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Twitter is bidirectional

Questionable silencing

Radio, TV and websites appear to the silent majority as meaningful means for communication of news. The compulsory and not just low fees in Germany even impose this opinion.

In the context of this website of ARS-UNA, the modern middle way represented here initially pursued this view. But the lack of resonance was increasingly seen as very serious. In the beginning, one wonders as author, however, if the quality of the contributions is too low or if the quantity is too large, ie. it may have been written too lengthily. This is to be seen in the light of the fact that, on the whole, the stream of news certainly more and more appears like a flood that we can hardly avoid. This may well be true, but slowly the conviction is growing that this is only partially the case.

Twitter seems to offer a bidirectional solution in this regard. Obviously, it is now often accepted as a better means of communication, not only by individuals, but also by politicians. But especially in the case of the latter ones, the problem is again with the people and in this case the communication between private and public persons. The private participants are accused of flooding the public side with too much quantity of poor quality, while the first ones feel ignored and marginalized by the public. Again, both statements might be true. In the case of Twitter, this is done in such a way that the private writers make themselves "followers" of the public contributors and like previously accustomed pick up their opinion, while conversely their messages are extinguished because of the sheer number by muting or blocked or even be covered with "shadow banning", which is also partially, but not generally denied in often violent form, or this can happen at least.

But it similarly happens to politicians not to hear about well-meaning and potentially for them most useful clues. They do not learn by them and their policy can thus go creeping increasingly on a questionable trajectory. That seems to be the case again and again. In the current situation, Chancellor Merkel has been "whispered" again and again in such a way that a fourth term no longer seems acceptable. Martin Schulz was clearly informed after the initial defeat in North Rhine-Westphalia, that this was mainly due to the fact that he did not underline his call for more justice, especially against the massive inequality, with practical proposals, eg with a substantial increase in property and land tax, which of course was unwelcome among the upper classes,. So politicians certainly fail because of lack of acceptance of their incoming communication.

The same threatens in election campaigns younger politicians. Twitter participants often send them meaningful advice or simply offer support, but they are barred in the manner described above and then turn away not in the best of moods. This should be easy to be respected and changed.   

© Hans J. Unsoeld, Berlin 2018

Sept. 29. 2018 

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