I commented in The Conversation about social media tricks taking hold in election campaigning.

Source: Flickr | Kristine Paulus | CC Licensed

The article reports that US computer scientists Panagiotis Metaxas and Eni Mustafaraj published an article in Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, showing that “Google “bombs”, Twitter “spam bots” and astroturfing have become tools of the trade during the US election campaign, and are likely to feature in the run-up to next year’s Australian election say experts.”

Excerpt: It’s all part of a trend that requires political candidates to be armed as well as those who seek to attack them said [Dr] Sean Rintel, lecturer in strategic communication at the University of Queensland.

In the case of Google bombing, the most famous case which involved George W. Bush being linked with the term “miserable failure”, [Dr] Rintel said it was no longer sufficient for candidates to issue a press release saying “that’s not me”.

“In the moment you need ways of getting out something that is equally as effective at grabbing attention through search,” Dr Rintel said.

“The speed with which an issue can pop up and then suddenly become a problem for a candidate to deal with has become much faster,” he said.

“Candidates have to be willing to respond quickly and armed as well as those on the other side.”

Read more at:

Palmer, C. (2012, October 26). Social media tricks take hold in election campaigning: report. The Conversation (Online).