirts. Likewise, it presents valuable information that informs the readers of the specific research problem that the present study attempts to discuss. The second chapter provides the information about the social network, specifically the social networking sites and the Facebook. The Third chapter reviews the literature relating to social networking sites and politics. It specifically looks at the microbloggings sites and the example of the social media’s impacts on the German and the Iranian Elections. Likewise, it examines the term â€Å"political participation† with its definition and meanings and the mode of political participation in Thailand. The Fourth chapter talks about the research project and the methodology. The Fifth chapter presents the analysis of the findings on the impacts of Facebook and the social media on Thai politics. Finally, the Sixth chapter summarizes this research project and presents the possible future trend of the use of social media towards politics and social issues. Chapter 2: Social Networking Sites The chapter presents the information gathered from existing forms of literature. The discussion is organized into subsections in order to provide an organized flow of discussion. In relation to this, the primary purpose of this chapter is to present what is already known and to identify the gaps in the existing body of literature. Introduction Social networking is the process of virtual interaction amid individuals who are bound to each other with certain social ties such as friendship, family, likes, interest, financial exchange, and others, thus forming a formal or informal social structure. In other words, it is a medium through which all people in 21st century communicate. Never before in the history of mankind had there been such dynamic modes of communicating and staying connected as there are today. People feel honored on these places since they create an online identity and spaces they can call their own. There are many forms of such networking sites, such as MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and Classmates etc. Facebook being the most popularly used throughout the world. How Social Networking Websites Evolved Social networking has a long history than its recent commonplace status would imply. Networking sites from classmates.com to Six Degrees.com started with intentions of connecting people with similar interests and creating online communities. However, online spaces like, SixDegrees.com, classmates.com, Fanfare etc that began in late 1990s were left defunct without much popularity (Madge, Meek, Wellens, Hooley, 2009). But with the introduction of Friendster.com in 2002 social networking got skyrocketing fame till 2003 and became a major thespian on the Internet. Today, complete social networking sites like MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, along with specialized social networking services like YouTube, Flickr, Digg, and del.icio.us stand amid the United States’ most visited and the world’s most sought out webs on the Internet. MySpace is ranked as the third most popular sought out American Webs – standing in only after Google and Yahoo!–and sixth worldwide, po oling millions of visitors daily. Approximations range from 37.8 and 56.8 million distinctive visitors flipping through MySpace’s pages per day. Starting with Six Degrees theory, social networking web developers established upon the notion of offline social networking when planning their products. They designed on the pretext that a normal person has 150 friends, planned to add value to their products by assisting people to utilize and verbalize the degrees of separation online (Castells, 1996). Hence, Friendster pioneered successfully in modern social networking by focusing more on bringing people together providing online opportunities to share with each other, focusing less on the degrees f separation. Other social networking tools like Library Thing, YouTube, Flickr and del.icio.us focus on keeping people connected through sharing various media such as images, videos or books to keep themselves updated and share with each other. They all thrive on the principle of public participation. Till 2006 it was the most popularly visited website in USA, until recent years when it was surpassed globally by its chief rival, in April 2008, based on the number of its monthly visitors. Social Networking in Education Social networking tools are widely used for educational purposes as well because mediums like Facebook has capability to hold learners busy in creative ventures. In Fact some instructors and tutors are communicating to students on this venue online (Yang, 2003). Elgg is an open medium of social networking system devised exclusively for instructors and students to use as an e-portfolio, posting, sharing, and collaboration device. Similar to LiveJournal and Vox, Elgg has privacy options where students can decide upon users who can view their profiles, posts, blogs, etc. hence; it is running successful among tutors and learners. Enterprise Social Networking Academic libraries are not the only libraries that ought to know about utilizing social networking tools. Companies, including hospitals, are very keen in social networking tools and applications. Why? In business environments, sharing knowledge and finding experts is essential to the goodwill of the organization. Social networking sites make it easy to find coworkers, along with providing users the means to collaborate, like blogs, discussion boards, and more. Dissemination of knowledge on these forums becomes a lot easier. Other social media: LinkedIn, another successful tool to socialize are LinkedIn, a service meant to connect business professionals, colleagues and networks. Still nowhere near the attainment or reach of MySpace or Facebook, its traffic is ascending, and the site has been pooling profits in recent months. LinkedIn functions in lot manner as Friendster does, by making connections between users by degrees (i.e., Sean knows Arsala [1st degree]; Arsala knows Sean [2nd degree]; Sean knows Max [3rd degree]). Using such network, users can find business contacts, for the sake of finding jobs or just networking, by following the stream of contacts. LinkedIn also presents public and private factions; for instance, alumni organizations are using LinkedIn to provide a platform for alumni. Flickr assists people to share photos with family, friends, colleagues and other acquaintances. Basic accounts on Flickr are free and a user can display up to 200 pictures. Like other social networking sites it offers user profiles and networks. Tagging helps people to recognize each other. Libraries and librarians have greatly benefited from this social site which helps them publicize their events, put up photos of library staff and compiling photos of historical significance. Besides, Flickr is a great tool for finding pictures for presentations. LibraryThing is also a media site where users can catalog their collections of books online. Being a hit amongst librarian s, it is being used to catalog whole library collection where they can post information about new books and images as well. Books have their own tags which helps users to search for the desired ones. Impacts on Society Positive Impacts The positive contributions of social networking sites to society are the following: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It connects marginal or minority groups and subcultures that do not have the physical access or space to communicate or exercise their beliefs. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Students, businessmen and individuals can share useful information and keep themselves updated. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It connects family, friends and other acquaintances that are otherwise unable to communicate with each others in face to face due to geographical dispersion at a particular time. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They cannot count on the space-time range; one can communicate asynchronously or synchronously depending on one another requirements. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Virtual space on the Internet is also used for e-commerce and business purposes, via video conferencing (Castells, 2000). Negative Impacts On the other hand, the following are known to be the negative impacts of social networking sites to the society and its members: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As they say that technology breeds laziness. The social networking generates more indifference and laziness in users. Fat people turn devoid of vitamin D due to spending most of their leisure moments on computer. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since people are used to abbreviating their language on Internet, they get used to such language in their normal writing. Students often corrupt their language in their exams and end up losing precious marks (Acar, 2008). 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A lot of time and energy is wasted on social networking sites. Due to this addiction an individual’s family is ignored which may result in grave consequences. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   People use such networking sites unethically such as entering into some exotic profiles, copying pictures and using them immorally. Hackers also have their time in hacking public accounts and mail addresses. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A lot of unnecessary even spam content is floated wasting time of other genuine users. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Social networking can be humiliating to certain users bullying etc is more likely as people may deceive through disguising themselves or remaining anonymous. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Childern waste a lot of their time in finding dates even watching and sharing pornographic materials. Even adults keep extra marital affairs due to over interaction with anonymous people. As a result families are broken and lives are shattered falsifying the fact that â€Å"they connect† (Marketing Vox, 2009). Social networks are even used as tools to disgrace or harass communities such as the blasphemous cartoons which created an enormous rage and unrest in the Muslim world leading to boycotts in using such sites creating complications for those who use it for constructive purposes. Facebook Facebook is a social networking website introduced publically in February 2004,is controlled and privately possessed by Facebook, Inc. It has around 500 million active users as of July 2010. Users have a wide range of options to network with others.   It is a gathering spot where they make friends, form communities, upload pictures, make wall posts and search for the desired people, etc. Additionally, people may join networks organized by their places of work, school, college or university. Facebook allows a person of 13 years or above to become an active member of the website. History Facebook was formed by a student of Harvard university named Mark Zuckerberg (while at Harvard), who initiated it as one of his leisure pursuits with some monetary assistance from Eduardo Saverin. In a few months, Facebook and its gist spread across the doors of Harvard where it was warmly welcomed and well received. After a few months, the sphere of influence broadened its threshold to Stanford and Yale where, like Harvard, it was greatly acclaimed and endorsed. Soon, Mark Zuckerberg, the founding father of this web was accompanied by two other colleagues at Harvard – Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes – to help him upgrade the site to the next height. After a few months, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz left Harvard to follow their ambitions to run Facebook officially full time. In August 2005, the Facebook was publicly termed as Facebook and the URL Facebook.com was acquired for a reported $200,000. Effects of Facebook on Society A derisive story describes well, the state of Facebook craze in our society. It goes like: A criminal in a court was pronounced death verdict by law. The judge asks: what is your last wish to be fulfilled, the criminal replies: I want to update my status dead n Facebook. Though it was a sarcastic anecdote but it implies to all Facebook die hard freaks. I remember my aunt coming back from work and starting Facebook as she gets time. In fact she would take time instead of caring for her 2 year old child. The height was that even if there were new messages, etc to read she would visit photos of anonymous people, watch unnecessary videos and waste time instead of looking after her family. Consequently, she ended up breaking with her husband. These are the real life stories which portray the craze of Facebook users. The Pros and Cons Facebook was created with the intention of bringing lives close to each other. Though, distance, time and space have shrunk as a result of this facility (Car ter, 2009). Scattered families can stay in touch with their loved ones through this medium, old friends can stay connected. Everyone at their work places can share information and keep themselves updated. But on the contrary, people have been so much used to online networking that they would not like to meet anyone in person even if individuals are near. Socializing is enough but why do people need to over socialize? Facebook is used by a number of under aged children. These impressionable minds are prone to give away information to strangers. Besides, it has adverse effects on their education, since they freeze before Facebook at the cost of their studies. Moreover, their relationships with parents keep worsening. They remain indifferent to everything except Facebook (Kunene, 2009). According to a Rhodes University professor following can be the effects of Facebook usage: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Facebook helps unite old friends and serves as a forum for reunions. Such geographically dispersed friends can plan their reunions and events or meeting points, etc. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It also serves as a discussion forum on different topics for educational purposes 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This most visited site has been outlawed clashingly in states like Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and China on account of various controversies. The blasphemous cartoons that were displayed on Facebook greatly provoked Muslims resulting in public annoyance, protests, taking to streets even to the extent of boycotting western products, just because of Facebook. Moreover, its usage has been prohibited in various offices due to employees’ overuse of Facebook and wasting time. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   People of all ages play games like Farmville which is utterly killing of time. Such time should be used towards reading and academic chores instead. Twitter Another social networking site Twitter, from its inception in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, has earned fame and popularity worldwide and till date is catering around 100 million users worldwide. It is often termed as the SMS of the Internet† It allows users to do networking and micro blogging via messages termed as tweets. YouTube It is the widely used site for browsing, streaming, sharing and uploading videos ranging on all topics. Anyone can search for the favorite short movies, celebrity interviews, talk shows, documentaries, and others. There would not be a topic where videos are not available on the site. It is also being used by libraries for educational purposes. Chapter 3: Review of Related Literature This chapter presents related literature and studies on the role of social networking sites in shaping politics. Particular attention was given to microblogging with concrete examples on the role of microblogging sites in the German and Iranian elections. Theoretical Framework Regardless of whether the political system is democratic or non-democratic, communication still exists within political terms. Literature on this subject matter has evolved in the western hemisphere and also in Asia since the year 2001 (Kluver, 2007; Park et al., 2000).   Globally, election campaigns have adopted the American approach which employs use of attacks and counterattacks (Diamond Bates, 1988). The works of Kraus, Davis, Rice, and Paisley in the 1980s looked into the impact of mass and interpersonal campaigns; however research results were inconclusive and not definitive. The theoretical backbone governing this study is the personal influence hypothesis by Giltin [a3]  (1978) as cited in Karan and Gimeno (2008). The hypothesis stated it is likely that interpersonal relationships exert a stronger influence over that of information relayed through various forms of communication media. In the same way, mediation of personal communication will have a great impact on political communication. As explained by Grà ¶nlund (2001), onset of electronic media particularly the Internet revolutionized opinion-building and voting practices by significant shaping the electorate’s opinion. Another is the theory of cross-pressures by Lazarsfeld [a4]  et al. (1994) as cited in Gronlund (2000). This theory asserts that different modes of communication may it be print, electronic, or face-to-face, can potentially make voters insecure of their choices which can lead to political passivity and ultimately, not exercising their right to suffrage. Moreover, Grà ¶lund (2001) attempted to offer an explanation on the relationship between media technologies and politics. According to him, technology provides the public horizontal communication and heightens direct communication that may cause â€Å"new political needs and demands in the political system† though communication technology does not necessarily increase voter participation and tur