Literature Review

Prior to the 2016 election, Social Media played a slightly passive role when it came to politics and elections. Donald Trump was really one of the first to use Social Media to campaign himself while saving money and having a much larger online reach. Now that it has been shown how powerful Social Media can be, different ways of using it for politics are popping up everywhere. A politician at the forefront of Social Media campaigning is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is currently sitting at 3.2 million followers on Instagram. One of the highlights of her page is her using Instagram’s relatively new feature, Instagram Stories. Essentially, it’s a polished and more functional Snapchat. These stories are titled ‘Congress Camp’ and there are two parts to them. The stories follow her through the journey of getting settled into congress. Everything from meetings, to orientations, she showed people something they had never seen before. Her tactics closely resemble those of walkthrough videos that are popular on YouTube and could be a reason why she has gained so much traction. This is important to look at because I think we need to know more about how politicians can use platforms to gain traction and eyes in the political community. I compared her feed to Tulsi Gabbard’s who is a representative for Hawaii in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez dwarfs her in number of followers. Gabbard is a war vet, and has fought bravely for our country, yet do you see anything about her in the news or anything of the sort? Followers on Social Media is extremely important in our day in age, because the more Followers, the more eyes on you and everything you do. We all know that the election has been more of a popularity contest than one truly based on merit. I believe there is a need to look deeper into this, and really explain how something as simple as video’s titled ‘Congress Camp’ could help Ocasio-Cortez gain so many eyes. For looking at this I decided to watch a game walkthrough video of Alien: Isolation Part 1. The video was made by the YouTuber PewDiePie, who is a very famous YouTuber for those who don’t know. Upon first Watching Congress Camp, I realized that she had her face on screen most of the time and had little bits of information for the viewer to read while watching the short clip. The interesting thing was, it felt like we were following someone through an entirely new experience and enjoying learning something new and watching someone go through it. Many of these things are the same reason why so many people tune in to Video-Game Walkthroughs when they can just play the game themselves. Though I am sure there are a percentage of people who watch those videos because they are unsure of the game or cannot afford it.

So, pairing up Congress Camp to a video-game walkthrough of Alien: Isolation is a great way to see the parallels that lies between the two videos. In choosing who to compare Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram to, I chose Tulsi Gabbard. The reasoning being that Gabbard is a woman, war vet, and is currently serving on congress herself. I wanted to take someone who is the same gender, and has more accolades, and see what the rift was that did not allow the same follower success to happen to Gabbard. One of the major differences that can be seen is Ocasio-Cortez is more personable in her feed, really giving viewers a sense of connecting and getting to know her. Although Gabbard does have a few personal posts on her Instagram feed, most of it is her stance on things, and politics in general. While there is nothing wrong with stating what you believe in and stand for, as Social Media is evolving, you must be able to be more dynamic than that. Tulsi Gabbard is an amazing woman who risked her life for our country, yet she doesn’t have a gigantic following like Ocasio-Cortez. I believe Gabbard’s account is the one to compare with Ocasio-Cortez’s because it shows that large followings aren’t just based on policies and service. It has grown more dynamic than that, and Ocasio-Cortez is one of the early ones on the train. For a long time, we have been disconnected and lied to by Politicians. They wouldn’t answer our cries, just state their political position and say they are fighting for what is right. The general public has lost interest in politicians like that, because we have been lied to several times before. I truly believe that Ocasio-Cortez’s walkthrough like methods is truly the way that politicians are going to utilize Social Media.