Twitter Politics: preaching to the choir ?

[dogtowner]

I don't see how it helps

I see these stories talking about how "social media" such as Twitter becoming a factor in elections but I just don't get it. Politics is about getting your message to those who may not ordinarily hear it. Although there is now advertising in Twitter I seriously doubt that the relatively few people fiddling with it don't already know who they like or don't care. In any event the chances of reaching new ears seems very slim. What it really seems like is a big step down in journalism.

NEW YORK (AP) - (at)BarackObama is on Twitter. So is (at)MittRomney. And so are all the voters following the 2012 presidential contest, whether they know it or not.

Candidates, strategists, journalists and political junkies have all flocked to Twitter, the social networking hub where information from the mundane to the momentous is shared through 140-character microbursts known as tweets.
While relatively few voters are on Twitter - a study by the Pew Research Center found that about 13 percent of American adults have joined the site - it's become an essential tool for campaigns to test-drive themes and make news with a group of politically wired "influencers" who process and share those messages with the broader world.