Social Media and Politics: Sarah Goldstein.
Social media is a major part of our lives whether we like it or not. The spread of news via social media may or may not add to the effect of some events. The issue becomes when we consider how the government is going to respond or regulate the spread of valid news through social media.
In the early afternoon of June 26, 2022 a group of press stood just Outside of the capitol building between the Cannon House Office Building, The U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Congress. The group was there in hopes to get coverage of the congressional members moving from the legislative office to the Canon Building where their investigation of the events of Jan. 6 2021 was taking place. Among the group was Sarah Goldstein.
Goldstein is a student at the University of Washington studying environmental studies and business. Goldstein took an internship with Fed Net TV, a credentialed news organization covering primarily the U.S. Congress, for her younger interest in journalism and media.
“I’m just trying to focus on getting through right now,” Goldstein said.
Her experience among professionals is rare compared to the general population. Through her internship with Fed Net TV, Goldstein was given the opportunity to sit in one of the hearings occurring for the investigation of Jan. 6.
“I was sitting almost more in a courtroom than like some sort of hearing and that definitely doesn’t make me feel very good that some of our biggest and most influential political leaders, you know, inevitably end up under such scrutiny,” Goldstein said.
Jan 6. 2021 was a day that left the country speechless, angry, confused, and for some, with pride. For some students, the events left to fear and wrinkles of doubt plaguing their ideas of the deciding systems of the U.S. Government.
“I think it’s indicative that there’s a huge, you know, issue with our election system and the type of people that come into power,” Goldstein said.
The day also carried the question of how the media and the public use of social media affect the political systems of the U.S. which seem to lay stagnant in their tradition as the world moves forward around them.
“The different ways that social media plays into politics is just so, um, the two are so inextricable these days that I feel like it’s just changed our political system forever,” Goldstein said.
For many young people, when considering this arguably immediate media consumption of current news via social media, there is a concern about the ability of the U.S. Government to keep up with the regulation (or lack thereof) of media. It can be argued sustainably that the events that took place on Jan. 6 2021 could not have been possible without access to social media.
