Greg Ball, a republican New York Senator, recently asked his 2,200 Twitter followers and 3,400 Facebook friends “Opening up the discussion! So, if you were me, how would you vote on gay marriage? Yes or No?”
As it stands, a majority of Twitter followers have replied with a resounding “Yes!” to Ball’s Tweet while sources are reporting his Facebook followers are split 50-50. In a 62-member Senate where 29 Democrats and two Republicans support the bill, Ball’s could be a crucial swing vote.
His vote for supporting the bill is unlikely, however, since he is cited as saying “I have very specific religious protections that I would want to see…I think at the end of the day, the governor will have to agree to comprehensive religious protections to get this passed.”
With his mind already seemingly made up, I wonder why he would bother asking people for their opinion in the first place. Will a few thousand yeses actually change his mind last minute?
Does he ask for feedback to give people the illusion of power, that their voice is actually being heard? Will social networking sites be used as a tool to make a more democratic…democracy?
To answer these questions, maybe I’ll just ask my Twitter followers and friends on Facebook.
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Tags: bill, democracy, Facebook, gay marriage, greg ball, New York, religious protection, republican, senator, social network, Twitter
Perhaps Ball figured, “There might be someone out there with an argument I haven’t already heard…here’s their one chance to change my mind.”
I’m very disappointed in this report. Since you are someone who actually visits Greg Ball’s Facebook page, you are well aware that the statement: “his Facebook followers are split 50-50″ is utterly false. Supporters far outnumber opponents, by somewhere between 2:1 and 4:1. You need to issue a correction.
@Burr Hubbell
I can understand the strong opinion attached, as this is a controversial subject. The above article was in no way written or presented to appear bias in favor of one way over the other, and quite the contrary, was written to be objective conveying all social media forums in which Greg Ball used to formulate discussion on Gay Marriage. There is a cited source within this piece stating Greg Ball’s Facebook wall appeared 50/50 opposed to his twitter account:
http://www.allwelike.com/2011/06/greg-ball-asks-twitter-and-facebook-friends-how-to-vote-on-gay-marriage-bill/
You may also find other sources quoting the 50/50 statistic here:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57366.html
http://mashable.com/2011/06/20/new-york-pol-twitter/
Social media is an open forum for people to gather and discuss opinions. If there were a poll taken where one could discern opinion quantitatively, it would have been presented here.
*Correction- Though there are sources which supported my blog post at the time it was written, it is my OPINION from being on Greg Ball’s Facebook wall for the past few minutes that previous reports which stated statistics that were also correct at the time they were written are no longer relevant. It seems that a majority of people writing on his Facebook wall at this time are for gay marriage.
I did not purposefully or knowingly put in something false because at the time, it was true based on the “reliable” sources I had read as re-posted by my supervisor Lisa Quinn in the comments section.
Please remember that I am writing about current events. And “facts”, like events, can change in an instant.
Ball announced on CNN last night that the opinions on his FB page were running 50/50. It was a flat out lie. the numbers are about 95% for marriage equality. He is either willfully ignoring the facts or not watching his FB page.
I like your report, the problem is that there is no verifying the authenticity of the respondents. Thusly is not an accurate tool to determine opinions…. There is no way to verify one is even from his district… A good example is NOM. It has followers with multiple(x10) identities to “fluff” up it’s opinions and results…. I saw one guy that uses over 20, on multiple computers… NOM also sponsored a automated study that once the respondents answered positively towards Same Sex Marriage, it would disconnect the call. Social media, unless with some sort of identification system is a useless tool to accurately determine public opinion. Ball, I believe is attempting to “use” his new found attention for his own moment…. Sadly that will backfire
First of all, you only have two sources that say it is 50-50. The Politico piece says “On Ball’s Facebook page, where users are generally less anonymous and more tend to be residents of his Hudson Valley district, response is more mixed, with Ball estimating a 50-50 split.” So it’s not reporting that it is 50-50, but that Ball estimates it is 50-50.
All of your sources are second or third hand, and you have access to the data first hand, as you have visited there at least twice now. Shame on you for not reporting the truth, especially when it stands in obvious contradiction to what you wrote.
Your reporting is no more than a form of yellow journalism intended to capitalize on a popular issue of the day.
Interestingly enough when public figures with very strong views on either side of an issue solicit some sort of consensus from the broader public, they are not looking for guidance on the mainstream public’s position— they are really just soliciting validation of the position they are taking. Needless to say, if the consensus does in fact contradict their position,….they simply do NOT use it.
We see this everyday, whether you watch FOX or MSNBC. It’s why there exists that murky boundary between education and entertainment. Always healthy to be skeptical about information sources. Though, listening to both sides of an issue can be as entertaining as a guilty pleasure.
I’m a little late on my reply on this one as New York has passed Gay Marriage legislation. We will see how long it will take the other 44 states to realize that this is a human rights issue, and follow suit with some solid legislation of their own. I dig the article. Keep up the good work!