When publishing changes, so does society. Investigate and compare the impact of two publication technologies, one pre-1900 and one post-2000, on a specific aspect of society (e.g. education, politics, creative industries, science, entertainment, social relationships).
Having the ability to publish material has a profound effect on society as it enables the public to share ideas and communicate with other publics as well as allow future publics to discover the past. This process of publishing is broadly definable as the distribution of information to the public. Advancements in technology have hugely contributed to the evolution of publication technologies thus emphasizing the impact of changing publications on society. Through using the examples of newspapers and social networking website Twitter and comparing these two publication technologies, the full effect of their impact on politics should be revealed. Other aspects that will be explored include how the two publication technologies effect time and space, their influence and power over politics, and the effect of aggregation and distribution.
One of the most definable and significant developments in the history of both publishing and printing was the invention of the printing press by German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. The invention rapidly revolutionised publishing and signified the beginning of mass publishing and its mass distribution to the public. The earliest forms of the modern newspaper soon started to emerge following Gutenberg’s invention (Gorman & McLean, 2003, p. 8). In modern times, newspapers act as a political watchdog that re-enforce their power as the fourth estate to monitor and report on the state of parliament and the courts (Errington & Miragliotta, 2011, p. 8). Newspapers are often carefully organised and heavily researched to present well-rounded reports on political issues.
Social network website Twitter was invented over 550 years later in March 2006. “Twitter—a microblogging service that enables users to post messages (“tweets”) of up to 140 characters—supports a variety of communicative practices; participants use Twitter to converse with individuals, groups, and the public at large, so when conversations emerge, they are often experienced by broader audiences than just the interlocutors” (Marwick & Boyd, 2010, p. 114). Instead of complying with the slow and traditional conventions of the newspaper to reach mass publics, Twitter has used them to create a more interactive, informative, efficient and high-speed platform.
One vital element of how both publishing technologies affect politics is their ability to effectively communicate political policies. Prior to the 1900’s, newspapers were one of the most distributed, reliable and immediate forms of media in existence. Politicians and political parties were only able to communicate their ideas to the public via broadcast media like newspapers through interviews, press releases and investigative reporting. In the present day newspapers continue to inform the general public of political movement, ideas and events after conducting research and uphold a respectable reputation of reporting accurately and acting as a watchdog over politics. On the other hand Twitter allows another channel of communication that allows politicians, political parties and the public to discuss and share their own political views.
Twitter has created a new platform of communication and interaction that has allowed politicians and political parties to share their policies and launch campaigns directly with the public. An example of a politician using Twitter is Kevin Rudd, who regularly updates his account with daily activities and important issues in order to gain attention and likeability from the public. This is important for multiple reasons, it allows the politician to be in the public eye in a controlled and favourable way as they are able to choose what they publish, it also allows the politician to understand and interact with the public’s opinions and finally the politician’s presence on Twitter and ability to publish such material most importantly influences the public’s votes. Politicians are also able modulate the public’s experience through deciding what content they choose to publish and thus intensifying experience. However newspapers do not usually include direct discussion from political parties or contain articles written by politicians, most likely to stay mutual and unbiased and choosing instead to report on these policies. That being said, sometimes newspapers have columns or guest articles that is written by a politician possibly as a way to generate a wider readership or to seem more balanced.
Political networked publics have also emerged due publishing technologies. Twitter has created political networked publics through user’s abilities to have online political discussions. People are able to unite and connect with each other over shared or disputed political beliefs through searching content or publishing content that, as a result, becomes searchable and discoverable. This is an example of aggregation and distribution, where certain publics discover or create content and therefore share that content with other publics in a bid to generate and spread awareness. These highly public and published interactions further influence other public’s decisions and influences aspects of politics such as favouring or voting for a particular political party. Finally they also spread the political information to other publics who otherwise were unaware, again evidencing aggregation and distribution. Newspapers also allow this networked public to emerge through writing political articles that spark discussion and thought among the public. However due to the fundamental structure of newspapers, public interaction with one another and with the newspaper is not facilitated well as the public’s ability to write to the editor or voice their ideas in the opinion section of the newspaper is, aside from being highly non-interactive, an incredibly slow, time consuming and thus ineffective process.
With the ability to record and archive all published content, once material has been published it becomes forever permanent and accessible. Newspapers archive every edition through large storerooms full of databases while Twitter stores its archives in online databases. A recent example of how publishing content online has had a detrimental effect on politics is when in 2011, United States congressman Anthony Weiner accidently posted an inappropriate picture of himself onto his Twitter account. Weiner immediately deleted the photo but as it was published online it was not only seen by an unmeasurable number of people but it was also archived on Twitter and in other sub-sequential places permanently. As a result of the scandal Weiner lost his job. This is also an example of the disadvantages surrounding politicians having their own platform to directly communicate to the public and highlights one of the benefits of the privacy and separation from public eye that the newspaper gives. Archives in this sense act as an authority and grounds of consequence for politician’s actions. It also determines the structure of society surrounding inappropriateness that gives power to both mediums.
Another aspect to consider is the publishing technology’s authority and power over politics. Twitter gives the user both the authority and power to publish the content and information they want to publish, as long as it falls under Twitter’s terms of use. On the other hand, it is the editors and owners that have the greatest power and authority over the newspaper. An example of a specific newspaper’s power is evident in the 1975 Australian election where newspaper and media mogul Rupert Murdoch used his newspapers to highly influence the outcome of the election. Murdoch, who had previously supported and promoted through positive newspaper coverage the Labour Party that lead to their 1972 election win, decided the Australian Liberal Party should come into power and win the next election as he disagreed with the Labour parties ideologies. Therefore Murdoch again “supposedly used his newspapers to campaign against the current Australian government in 1975” (Errington & Miragliotta, 2011, p. 138), thus resulting in a change of government with an Australian Liberal Party win. This not only shows newspaper’s authority and power over politics, but it effectively highlights newspaper’s influence over the public and the ability to alter their political opinion.
The reach and distribution among the public is of paramount importance as political success highly depends on generating attention and reaching the masses to promote and gain support over ideologies. Newspapers have a large distribution among the public that is seen through newspaper sales whereas Twitter displays more interactive and immediate feedback through the public’s ability to reply, favourite and retweet certain published political content. An example of how Twitter has impacted the political distribution to the public is when President Barack Obama posted a photo of him hugging his wife after he was re-elected as president in 2012. The photo, entitled “four more years”, is the most retweeted tweet of all time on Twitter. The public reach and the consequential attention it generates is crucial as it indicates how favourable or popular a politician or political party is with the public.
Figure 1 Screen shot of Obama’s ‘four more years’ tweet. It is the most retweeted tweet of all time.
Another interesting aspect to consider is how, as a publishing technology, newspapers are keeping current and innovative. In response to the challenge posed by new media, newspapers are becoming digitalised by publishing their content online and becoming a part of the Internet. Being on the same medium as Twitter allows newspapers to become easily accessible across time and space constraints and more interactive through the public’s ability to comment on political articles, thus creating and evidencing networked publics. Interestingly, newspapers have also started using twitter to promote themselves and allow the public to engage directly with them in response to certain political ideas, which highlights convergence as multiple channels have merged together.
To conclude, both newspapers and Twitter are powerful forms of publishing technologies that immensely impact on politics, Politician’s and their relationship with the public. Advancements in technology has facilitated how widely accessible publishing has become as well as highlight its influence over how and what information is made public. While newspapers are more conventional, both mediums act as watchdogs and hold certain power and authority over politics. Newspapers tend to have greater accountability with the public through presenting well-researched political articles and investigative reporting and conventionally they have a greater reach. Finally it can be deduced that Twitter has a greater effect on and influence over politics. Twitter also allows for politician’s to voice their ideas straight to the public. It also creates a platform for publics to share and interact with others over certain political ideas thus showing the aggregation and distribution of content. While newspapers have an opinions section, it does not compete with the directness and immediacy that Twitter allows.
References
Errington, W. & Miragliotta, N. (2011). Media and Politics: an introduction. 2nd edition. Australia: Oxford University Press
Gorman, L. & McLean, D. (2003). The Press as a Mass Medium, Media and Society in the Twentieth Century. USA: Blackwell
Marwick, A. & Boyd, D., (2010). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13 (1)
Obama, B. (2012). Four more years. Accessed June 10, 2013. <https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/266031293945503744>
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