The Politics of Social Media

There was much speculation as to whether current TTC Chair, Adam Giambrone would be running in this year’s mayoral election. After viewing the following Youtube video (which I was linked to by a classmate’s re-Tweet) I set any uncertainty aside.



This video, out for not even a week, has received quite a bit of attention from the media. They assert that Giambrone is not a serious candidate. I think he’s in it to win it.

Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Giambrone is an active member of each. He even has his own blog. All of these outlets are new resources available to every politician, and Giambrone isn’t the first to harness their power.

In the past, a like-candidate probably would not have received the exposure Giambrone enjoys today. Luckily, social media tools make it harder for the status quo to cast him aside and silence his supporters. After all, the online world is arguably the most democratic forum around. It is a place for the masses to gather and even voice their opinion should they choose to do so (and many do, often). The masses are on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and thousands of other social media sites. Giambrone has used his cheesy, undeniably low-budget video to reach his electorate and beyond.


In my opinion, examining Giambrone’s tactics reveals much about his target audience. Youth are extremely comfortable with Youtube and actively seek out new videos-gone-viral. Toronto youth, just like youth around the world, are all over the Internet. We love its immediacy, its accessibility but most of all, its ability to connect us with others.
It seems older generations still can’t recognize the power of this stuff, how else could they confuse Giambrone’s presence in social media with anything other than legitimacy?

After a lengthy conversation with my friends, we concluded that it's wonderful that politicians are on many of the sites we frequent. After all, the prospect of engaging with politicians online is far less horrifying than having a parent request your friendship on Facebook...awkward.

Specs
Age: 32
Youtube Channel: adamgiambrone2010
Twitter handle: @adam_giambrone
Current Occupation: City of Toronto Councillor: Ward 18 Davenport , TTC Chair
Assumed Office: 2003, 2006
Party Affiliation: Served as national president of the New Democratic Party of Canada 2001 - 2006

UPDATE:

Wow. A lot has happened since I blogged about Giambrone's bid to become mayor. Here's the gist of it...he became embroiled in a political sex scandal involving multiple women and had little choice but to drop out of the mayoral race. He's also since announced that he will not be seeking re-election. My guess is that he's going to try his luck in the private sector, gain some experience and then eventually make a well-timed re-entry into politics. But we'll see.

I am on the executive of the Clean Train Student Coalition, and two weeks ago now, we had our "Info Blitz". One of the locations included in our blitz was Old City Hall at the corner of Queen and Bay. We really wanted to garner media attention so we knew that we had to recruit someone the media would want to see. Long story short... one of our CTSC members tweeted Giambrone about our cause and our blitz day and he actually responded! Giambrone was there, along with the CBC, CTV, CP24, CityTV and Global camera crews...and all because of social media. Without twitter, would we have gotten Giambrone's attention? I feel completely confident in saying absolutely not. This city councilor and chair of the TTC was accessible to us students only through social media. Result.

Sign our petition in favour of cleaner transit.