Facebooking Politics

With the advance of social media, you knew that is was only a matter time before social media like Facebook and politics would intermingle. Once you sign on to Facebook, it's easy to find political pages. Pages that are put out by for are supportive of a particular politician. Or Facebook pages put out in favor or against a particular point of view. As a matter in Egypt, Facebook and Twitter were essential to the protesters who eventually forced Hosni Murbarak from power.

But you don't need to overthrow an existing government in order to use Facebook to make a difference politically. It can be used effectively to make a difference in local issues. Case in point, a recent article by the Fall River Herald News columnist Marc Monroe Dion. A recent article by Dion was about a policy change by Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan, which was caused partially cause by negative feedback on Facebook.

While Dion does not mention the Facebook page in question, it appears that the page is Fall River City Pride, as activity went on to that page was similar to what Dion described in his article. Fall River City Pride is a Facebook page where local politics and current events are discussed. The page,s moderator is an anonymous individual known only as FRCP. FRCP will often post a "Question of the Day" or "Breaking News". What usually follows is a vigorous and often a heated debate over the issues of the day. Picture a cyber version of a town hall or neighborhood association meeting.

In this case, FRCP posted braking news that the Flanagan administration posted a gag order over his department heads. It required them to send information requests to the Mayor's office instead of talking to the media or the public. As expected, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Making things worse for Flanagan was that his predecessor, Bob Corriea, insinuated a similar gag order. To put things in perspective to those who are unfamiliar with Fall River politics: Corriea was an unpopular Mayor, and made very few friends during his reign.

It should also be noted that Flanagan visited a few area restaurants that night and also heard negative feedback there. So that, combined with the Facebook posts, Flanagan reversed his gag order as quickly as he instituted it.

Will Flanagan deserves credit for quickly admitting be made a mistake and fixing the error. The moderator and contributors of Fall River City Pride also deserve credit in playing a role in a mayoral policy change. Many politicians fear talk radio, but new media has emerged to keep them in line: Facebook.