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Not apathetic just being appropriate : Singapore's political communication under the scrutiny of social media

University of British Columbia

Many have proclaimed that social media has changed Singapore’s political arena by empowering a range of new voices in the assumed apathetic nation. This thesis addresses two correlated questions: Are Singaporeans apathetic to “politics” in Singapore? How effective is the Singapore government’s social media strategies towards engaging with the citizens in the aftermath of the 2011 Singapore General Election? This thesis examines a few cases where Singaporeans contributed to a wide range of political expressions such as activism work and alternative news sites through social media which changed the power structure that Singapore has. Additionally, the Singapore government’s social media strategies to promote policy and party’s image has shown certain effectiveness in gaining traction. This thesis also observes the Singapore government’s attempt to increase their social media presence and engagement to reach out to its people even in the midst of curbing expression and extending their patriarchal control. Conclusively, this thesis analyses the Facebook interactions amongst the political candidates in the 2015 Singapore General Election to establish the connection that social media interaction between the candidates and the citizens is imperative and in due course affects the vote count and the traction they get with the citizens.

Text

2016-04-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/57778

Asia Pacific Policy Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/