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The influence of social media in politics

Description

A documentary presenter highlights the influence of social networking sites on political debate, and how Twitter influenced the 2010 general election TV debates. Does social media get us and our views closer to the politicians? Have political parties and ‘old’ media lost their power to spin political debate?

Classroom Ideas

Encourage class discussion of the influence of new technologies on political debate. What is command and control politics and what is its relationship to the media? Students could use this clip to form part of their research for an extended written response to the question “To what extent can social media influence politics?” The class could look into the use of social media by their own representatives. Students could choose issues they are interested in and attempt to engage their councillor, MSP or MP about it.