Social Media as a whole, shows one of the challenges of our American political process. Our government should be representative of the people, exactly how a democracy is supposed to work. But however, this is especially hard to achieve because many individuals don't vote. However, with social media, many more people are exposed to politics. In 2014, 16% of individuals above the age of 18 were following some political candidate on social, according to the Pew Research Center. Despite how social media gets the public aware of current issues, the way they get them involved is not good. Usually, biased sources post about current issues without giving a full scope of the whole topic, thereby swaying the peoples true ideals in government.Obama's campaign in 2008 shows the power of the social media. He used youtube as a means of free advertising, and had gained thousands of views for each video.
Another issue with social media is it's large audience. If a post is made by a liberal, it will be seen by not a few, not a 100, but by thousands, and whoever wants to see it can see it because it's on the internet. Accoriding the the Pew Research Center, 68% of those on social media have liked or promoted in some way a political post. Regardless of whether the information is right or wrong, the influencing of the public opinion is one of the challenges of democracy, and is evident in social media in the U.S.
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/politics-fact-sheet/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/19/more-americans-are-using-social-media-to-connect-with-politicians/
