Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Politics/National
Editor's PicksNationalNewsPoliticsTechnology

Cory Booker: Other Politicians Should Use Social Media, Too

Posted byBy Kevin Webb | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker said that politicians and government officials should take advantage of social media in order to fully connect with citizens.

Booker, 43, has more than 1.3 million Twitter followers and uses the service regularly for personal communication. During a panel at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin Texas Sunday, Booker said “I will find out before anybody in my government when a light is out, when a pothole is there. I can now show up with a space heater and blankets. I can now take a level of action I couldn’t before.

“This is a period in America where we must bring more authentic engagement to our political sphere. We’re losing the soul of our politics.”

Additionally, Booker said Twitter can be a vehicle for social empowerment, providing constituents an easy avenue for communication with their government. Twitter has steadily contributed to Booker’s popularity, as the mayor enthralls followers with messages ranging from his love for Star Trek to his week-long food stamp diet..

Typical campaign and political organization accounts often regulate their Twitter postings to public statements and press releases. During his re-election campaign the Obama administration established a separate Twitter account for each state, but most were regulated to general campaign news updates rather than true interaction with prospective voters.

“It’s just using it as an announcement system, like you used to listen to in class: ‘The cafeteria will be serving roast beef, and I will be at this place or that place’,” Booker told Reuters in an interview after the SXSW panel. “But that’s not interaction. That’s not collaboration.”

Booker is gradually building a campaign for New Jersey’s 2014 Senate race, and already commands a large number of constituents. Some critics believe that Booker is more focused on his public persona than the 300,000 people he is responsible for in Newark. While speaking with Reuters Booker made it clear that regardless of what office he holds he will continue to freely express himself.

“Life is about telling your truth and being who you are, 100 percent,” he said. “This world desperately needs authenticity, people who have the courage to tell their truth every single day, and I would not stop being who I am just because of the title that’s before my name.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top