The impact of social media and social networks in the voters' behavior during the electoral campaigns in Kosovo

• Author: Musa Nikçi
• Pages: 152-158

152

Vol. 4 No.2

September, 2018

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

The impact of social media and social networks in the voters’ behavior during

the electoral campaigns in Kosovo

Musa Nikçi

Abstract

Social media has changed our way of living in many di erent ways. It has had an impact

in the way we perceive the world and our surroundings. While media in general and social

media specifi cally have revolutionized the way we access information, researchers still

argue regarding the general impact of media in our lives. Many argue of positive aspects

while others provide arguments as how media negatively impacts the way we perceive the

nformation. While these debates still exist, in this paper we focus in a more closer media

impact: the electoral campaigns.

Social media has also impacted and changed the way electoral campaigns are carried out.

We have seen a trend in the usage of social media in almost every electoral campaign in the

world. This usage has emerged mainly from the benefi ts that social media has brought to both

the electoral nominees and the voters: the nominees get to express their stances and opinions

regarding many important issues in social media while the voters inhale this deposited

information in a faster and more direct way.

In this paper we look closely at both the pros and the cons of media impact in voters’ behaviors.

We also delve in the way information is portrayed in the media during the electoral campaigns.

Is the media biased and does this biasing impact the voters’ polarization?

Introduction

For many people life without the Internet and the social media would be vague and

without sense. That is why almost half the world’s population uses one of the social

networks and the digital media as a way of acquiring and broadcasting information.

Facebook tops the list of most used social networks with a total of 2.23 billion active

users1. It is then followed by Twi er, Instagram and Youtube2. These giant fi gures of

social networks use are the best indicators of the critical role that the la er have in the

way we perceive the world and our surroundings.

The traditional way of carrying out the electoral campaign with posters, rallies,

cardboard cutouts as well as house-to-house canvassing to win the voters is gradually

fading away. The way social media is organized: as a form or information technology

that utilizes interactive and user-produced content, has given the electoral nominees

the opportunity to communicate directly with the potential voter. We have seen this

impact mostly from the 2008 US elections where social media such as Facebook,

Youtube and Twi er was largely used to mobilize and spread the messages to the

voters.

Despite this communicative perception of social media, we have seen it being used

as a way of spreading propaganda and information that is misleading and serves

the purpose of vaporing with the potential voters’ minds. The spreading of ‘fake

1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/.

2 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-most-popular-social-networking-sites-apps-2017-rajiv-bajaj/.