This week we're taking a look at a short article written in 2012. I chose something from almost 10 years ago because I would like to evaluate how social media has evolved over the past decade.
Will Social Media Choose the Next President? written by Cliff Figallo explains how over the past few years, Facebook and Twitter had a huge increase in the number of political postings. During the time, 9 out of 10 Senators and Representatives had twitter accounts. People were questioning if social media was actually started to predict the outcome of political races as opposed to just reporting everything that goes on. "In Senate races, the candidate with more Facebook friends than his or her opponent has won 81% of the time."
In 2021, social media has completely taken over politics and elections. There are many similarities to social media influence in 2012 and 2021. It is more extreme now because there are new media platforms and more people have access to these platforms. Sharing political opinions, facts, etc. has become a common thing for everyone on the internet. It's safe to say that this article showed the beginning of the impact social media would have on politics and elections.
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ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteThis is a a super fascinating article to revisit given what a significant influence the Internet had on the 2016 and 2020 elections. The 2012 statistic about 45% of US adults owning a smartphone made me laugh. I would expect that stat to be more like 70% now, which indicates that any findings from the article were probably even more significant than expected. As for the question the article poses, I would say that yes, social media did play a major role in choosing the president in the elections since 2012 and will continue to.
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ReplyDeleteSocial media definitely has and will continue to determine or choose the outcome of the presidency. Take for example the events surrounding former President Trump, in which the major news outlet were against. In a article from MSN a CNN director was caught by a hidden camera where he boasted that major networks were responsible for removing President Trump from office. The CNN director stated
ReplyDelete"Look at what we did, we got Trump out," Charles Chester, a network technical director at CNN, said to an undercover journalist from the political action group Project Veritas in a tape released Tuesday. "I am 100% going to say it. And I 100% believe it that if it wasn't for CNN, I don't know that Trump would have got voted out."
This statement is important because although its from major news outlet, said major news utilize social media to reach every individual from the young all the way to the older generation. Social media is a easier way to reach the public by using quick eye catching photos or videos which appeal to the emotions, which then lead to reading the comments or article provided. The main takeaway of this is... the most influential or powerful method to reach and influence the public in through/by social media. Thus the more followers or audience a candidate or news outlet contains... the higher the probability for winning the election.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cnn-director-shown-on-undercover-video-boasting-about-removing-trump-from-office-and-admitting-to-spreading-propaganda/ar-BB1fCA7W
This is an amazing article and it really made me stop and wonder. Social media has become a catalyst for political operators to gain traction and support. If it wasn't for Donald Trump's usage of twitter between 2016-2020 than I could argue he wouldn't have won. Regardless of that fact bringing up stats of a senate race and trying to compare it to a presidential race seems disingenuous. There is a disconnect because the average person doesn't keep up with their senator so if they happen to be running for re-election (unless they did something horrible and unforgivable) than they are going to be back in office. Between 2008 and 2018 senate re-election rates were above 80%. In terms of president I think that you can clearly tell a favorite if your looking at things moderately. Things tend to get skewed when talking about people in their respective beliefs because if a particular person is favored most times that's the topic of all the news.
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