Social Media and the Policy-Making Process a Traditional Novel Interaction.

摘要

Social media is a new model of interaction that is having an unanticipated and rapidly evolving effect on the political and social landscape of the world. Emphasis on and discussion about the use and role of social media accompanies many of todays ongoing debates, introducing a new variable into the policy-making process. The widespread impression is that the growth of social media can play an influential role in the policy-making process. But while extensive research continuously monitors the effects of social media, a closer review of current statistics and analysis suggests the need to reevaluate its relation to the policy-making process. Audiences are largely becoming more and more skeptical about information carried by social networks. The lack of trust reveals and reflects the same attitude generally reserved for traditional media, relegating social media to a mere gauge of public opinion. The direct value of and effects between social media and the policy-making process are extremely difficult to assess, because of both the complexity of interactions and the number of concurring factors. Ultimately, despite the emphasis on the phenomenon, social medias role in the policy-making process appears to be generally overstated as social networks seem unable to bring a dramatic change in its dynamics. However, because of the lack of definite evidence and given the magnitude of the phenomenon, the effects of social media cannot be discarded a priori. Innovation brought by social media is likely to increase the tendency to scrutinize every aspect of the public policy-making process, which might eventually induce policy makers to face the necessity of engaging social networks in their deliberative process.