The term ‘social media’ has become a broad-term to describe a large number of online systems that serve as a platform for the generation, and distribution of user-generated content. Social media creates a virtual social space, where a large number of users come together and interact with one another. These interactions can be either structured, such as responses that are moderated on blogs, semi-structured, such as a discussion between an extended network on Facebook, or unstructured, such as the anarchial functioning of Twitter.
Social media has grown at phenomenal rates over the past decade, with its rise being easily visible in several fields such as publishing, business, and activism, among others. The rise of its use in the field of politics is well known by those who are on and off social media, as a result of increasing number of politicians using this global platform to their maximum advantage.
Referred to as the “Facebook election” the 2008 US presidential election, and the lesser-known 2007 election campaign of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, dubbed 'Kevin 07 ', set a precedent as to how one could use the dynamic and ever-growing platform of social media to their electoral advantage. It is pertinent to note that Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, was among Barack Obama 's key strategists. Though quite older than the average Facebook user, Obama captured the youth vote, having around 2 million supporters on Facebook, with his Republican rival John
More and more people are getting their news from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Tumbler and many more, and candidates are using this to their advantage. This election is probably one of the first were candidates have actually used social media sites as their direct communication line to potential voters. Social media today had gone from gossip and family pictures to a location for political strategy. Thanks largely to trumps regular social media first declarations and its actually working particularly with the younger voters. A study released last year from the Pew Research Center that Marissa Lang cited showed that “Among 18- to 29-year-olds, nearly two-thirds said social media is the most helpful means of learning new things about politics.” (Lang, 2016). Even if the candidate isn’t the one posting the video or message in the end it will still end up on social media. For example, Trump had announced his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the united states in South Carolina not on social media however it found its way there and spread like wild fire. This sent those who were outraged to respond in disgust and those who encouraged it to share it so that their friends could see and so on and so on. Even if those who shared it did it to
In fact, the 2008 presidential election has even been coined as the “Facebook Election”. Although the concept of social media was still on the rise, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube were not completely unaware of their role/leverage in American electoral politics. In fact, during the presidential campaign, each site found their own way to encourage users to discuss the election or issues contained
As social media becomes more popular, sites like Facebook and Twitter become more influential. This influence stretches from home organization tips to politics, which is evident in the race for party nominees for the 2016 Presidential Election. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nominee, has been one of the most powerful forces on social media. The following sources were written on Sanders’ influence on social media and how social media affects his campaign. Auerbach, D. (2016, February 16).
Social media has emerged as a prominent political platform that attracts voters otherwise unreachable. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and bloggers are replacing traditional media influence on public opinion with a more efficient outlet. “They target niche audiences with growing precision, contact hard-to-reach voters, extend their influence as online supporters forward their messages and carry out many campaign tasks at much lower cost than before." remarks Tom Price author of “Social Media and Politics: Do Facebook and Twitter influence voters? Social media has the potential to be an even more dangerous medium of influence because of its “ability to collect enormous amounts of information about individual voters — through social media and traditional
Social Media in Canadian politics There’s about 82 percent of Canadian that are actively using social media networks. Thus, there is no surprise that politicians and power structure use it as a vital tool to campaigning and influencing public opinion. Social media platform is huge, which means it allows political actor an opportunities to access their voter at any time. This type of media is can be very beneficial or effective for supporting democratic societies and participation.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media websites have affected American elections in many forms. Candidates are now turning their attention to the people on social networks Murse (2015). They 're trying to draw more people like Millennials because they use more technology. These applicants are trying to step up and make a huge difference from the election of 2008. While in the running, the usage of social media is being used to announce what he or she is doing for the presidential campaign. For this reason, candidates, controversy, public opinion, social media and its 21st century media outlets have become the center of the 2016 election (CIO, 2015).
The 2016 presidential election may happen to be one of the most memorable elections to have ever been. From the campaign speeches, to the Democratic and Republican National conventions, and even the presidential debates; Americans seemed to constantly be voicing their opinions on every aspect of the election, and who they believe is the more suitable candidate for president, especially on social media. The 2016 presidential election marks one of the more recent elections where we start to see social media’s impact on it. We see how presidential candidates use social media as a platform to voice about updates on their campaign as well as communicate with their supporters. With the continue rise in the number of social media users as well as politicians now using social media, how much has its impact had on elections and Americans outlook on the campaign.
The current President of the United States, Barack Obama, has been a particularly modern president, using social media in many ways to bolster his political agenda and even setting a few online records along the way1. He utilizes social media to not only seem more modern and knowledgeable of current technology, but as a gateway to reach more people through appeals to his audience’s pathos and ethos. He garners public support and gives out specific information2 through his new, ‘personal’ twitter3, therefore we will focus mostly on that account. In the 21st century, it is incredibly important to understand the close relationship between social media and rhetoric.
A wise candidate should realize that social media is a tool, but it has yet to replace the value of getting his face on the front page of the paper or on the 6:00 p.m. newscast. While the candidates may tout their "grass roots campaign" using social media to get in direct touch with voters, they know they need you desperately to win.Politicians who are pleased with a particular news story will sometimes praise the reporter for fairness and objectivity. When the story's not so positive, claims of media bias will usually pour out from the
Social media was one of the major critical points the candidates had to focus on during their campaign since it gave the ‘raw’ and ‘unedited’ view of society’s perspective and highlights what people think about each party/candidate, both positive and negative.
While many people put off and ignore the issue of social media and its downfalls, others say that people should think about how our lives are being affected by this advancement in technology, including, lack of human contact and precious time being lost due to consumption with social media. Social media is currently a highly controversial topic in which numerous people have mixed feelings. Society has typically viewed new advancements in technology as beneficial and a sign of success within their country. But, has it solely caused successful outcomes, or are there downfalls to these advancements?
In less than two decades, social media has revolutionized modern communication and information sharing. What began as a simple form of social networking has turned into innumerable platforms for people around the globe to share ideas, create and share businesses, promote brands, read news from various sources, as well as share and find vast amounts of information, among many other uses. Thus, with a few clicks of a button, people are now able to interact with someone on the other side of the world. The capabilities created through social media’s many uses have forever changed global politics, business, and interpersonal communication.
In the writing by Briggs (Young People and Political Participation: Teen Players) she notes that “social media are a critical new space for political discourse and engagement, which political institutions cannot afford to neglect” as the younger audiences use social media, and the people they follow as a guide it seemed vital that modern day politics has to infiltrate social media formats. This can be utilised by politicians and their agenda to widen the scope of their message. In the Praeger Handbook of Political Campaigning in the United States, Benoit investigates how successful an organised strategy using new media to win an election can be for political candidates. He states that “the innovative use of new media contributed to President Barack Obama's presidential campaign win in 2008” (Benoit, 2016). Obama's presidential campaign was one of the first to set the standard for political strategy online. The literature talks about the expansion of the internet and how that has provided a suitable platform for political agendas to grow exponentially. With the focus of the research project highlighting the specific use of social media it is important to reflect on the initial stages of online political campaigning, and to understand how Trump has cultivated this style of political
Murse’s article explains the impact that social media has had on politics, ranging from impacts on politicians to impacts on voters. Murse mentions ten of these effects, most notably politicians being able to spread their message in a more effective and cost-efficient way. Murse offers examples of politicians who have used social media and he explains how they have been affected by it. Murse also explains the effect that social media has had on the communication between people and politicians.
How presidential candidates present themselves in the media can be proven to impact election results dramatically. Political figure using social media did not start to become more common until after the 2008 election because Twitter and Facebook were just recently created, but by looking at data from the past two elections it shows that the news presidential candidates put on their social media can correlate with how people will decide to vote. After researching what topics political candidates post and how they present themselves in the media with election results it can be established that a candidate’s presence in social media can have an impact on how people might vote in an election. “By 2008 candidate websites were standard and campaigns