Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley (Michigan Works! Association/flickr)
Typically, elected officials delegate social media posts to staffers, but that is changing. (President Donald Trump being the most famous example.) Michigan also has a few political social media stars, like Lt. Gov. Brian Calley and retired Rep. John Dingell, who manage their own accounts. Josh Pasek, assistant professor of communications studies, is not sure the trend bodes well for democracy, though. “It is symptomatic of a problem where the interest is less and less about getting good legislation passed and more about winning public-relations battles,” says Pasek, who studies how new media can shape public opinion and political attitudes. “That strikes me as being really bad harbinger for democracy. We don’t want our lawmakers thinking about what is a good tweet to zing the other side.”
