Thursday, December 10, 2009

Increasing Civil Engagement in Politics

Brent Fassino
Spcm 420
12/08/09
At the beginning of my semester in political communication, I was not very informed about the political system nor did I have a strong interest in being politically involved. I feel that my level of engagement stemmed from the fact that I wasn’t aware of the benefits of being politically involved as well as a loss of faith in the competency of my government. I feel that my generation shares these same misconceptions. Democracy is not perfect and it cannot work on its own. It needs the support and perseverance of the members of the community. Now that I have had about 16 weeks of extensive training I have a few suggestions on how our institutions could help people become more enthusiastic about becoming involved.
I think that with the advancement of communication technology people feel like they can be more interpersonally connected to each other without the need for face to face contact. This can be a good thing because it allows people who are not able to become physically involved in their community to express their opinions and receive information. However, it can also be a bad thing because it is conditioning the younger generations to look away from government for solutions to important concerns. It is also making them less likely to see good citizenship as including the responsibility to participate in government through activities such as voting. In other words it is teaching people that the government isn’t needed to solve problems, just a computer and good intentions. My solution to this problem is to combine the way public forums are held. The young generation or “dot comers”, if you will, prefer to get their information and interact using methods that combine online and face to face communication. Taking advantage of this preference will better inform and help to create more engaged citizens.
Another step in the right direction that has started to emerge in the political world is politicians becoming more involved in the culture. Bill Clinton was a candidate who helped bridge the gap between political figures and citizens through popular culture. He was able to show that not all old people were completely out of the loop with what is “still hip” and made politics seem like it was not just for old people. When he appeared on the Geraldo Rivera show back in the 90’s he strutted his musical talent by collaborating with a rock and roll band live on stage proving once and for all that he’s still got it. This struck a huge following with the younger crowd. This made him seem more easy going and made you want to hang out talk music and have a couple of cold ones with him. John F Kennedy’s ability to influence pop culture produced likeable qualities from the American public and undoubtedly got people more involved. He was idolized for his sense of style and the connection with the citizens. He was even a source of inspiration for bands as is evident in such songs as “twisting at the white house”. He also had pop icon Marilyn Monroe sing happy birthday at his party in Madison Square Garden. These are two examples of people who made political engagement seem like something that was not just for old, rich, white Americans.
Another way that political engagement can be improved is by more people, as well as politicians, getting on board with social networking and blogging sites. Traditionally substantially contributing to a campaign was a time consuming burden. For this reason, only the people who had the extra time and motivation would contribute to promoting their candidate. However, now that people are able to reach a wide audience with very little effort candidate promotion is something that anyone can do. By creating an online platform for people to express their opinions and concerns, people are able to build a strong sense of communal values that extend beyond their immediate residence. Politicians should also take advantage of these mediums because it allows people to track their progress. If more politicians would take a little bit of time out of their busy schedule to keep the public informed about meetings that they attended, emerging issues that affect us, or their thoughts on current trends, they could accomplish a lot more than just making an appearance on a TV show. I think that something like this would be beneficial to the public because it would allow people to get first hand information that hasn’t been blown out of proportion or watered down by the media. It would also be beneficial to the politicians because it would allow them to establish their credibility and attract voters that agree with their opinions and actions.
Another reason why a lot of people are not engaged politically is because they have conflicting values with both of the candidates. I think that more openness and diversity with political candidates would make people want to become more involved. I think that the reason why political and civil engagement is something that we see most out of upper class, white, males is because those are the type of people who are in politics. However, in the last presidential election we saw a shift from the traditional candidate to something new. Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton broke new ground with their presidential campaign and what we saw as a result was a drastic change in the amount of political engagement. This rise in the amount of voters and supporters of presidential campaigns came from the young, and minority groups. People that were uneducated about politics were now eager to learn, eager to promote, and eager to vote for the candidate who they thought was going to embody the person that they wanted in a leader. And of course the people who were already involved in the political process continued to do so. This created a civil engagement that now encompassed the opinions of all different races and social circles.
After taking this class and learning about, not only the political process, but about how politics are communicated, I feel like I am more able to make an informed decision about political candidates. This has made me realize the true benefits of being involved with the policies of my community. I have also learned not to take everything that the media says as the absolute truth. Before this class I hated watching news channels like CNN and MSNBC, but now I like to watch them with a critical eye and take politics into my own hands. Now that I am able to analyze what politics are relaying to me I am more eager to challenge their fallacies. And that is what makes me a more engaged citizen.