The Importance Of Social Media

Social media seems a trend in the current world and a number of users are continuing to grow since smartphone and Internet access becomes largely adapted. According to stastista.com, in January 2016, approximately more than a third of the world’s population have an account on at least one of the social network. There is no doubt that the most popular social networks have a high number of active accounts or strong user engagement. For example, Facebook was the first social network who was first to have 1 billion monthly active users. From statista.com, in Canada, more than 20 million people are forecast to have a social network account by 2018. Other Canadian popular social networks such as Twitter, which having an over 3 million user base, and will arrive at about 8.5

The issue selection process is not always rational, and it is often difficult to understand why some issues come to the top of political agendas while other, seemingly more important issues, stay unsolved. As Cobb and Elder (1972:12) said:

Pre-political, or at least pre-decisional processes often play the most critical role in determining what issues and alternatives are to be considered by the policy and the probable choices that will be made. What happens in the decision-making councils of the formal institutions of government may do little more than recognize, document and legalize, if not legitimize, the momentary results of a continuing struggle of forces in the larger social matrix.

How the issue comes to the priority solving list of government? Downs (1972) has suggested the issue-attention cycle as the answer to these questions. Based on his theory, there are five stages: for this cycle 1. The pre-problem stage, 2. Alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm, 3. Realizing the cost of significant progress, 4. The gradual decline of intense public interest, and 5. The post-problem