IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 34

or what he would bring to the office of President. Hillary
Clinton's approach was more about leveraging the next
generation, and she occasionally interjected sarcasm
and humor. Also, Trump's inflection tended to be simple and emotional, and Clinton's approach was far more
traditional, and included paid Facebook ads that took
advantage of the large audience and precision targeting
capabilities to reach donors and voters. Overall, as [31]
concluded, not only was "[s]ocial media's influence in
this presidential election stronger than it has ever
been," but it "will shape campaigns for years to come."

Social network sites are transforming
the way politicians, government and
citizens engage with one another.
This study provides evidence for the use of social
media in the 2013 presidential elections in Cyprus.
Cyprus is a changing society that is quite developed
socioeconomically. GDP in 2014 was U.S. $29 670 when
adjusted by purchasing power parity, a figure that is
167% of the world's average [26]. Cyprus has a high
level of information communication technologies (ICT)
use -(the percentage of households utilizing a computer, either desktop, portable or handheld, according the
Statistical Service of the Republic of Cyprus is 70.3%
[22]. Of these users, the 93% are frequent users of the
Internet, and two thirds of Internet users are connected
with social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. [20]. With this background, the
aim of this research was to investigate whether social
media were utilized in Cyprus for the 2013 presidential
campaign and, if yes, to what extent and in what ways.

Related Work
Social media is a term often used with terms like social
network sites, social Web, Web 2.0, and user generated
content (USG) [7], and they are defined as online applications, platforms, and media, which aim to facilitate interactions, collaboration, and the sharing of content [12].
Weber [23] adds that social media is the online place
where people with common interests can gather to
share thoughts, comments, and opinions. Whereas in
traditional media such as newspapers, radio, and television, communication is one-way, social media allows
everyone to publish and to participate in multithread
conversations online.
Social media comes in many forms [25]: blogs, micro
blogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook), media-sharing

sites (YouTube), social bookmarking and voting sites (Digg,
Reddit), review sites (Yelp), forums, and virtual worlds
(Second Life).
According to [6], social media sites exist under the
conceptual umbrella of Web 2.0. A Web 2.0 application
is a technology that allows for user-collaboration as well
as User Generated Content (USG), which focuses on
individual participation and content creation on Web 2.0
applications. Web 2.0 technologies are a collection of
social media by which people actively form, organize,
edit, integrate, and rate Web content [13]. Web 2.0 includes
social network sites such as Facebook, which allows
users to create profiles and establish connections with
friends and acquaintances on the Internet [17], [18].
Other formats such as microblogs and video-sharing are
also included in Web 2.0. Microblogs such as Twitter
allow users to post short messages that are published
online in real time. Video-sharing sites such as YouTube
enable users to share user-created video and interact
with other users in an online community. These technologies support group interaction.

Social Network Sites
According to [23], social networks sites are places where
people with a common interest or concern come together
to meet people with similar interests, express themselves
and vent. What makes SNSs unique is not that they allow
individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable
users to articulate and make visible their social networks.
On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily looking to meet new people but they are more interested in managing relationships by maintaining contacts
with old friends who are already part of their extended
social network [12]. Moreover, [9] noted that the most popular SNSs are those that focus on user-generated content,
participation, openness, and network effects. Social
networking is not mainly about technology but about
covering people's needs for access to and sharing of
information, collaboration, and the creation of identity.
Johannessen [9] also suggests that SNSs should be treated more as a cultural than as a technological phenomenon. To gain the benefits of SNSs, owners of information
need to open their data, think in terms of collaborative
production of ideas and content, and to share ideas with
others in order to create better information.
SNSs are now transforming the political background
of how politicians, governments, and citizens will engage with one another. The game of politics no longer
belongs wholly to the professionals. Politics is now in
the hands of ordinary voters, those who know how to
make the best use this new infrastructure. The medium
that rose to the forefront of this dispersal of power and
mobilization of active political engagement in the last
few years is Facebook.

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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JUNE 2018

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