I’ve been taking longer than I planned researching a section on Conversation and Democracy for my bookproject, New Trends in International Public Relations. What I’ve been finding fascinating is the different attitudes that the East and the West have to social media in the world of politics.
Western politicians and social media
The main presidential candidates in the US are all embracing blogs, YouTube and Twitter and many observers say that this is the first presidential race where social media is playing a major role. The televised debate between the Democratic candidates, for example, included questions posted on YouTube by members of the public - these videos were played on a giant screen in the hall where the debate took place and the candidates took it in turn to answer the questions. Critics of this have said that this does not truly show political leaders “embracing” social media in its truest form ie as a free-for-all, open dialogues between equals and peers. The questions were carefully vetted and chosen beforehand instead of being an open, forum where anyone can take part (in the way that people can add their comments more freely on a blog, say). I think it’s very naive to think that politicians will ever hand over that level of control - they might be willing and comfortable having a “town hall” meeting where they roll up their sleeves and have an impromptu chat with the audience (who are no doubt carefully selected by invitation in the first place) of several hundred but it’s a different matter of scale where anyone in a population of several hundred thousand could send in a video. There will always be a hierarchical structure of some kind even in the most modern of democracies and those hierarchies will always seek to manage the flow of information. To me, what is significant is that they are using this medium at all and making an attempt to engage with their constituents in as open a way as they are able, given those hierarchical constraints.
Asia’s discomfort with social media
This attitude of acceptance - that social media is a force to be reckoned with and a new medium to reach out to voters - is all the more striking when I look at the attitude towards social media in Asian nations. Awhile back I researched an article on Blogging in Malaysia, with the input of Kevin Anderson, the Blogs Editor at The Guardian, UK and Asohan Aryaduray, the New Media Editor at The Star, Malaysia on the issue of political blogs there. Many outspoken political critics who blog their views find themselves arrested. There is a general anxiety and unease about this new medium that allows ordinary people to voice their opinions freely. For examples of more repressive and authoritarian Asian nations’s attitudes to bloggers, we only have to look at China, which routinely censors blogs and most recently, Burma, which restricted internet access during this summer’s protests.
West v. East
The cultural and political roots go much deeper than a mere suspicion of social media on the part of Asian authorities. There has been a much longer history of citizen protest and action being tolerated in the West and every year, there are marches and demonstrations in London and major American and European cities for all manner of causes. I remember as a student taking part in a march through the streets of Oxford in solidarity with my co-students. Although I did not feel very strongly about the cause they were protesting about, I wanted to see what it was like to be part of a protest march. It felt dangerous and rebellious and anarchic for me, coming from Malaysia where such protests were banned. In reality, it was rather tame and boring as we strolled down the High Street and various student leaders ranted through their megaphones.
So in the last few weeks as I’ve been researching this topic, I found myself getting side-tracked thinking about the cultural roots of Western political discourse and engagement versus the cultural roots of Asian nations who generally seem more comfortable with authoritarian government, and also authoritarian versions of democracy. That’s a whole separate book in itself, I expect, but I’d be interested to know your thoughts about these two differing political heritages.
To see my research in detail, check out my book wiki where I have posted my research online in the Conversation and Democracy section.
Do you know any Asian politicians who blog?
I am not aware of any politician in the ruling party in Malaysia who blogs - if you know of anyone, can you please correct me and let me know the URL of their blog? I’d also like to know if any politician in a ruling party in any other Asian country blogs or engages in social media eg via videocasts or podcasts. I want to ask them why they blog and what benefits they see coming from engaging in social media. And what might be some of the disadvantages.
From those Asian politicians who don’t blog, I’m curious to know why they don’t and what they think about their citizens using social media for political commentary.
If you are a professional communicator in Asia, what are the issues around politics and social media if you are advising politicians or business leaders about their communications strategy.
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Photo: thanks to pietroizzo from flickr.com (CCL)
I received an email in my Inbox a moment ago from the Online Journalism Review reporting that a German website is calling on the world to declare today, 04 Oct, “Free Burma Day”. The article explains:
Continuing my Twitter watch, I see that the 
The BBC also has a Twitter feed at 
For an American perspective, you can check out CNN tweets at 
