ABSTRACT
As mentioned in A11, a social media presence is an integral part of contemporary politics, and social media platforms are used by politicians to disseminate everything from personal messages to political policies. Politicians and other institutional elites can also use social media to portray the public impression that they are more accessible and down-to-earth than perceptions that might be possessed by voters who traditionally view politicians in a more detached context. In this vein, political professionals will also tweet or post statuses on Facebook on a consistent basis, demonstrating to the public that they have their fingers on the pulse, as it were, and hoping that voters will view them more as a part of the ‘real world’ of ‘ordinary people’ than apart from it. Occasionally of course the preoccupation with ever-increasing public engagement can backfire. In November 2017 Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was among the first to congratulate Britain’s Prince Harry on his engagement to American actress Meghan Markle. Unfortunately, and somewhat ironically given the DUP’s staunchly pro-British political stance, Mrs Foster’s tweet read ‘Congratulations to HRH Prince William on his engagement to Megan Markle. Wonderful news this morning!’ Whilst the misspelling of Miss Markle’s first name might have been overlooked, the fact that Mrs Foster had instead congratulated Prince Harry’s older and already married brother William was somewhat less easy to miss. Whilst instances like this may not be particularly serious and often provide some light relief in an age of consistently rehearsed political performance, they also raise a more serious consideration for those who feel that a social media presence indicates a more accessible brand of politics. When the inevitable apology came several hours later the tweet read ‘Apologies to TRHs Princes William & Harry for tweet error on my account earlier. I stopped tweeting personally a long time ago. Genuine typo by a member of staff. Guilty of tweeting too fast. There goes any chance of an invite!!:-) AF’. For this politician, and we can safely assume for many others, social media is managed just like press releases and political speeches.
