Asian Studies Association of Australia 18th Biennial Conference 2010 THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE...

Asian Studies Association of Australia18th Biennial Conference 2010

THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDEAUSTRALIA

Social Media and Oppositions Parties:

Networking for Singapore’s General

Elections

Dr. James GomezDeputy Associate Dean (International)

Senior Lecturer & Head of Public Relations

Monash [email protected]



Political Communication• Opposition Parties operate in an one-party state.

• Mainstream media is either indirectly owned by the PAP government or those close to it.

• Opposition parties are denied equally access to the mainstream media.

• Opposition parties are subjected to the PAP’s constant negative campaigning (via mainstream media), both during and in-between elections.



Opposition Parties & the Internet in S’pore I

• Started in mid 90s with non-interactive websites where users were limited to the passive viewing of information on the internet (one-way information dissemination of party news and view points on issues).

• Static - Uploaded information about the parties, office holders and candidates, shared photos of their activities, disseminate press releases, news, commentary, texts of parliamentary and public speeches and sent out information via email lists,.



• Interactive - Later opposition parties participated in online discussion forums, administered online petitions, used blog software to uploaded podcasts and videos.

• Collectively these enabled opposition parties to:– promote their agenda, – encourage political discussion and – manage their political identity among key

supporters and networks.– Identify, attract, recruit party workers

Opposition Parties & the Internet in S’pore II



Social Media & Opposition Parties

• Starting early 2000, opposition parties in Singapore began to operate in an environment where users interact with other users to respond to and change the communication message of online content.

• Interactivity first came onboard through email and mailing group replies, discussion forums and later via “comments” features on blogs.

• Two-way online communication became more pronounced from 2005 when online social media platforms became publically available.

• Opposition parties and its supporters then began experimenting with Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter.



Wikipedia• many of the entries for opposition parties were

started as “stubs” around the end of 2004

• content for the main opposition parties than grew while information on minor parties remain as “stubs”

• Wikipedia entries for opposition parties/key members, in almost all cases, are less substantial, less comprehensive and less visually appealing than information available on their official party websites.

• Entries of opposition parties/key members are often contested and subjected to change by general users and “Wiki” editors hence not always reliable in terms of accuracy and breadth.



YouTube I• YouTube came into political prominence in

Singapore during the 2006 general elections when bloggers began to post clips of speeches made at opposition elections rallies. This was done in clear defiance of government announcement prior that such posting were against the Parliamentary Elections Act and punishable by law.

• Since the 2006 general elections opposition parties, its members and supporters have also been using YouTube to post speeches of party leaders, clips of at party events and other related activities during



YouTube II• presently only the SDP and RF have set up a

dedicated channel on YouTube.

– SDP has the “singaporedemocrats” channel http://www.youtube.com/user/singaporedemocrats and

– the Reform Party has set up “SGReformPartyTV” channel http://www.youtube.com/sgreformpartytv



Twitter I• the use of Twitter is also part of the post-2006

general election online phenomenon

• the following parties SDP, NSP, RP and WP had set up twitter accounts

• the bulk of the announcements on opposition party Twitters are alerts to news and updates on parties’ website or lists of time and venue of party outreach activities



Twitter II• it is expected that during major political events that are of

a dramatic nature or during elections, when people want constant updates, Twitter is expected to play a prominent role in Singapore .

• Its outreach will be dependent on the number of Twitter followers

• Twitter is now integrated with other platforms such as websites, blogs, free emails sites & Facebook. All platforms can be uploaded simultaneously via SMS.



Facebook in Singapore• Of all the social networking sites globally, the most

popular is Facebook - in 2010 has 400 million users and about 50% users log on everyday

• according to the website www.checkfacebook.com the city-state has a country audience of 1,716,320 or 0.54% of the global audience

• Approximately three-quarters of Singapore Facebook users are above 18 years old, with the largest group being between 18-45 years old



Singapore Opposition & Facebook

• Singapore’s active opposition parties have a presence either directly, through their youth wings, via supporters or through members’ personal accounts on Facebook

• These include, the National Solidarity Party, Singapore Democratic Alliance, Singapore Democrat Party, Reform Party and Workers’ Party and some of their lead politicians.



Table 1: Opposition Parties

NameNo of

Members

Singapore Democratic Party 1115 (376)

The Reform Party 793

National Solidarity Party (NSP Organising)

833

Workers Party Supporters 544

Complied from www.facebook.com on 020710



Table 2: Youth Wings of Politics Parties

NameNo of

Members

Young Democrats (members) 714

Young Reformers (supporters) 354

Workers’ Party Youth Wing (fan)

724




Table 3: Opposition Party LeadersName No

Chee Soon Juan Singapore Democratic Party

986 (625)

Chiam See Tong Singapore Progressive Party

160

Low Thia Khiang Workers’ Party 567Kenneth Jeyaretnam The Reform Party 2623JB Jeyaretnam In Memory of JB

Jeyaretnam3393




Table 4: Selected PAP Facebook accountsName Position/Title No

Lee Kuan YewMentor Minister (1st Prime Minister)

31975

Lee Hsien Loong Prime Minister 6527

George Yeo Minister of Foreign Affairs10966 (fan)

4954 (group)Vivian Balakrishnan

Minister of Community4235

(privacy settings)Irene Ng Member of Parliament 1083Young PAP (fan) 3436

Aljunied Group Representative Constituency 3016

Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representative Constituency 935




Table 5: Electoral Issue PagesName No

Abolish GRC 958Pluralistic Democracy for Singaporeans

948

I am a Singaporean and I want a chance to vote

788

We want live debate between party leader in the next GE in Singapore

1050

Vote for change, vote the PAP out 5600Complied from www.facebook.com on 030710



Significance of Facebook Political Communications

• Provide some indication of party membership, support

• Level of comfort among individuals willing to openly identify with an opposition party or its politician online.

• Personal profile of key political individuals are often more popular then that of the parties.

• Individual face book accounts seen to be managed directly by the respective individuals attract more support than those managed on their behalf by supporters.



Faceless on Facebook• A rise in the number of “faceless” FB accounts befriending

opposition parties and politicians.

• These faceless FB accounts are created only for political purposes and only feature “friends” in the political circle they do not include members from their normal social circle.

• People with regular FB accounts are still afraid to join as “friends” of an opposition party. But some are willing to join individual politicians as “friends”. Others remove themselves as “friends” from friends who have “added” or “accepted” a friend request from opposition parties/politicians.

• There is a trend both among opposition and PAP to delete “friends” or their postings from known or “faceless” FB profiles in an attempt to manage what is posted on their Facebook page.



The Network Effect During Singapore’s Next General

Elections• The number of members joining the various Facebook

pages of political parties and key party figures will increase in the run up to the next general elections.

• Election issue specific pages that will be set up in the run up and during elections whose numbers is expected to swell dramatically

• Volume of postings and “like” on these Facebook accounts will also spike during this period.

• With the cooling of period legislation passed, more online activity during cooling off day can be expected to take place via Facebook because of its `closed` nature.



Conclusions• If in the last elections it was blogs, Facebook is will be the

online platform to watch in the next general elections scheduled to take place by February 2012.

• Blogs and websites will play a role, but their role will be complemented by FB where the bulk of the information integration and dissemination will take place in the form of micro blogging via twitter through mobile 3G devices.

• While in the Singapore case the use of social media tools by opposition parties and its key figures are relatively modest, it is nevertheless has become part of their strategic outreach communications that they will use in the next elections.

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