WITH just under a month to go to the local elections, there is a definite sense of things ‘hotting up’ in political circles this week.
The posters have finally been given the go-ahead to be erected, and within the next week, there will be clamouring for final names to be added to the list before the nominations deadline.
As in recent years, social media has a major role to play in the elections – with many candidates realising the need to be across several platforms – as well as their local newspapers – to attract as wide an audience as possible.
Gone are the days when a Facebook page was the only social media outlet needed to get the ‘word out’ about a new candidate, or to highlight the work that has already been undertaken by an existing incumbent of a Council seat.
And where the European elections are concerned, getting a presence across all media is probably even more important – as the day-to-day workings of the European Parliament do not get as much of an airing on national or local media as the goings-on at our national parliament.
As a result, getting the word out about the importance of voting to get your voice heard in an increasingly important Europe is becoming ever more essential.
But, with the advent of these new strands of media – which are largely unregulated and often untrustworthy – comes a bigger ability to deceive or confuse the voter.
As a result, this newspaper and others, have launched a campaign to remind our readers that the content of your local media is trustworthy. Our journalists are local, our stories are authenticated and our content is produced where it is read.
On the other hand, candidates are themselves realising the danger of a world where the unverified ‘citizen journalist’ can pose a very real threat to our democracy.
In fact, one West Cork candidate discovered the unreliability of social media this week when she was forced to publish a post explaining that an Instagram account purporting to be hers was not, in fact, sending ‘cryptic’ messages to friends and followers from herself.
It seemed relatively benign, but such initially innocent scams or hacks can quickly become a problem if left unattended, and so she acted to distance herself immediately.
This is the kind of dirty tricks environment which all politicians must now learn to navigate – even here in remote West Cork.
It is a sad indictment of the kind of power we have yielded to large technology firms which are largely unaccountable to the citizen or the State.
If we embrace one thing in this election, it should the knowledge that we must now double-check all correspondence purporting to be coming from, or on behalf of, our election candidates.
No page, post or even video can any longer be relied upon to be authentic at first glance. Deep fakes, false accounts, mistruths and erroneous statements can all be posted on social media without any verification required.
At the end of the day there are two failsafe methods of getting your local candidates’ actual views – in your local paper, (staffed by trained and experienced journalists), or by asking the candidate, in person, on your own doorstep.
Only then can you be sure what your read or see is, in fact, real.
