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Social media marketing threatens the future of our election integrity

Barbados Labour Party candidate member, Sonia Browne with her campaign manager and her supporters. (Photo by Ashlee Sargeant)
By Ashlee Sargeant on Tuesday, 22 February, 2022 at 12:29 PM

The integrity of our country's electoral process has been threatened by the misuse of social media marketing practiced by the various political parties in the recent 2022 election.

Political Scientist, Devaron Bruce shared this view while he added that the COVID-19 pandemic also did not aid in voter turnout and voter confidence.

“In past elections, the main voter demographic ranged from 50 to 70 years old. Individuals within this age group tend to not have a social media presence and if they do have a media presence, they certainly are not active,” he said.

He indicated that this demographic engages more with planned events such as picnics and concerts; it allows them to feel included and heard.

Bruce hoped that the political parties would have ensured the inclusion of their core target audience as their vote is more reliable than the adolescent vote but instead, he observed members of both the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) make a "mockery" of the 2022 election.

“The viral moments taken from the various political meetings took away the seriousness of the election. Culturally we as a people rarely use social media to gain knowledge on a situation, we use it for entertainment. Very few issues were actually discussed during or after these political meetings; persons more remember the memeable moments,” Bruce added.

Bruce believes this was all done to attract the younger demographic, but he wished to remind the various political parties that the only year that there was a clear increase in young voters was in the year 2013. He also highlighted the fact that many young voters are monolithic and those who are not, were not impressed by the marketing done during the election.

Both Yaheisa Jones and Evan McDonald who were first-time voters agreed with the political scientist. They stated that even though the memes and viral videos did not affect their final decision process when deciding who to vote for, the election did feel like a joke and overall felt like a fever dream. They agreed that they can see how this would affect their peer’s decision-making process.

“An election campaign has to be a balance of the use of social media and reaching out to the people. As I said, culture trumps practicality sometimes. My advice to our political parties but more specifically the smaller parties is to use social media correctly. It will be difficult to dominate traditional platforms with the two main existing parties. If they can find a balance and market themselves tastefully it will be a breath of fresh air for the public,” Bruce explained.

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