Politicians bypass press, control message with social media
Elected officials can avoid facing reporters’ queries.
S P R I N G F I E L D, I L L . — To deliver his first extensive remarks on the contentious Dakota Access oil pipeline, all the new North Dakota governor needed was a camera and a Facebook account.
The simplicity of the setup s p a re d Re p u b l i c a n G ov. Doug Burgum from having to answer questions from reporters on Thursday and allowed him to convey his t h oug h t s u n f i l t e re d a n d unchallenged by the press.
It’s a strategy that’s been us e d for a whil e by gove r nors , s t a t e l awmakers and other elected officials in more tech-savvy states and becoming increasingly popular among new-to-politics officeholders, such as Burgum, Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and, of course, President-elect Donald Trump, who heavily relies on Twitter to share his thoughts.
By making social media platforms the first stop to announce or react to events in a controlled setting, the politicians are bypassing the press — who would call into question assertions made at news conferences — and taking their message to where their audience is most likely to be engaged.
“Politicians are always trying to communicate with potential voters. They want to get a message out and they want to tell the story the way they want to tell it,” said Christopher Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois.
This week, Democratic U. S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Gri sham announced her run for New Mexico governor in a YouTube video. In Utah, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert declared on Twitter he was pulling his support for Trump after a video surfaced in October of the businessman making lewd remarks about women.
S o me Ho u s e Re p u b l i - cans in Colorado film a YouTube message every week during the legislative ses- sion because “we can’t be sure how it will be covered,” House GOP spokesman Joel Malecka said.
Rauner, a f or mer ve nture capitalist who hadn’t served in an elected position before January 2015, usually takes questions from reporters after news conferences. Recently, he began hosting Facebook Live events, typically drawing about 500 viewers who listen to his answers to screened questions about polic ies he’s advocating for during his 18-months-and-running budget struggle with Democrats.
“As the world continues to engage and connect on social media, it’s important to the governor to interact directly with people in Illinois to explain how he is working to create jobs, lower property taxes, improve schools and enact term limits,” spokes- woman Catherine Kelly said in a statement.
A July report from the Pew Research Center on Journalism and Media found that 44 percent of U.S. adults said social media was the platform that informed them of events in the 2016 presidential election during a week in January. About 29 percent said they relied on a local print newspaper.
“(Social media has) weakened the hand of traditional media in many senses. ... C a n d i d a t e s h a d t o g i v e a c c e s s , t hey had t o g ive interviews, they had to be hospitable to reporters,” said Tom Hollihan, professor of media and politics at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
“Nowadays,” he added, “the Trump campaign has challenged very powerful news organizations, including the Washington Post.”
It’s not unusual for presidents to champion a directto-voters approach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave intimate radio addresses called “Fireside Chats,” and President Barack Obama posts weekly video addresses on the White House website.
The “media have been the interpreters” of politicians’ stories, Mooney said, but now, “There’s no challenge to their story. The story is straight out of their mouths.”