Governing in the age of social media

[GMDino]

(09-25-2017, 02:16 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Not sure if anyone saw how NK is taking some of Trump's tweets: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41391978

Now, my immediate thought is "how stupid is that? Obviously he can't declare war with a tweet." But this brings up a more general question about the role of social media and how to use it when governing. What are your thoughts on the social media use of government agencies, from the local sheriff on up to the federal account? How official should tweets be considered? We saw Trump tweet out something and it get ignored by the policy community until something official came out, so on the domestic side we see that check. However, with foreign affairs it can be a more delicate situation. Even with domestic affairs, a social media post being misinterpreted can have serious consequences.

So what do you all think about the use of social media in government?

I was listening the the Nerdist podcast with Max Brooks yesterday.  I think it's a week or so old but I'm just getting to it.  Anyway, one of the points he made about NK was the only thing that could really cause a war would be to insult Kim Jung-Un publicly.  And that Jung-Un would use any personal insult and turn it into an insult on the country.

So here we are.

As to social media overall:

I had this discussion over lunch yesterday.  The beauty of the internet is that you can find anything.  The flip side to that is you can also find anything that supports your point of view.  I love that we can have (theoretically) direct, instant contact with and information from our elected officials.  I hate that public discourse can be reduced to 140 characters.