Social Media in Politics with Dave Sommer

This week Elizabeth chats with Dave Sommer, Vice President of Strategic Communication at Enterprise Canada, former Head of Politics and Government at Instagram in Washington, D.C., and former Deputy Director of Communications, Digital, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. They chat about the use of social media in political campaigning, where personal influence fits in, and how it has evolved over time.

Additional Resources:

Elizabeth and Dave discuss how social media can be a tool to help connect with existing political audiences and potentially mobilize folks who are on your side. Learn more about this from Andrew Hugh’s book chapter, Weapons of Mass Consumption: Social and Digital Media in Political Campaigns.Elizabeth mentions that social media may be changing how campaigns leverage volunteers and online relationships. Bruce Bimber’s article, Digital Media in the Obama Campaigns: Adaptation to the Personalized Political Communication Environment, argues that Obama set a precedent for this type of engagement.Elizabeth notes that social media platforms are constantly evolving and she chats with Dave about how some are choosing to deprioritize political content. For more on how changes in platform structure can influence campaigning, see The Digital Architectures of Social Media.Elizabeth and Dave touch on the importance of authenticity in social media. For more on this, listen to our Season 1 episode on Authenticity with Kevin Parent.Dave talks about his experience developing the  "I voted" stickers on Instagram in 2018 and Meta’s Voter Information Center in 2020.Dave references NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s use of TikTok in the last election. For more on this, see The Use of TikTok for Political Campaigning in Canada: The Case of Jagmeet Singh.Elizabeth brings up the idea that the candidate that you want to have a beer with may be the candidate you're more likely to vote for, to which Dave recalls the “beer summit”  and that neither Trump nor Biden drink.Throughout the discussion, Dave is reminded of the famous quote: “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.