The Role of Social Media in Real Life: A Vital Tool for Shaping Public Opinion

Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope) – Afrah Borji

Social media is a powerful tool for shaping public opinion by expressing opinions and ideas on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which are among the most prominent and important platforms for expressing opinions and measuring public opinion.

According to Dr. Ali Al-Hawri, a professor of radio and television at Al-Hodeidah University, the relationship between social media and public opinion is deeply rooted, as traditional and digital media are influential in shaping public opinion, and social media is part of digital media.

On the other hand, journalist Shadi Al-Mahwaiti states that social media platforms have become a significant basis for measuring public opinion and understanding different opinions about current events and news. Most newspapers and TV channels have resorted to using these platforms by creating their own pages to publish news in real time and monitor comments and reactions from different audiences around the world.

Al-Mahwaiti also emphasizes the importance of traditional media not ignoring social media platforms, which strongly influence global news circulation.

Manasa Foundation for Media and Development Studies conducted a field study titled “The Impact of Social Media Platforms on Shaping the Public Opinion in Yemen,” which lasted for a full month between May 22 and June 22, 2017. The study, prepared by Yemeni journalists Ashraf Al-Rifi and Adil Abdulghani, states that more than 79% of Yemenis communicate with political leaders through social media platforms. It confirms that social media platforms play an important role in shaping public opinion in Yemen, contributing to enhancing social awareness, creating public trends through pressure and advocacy campaigns, political polarization, and building relationships between individuals and political entities.

The study also revealed that social media platforms have contributed to enhancing social awareness among Yemenis by disseminating information and knowledge about various issues such as human rights, corruption, and development. These platforms have also facilitated open dialogue on these issues, leading to increased public awareness about them.

Ethics to be Followed

From the perspective of the journalist Hamdi Doubala, social media has become one of the most important mass media in modern times, due to its advantages including speed, wide dissemination, and the non-restriction of the media message to journalists or political decision-makers who used to rely on traditional media to convey their messages.

Doubala continues, “Through this technology, anyone can be a journalist and can easily create and disseminate messages, but this may come at the expense of accuracy, credibility, and the ethics associated with the journalism profession. Therefore, traditional media retains the precedence that makes it trustworthy to the public.”

He adds, “Many traditional media outlets exploit social media platforms to send specific messages to shape public opinion or other issues. Therefore, most traditional media have affiliated platforms and websites on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and others, becoming a medium to attract more readers without overshadowing their status and credibility with their audience.”

On the other hand, Al-Hawri says, “There are ethics that must be considered by the media, such as the known ethical and professional standards in journalistic work, including credibility, professionalism, neutrality, objectivity, and honesty in reporting, among others. As for the audiences using these platforms, they are governed by personal whims, desires, impulses, and personal interests that everyone finds it impossible to distance themselves from.”

In the same context, Al-Mahwaiti explains that the media must adhere to certain ethical standards, such as not favoring any side, objectively reporting the news, and contributing to clarifying the truth to the public wherever and however it may be, in order not to lose its credibility with its audience, as audiences usually seek information on several platforms and in various ways, and verify all published news.

Important Factors for Interaction

Regarding the factors influencing the role of social media in shaping public opinion, they are diverse, as Al-Hawri explained, saying, “There are factors related to the audience, such as age, educational and economic level, motivations, and the time spent following social media. And there are other factors related to the issues raised in social media, which are related to the environment.”

According to Al-Mahwaiti, the best practices and factors for interacting with information dissemination are through hashtags, tracking interaction and access to information through comments and likes, as well as through images, articles, and videos that reach a larger audience. He also adds that among the ways to increase interaction is to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information, create sponsored posts targeting specific audiences, and other methods used on social media platforms.

Doubala adds, “Generally, there is a lack of precise and reliable information on social media, or at least this is the prevailing culture among the public. Accurate and trustworthy information can only come from official sources such as reputable political figures and authoritative entities (newspapers, ministries, authorities), which naturally require verification and thorough investigation as many pages, platforms, and websites are often subject to hacking.”

Challenges

As for the main challenges facing the use of social media in shaping public opinion, they are numerous. Al-Hawri says, “The challenges are related to the dynamic nature of social media, which is rapidly changing, continuous, and complex at the same time. Additionally, the audience of social media is also changing, and their behaviors vary from time to time.”

He continues, “We cannot judge the audience based on their writings and interactions on social media; an individual may express something they are not convinced of, but they write it in a certain way simply because they know that a specific person is following them or will read what they write, and so on.”

Social media is an important and powerful tool for measuring public opinion; therefore, many people express their opinions on social media platforms, including activists and journalists, as they gauge public opinion through the views of the community.