Is social media the key to change in SA?

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have played a vital role in the political mobilisation of citizens worldwide, opening up new avenues for discussion and facilitating political debate among voters in a particular area. In South Africa last year, we saw a prime example of the power of social media - and its ability to influence the country's leaders - with the #FeesMustFall campaign.

Not only have these platforms allowed users to engage with political news and commentary on the go, but they have also provided a way for users to share content and their own views with friends and followers on these sites, says Nolan Sandham, Managing Director of ACTNET.

With South Africa's local government elections that have come and gone, and the current, precarious political climate in the country's young democracy, can digital - and indeed social - media influence politics in South Africa?

Greater access to information

The Internet boom over the last decade has also seen an increase in access to information. In the past, you would have to purchase a newspaper in order to get the previous day's political news; now it's available as it happens with a simple click of a button, or through live streaming sites such as Periscope or Facebook Live Streaming.

As a result, audiences are no longer exposed to the view of the newspaper or single media source they were engaging with, but rather they have the opportunity to obtain their information from a variety of different independent sources. This widens the net of information they receive and increases the size of the community with which they interact.

This notion was summarised nicely by Barend Lutz and Pierre du Toit from Stellenbosch University, who argue that online networking has now successfully extended the public sphere into a worldwide electronic stage. On social media platforms, issues can be debated and public concerns deliberated on.

Tool for change

In the lead-up to the local elections, and more so in 2016, we have seen increased activity on social media from political parties. Social media allows political parties and campaigners an increased opportunity to engage directly with voters; it also gives political parties an opportunity to indirectly engage with opposition supporters through social sharing. Parties that are less active on social platforms are often seen as being disconnected from the public.

While the gist of most, if not all, political campaigns is to interact with and persuade the public - in the past, they resembled more of a "me-to-you" type of engagement and offered very little in the way of engagement. Now, however, the public is given the opportunity to interact directly with the political party concerned and with the campaigners themselves, as was seen with the #AskMmusi campaign that was run by the Democratic Alliance in May last year.

Digital and social media platforms force political parties to be genuine and remain authentic, and offer a direct line for the public to hold leaders accountable. Political parties, and their members, can no longer over-promise and under-deliver. The increased access to information means the general public are better educated on the country's issues and are less likely to be misguided by those in charge.

Although social media campaigns have the ability to help the democratic process, they can also hinder the progress of a political party, as was the case with former DA member Penny Sparrow's rant comparing black people to monkeys, or Gauteng Arts and Culture Department employee Velaphi Khumalo's calls to have white people "killed like the Jews". These outbursts create massive headaches for the associated political parties and have the potential to divide South Africans and split votes.

In essence, technology may be the key ingredient for change. Much like a catalyst in chemistry, which gets two unreactive forces to work together, digital technologies have the potential to break through socioeconomic, cultural and political barriers, allowing citizens to engage in public discourse that transcends space and time and influences change on a global scale.