Social Media's Role In Presidential Campaigns

President Obama not only was the first African American to be elected, but was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. In many ways the election of Barack Obama mimicked that of John F. Kennedy, both having changed politics forever. For John F. Kennedy it was the television and for Obama it was the internet. Barack Obama’s strategy of using the internet as a campaigning tool was a key to his victory in the election. He used the internet to organize his supporters. He had many more friends and followers on his Facebook and Twitter than his opponent John McCain did. The social media landscape looks a lot different now. There has been an increasing number of social media tools now than there were

Congress, 80% of our representatives use social media to engage with constituents. That has never been done before and is changing how politicians respond. We even see some votes in Congress made based on their Facebook feedback.”(The Economic) The Internet is like being there in the whole scene. Missing out information is impossible, a simply Google search, all the information is stored. When computers came out, it cost thousands, now it’s cheaper and faster. There’s tablets and phones with the opportunity to surf the web. More than half the candidates have some type of social media, either them or a fan.

Social media has given the human race an unprecedented amount of access to news and information. However, the validity and vetting of this information is often questionable at best. The emergence of websites such as Breitbart, Occupy Democrats, and TheBlaze have given way to a constant stream of partisan

Barrack Obama’s tenure as President of the United States is coming to a close and voters should understand how to gather reliable information on new candidates, such as Jeb Bush. Even though paying attention to all four major types of media platforms; digital, legacy, a candidates’ own media, and social media, creates a sound informative opinion on Republican Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, digital media provides voters with the most holistic view. The benefits of digital media, throughout the week of September 15th through the 22nd, created an opportunity to construct a different point of view on Bush and what he stands for.

Advertisements surround every American; whether it be a TV commercial for car, or a billboard for a resort “10 miles ahead.” American society has adapted to a society that sends messages to gain trust in products based on how it is advertised. Similar to U.S.’ capitalist society, the political system has become dependent on advertisements to instill trust in the people for candidates. President Franklin D. Roosevelt built his presidency on informing the public on his political strategies through the use of public radio (Walsh). In the 1952 presidential race, Dwight Eisenhower promoted his campaign by creating political advertisements on TV (Fowler, Franz, Ridout). Since then, not only have radio and TV advertisements been a defining aspect of presidential elections, but also, social media, a more modern avenue for politicians. This has become one of the most effective campaigning strategies in modern day elections. President Obama’s 2008 presidential race is one of the most significant examples. Obama made history by taking advantage of the social media outlet and successfully reaching audiences who previously were not targeted by the previous standard tactics. Historically, Presidential candidates have gained dependence on using advertisements and social media to promote their platform and qualifications of becoming president. Today, there is an increasing necessity to master these campaign strategies in order to communicate effectively with the American citizens.

On September 26, 1960 the presidential debate was televised for the first time. Kennedy was charismatic and confident, while Nixon seemed flustered. This made Nixon seem like a bad choice for president. For Obamas's election, he used social media in his favor with the most shared thread ever. Social media is important to presidential election because it keeps people up-to-date, makes some candidates more popular, and has influenced past elections.

When it comes to the presidential election, social media can have not only a positive impact on potential voters but also a negative one. This is due to the amount of voters that take social media to a whole new level and depend on other people’s opinions instead of their own. One way to fix this is to encourage more voters to listen to the campaigns for themselves instead of merely taking others opinions and placing those above their own. The research I have conducted shows how much of an impact different social mediums have on elections, especially during this year’s, but more importantly during Donald Trump’s campaign. I have analyzed both the positive and negative effects of different social mediums, such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

The 2008 presidential election was the beginning of a new era in politics4. While media such as television and newspapers focused on Obama’s race and birthplace, the now elect president was focusing his resources on the internet. Particularly social media, such as Facebook. His efforts were worthwhile, seeing how he overcame all obstacles and won the election. It proved social media’s, and the internet’s, true reach and power, as well as how intelligent Obama was in arguably being one of the first few politicians to tap into its true potential. His application of rhetoric in this new platform was ingenious, and it convinced the American people that he was a capable, modern man; an appeal that many established but older candidates lacked at the time.

In the midst of the president election an issue rose that has been overlooked by most in the United States over the last few years. Fake news, false information that pretends to be real and is deliberately published in order to misinform the audience. They aim to mislead the audience in order to get some kind of political or financial gain. Something that for some people might feel like a new issue, has been a big problem all over the world, and as the problem is finally starting to come up to light here in the United States, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to solve it. There are many places where fake news are spread to readers, but some of the most used ones are social media websites in general. Places like Facebook, Twitter,

Appearances on entertainment shows, gives candidates an escape from the highly critical national press to a much more friendlier environment for them. A great example would be interviews on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show or Colbert Report. Another beneficial outlet for campaigns is social websites that were mainly used in the 2008 election and continued through 2012 elections. “For example, nearly six million people viewed the New York Time’s posting of the first Obama-Romney debate on YouTube”. (Dunaway & Graber. 2009. Pg. 316) In 2012 the Obama campaign turned to Twitter to target direct messages to voters and contributors, they also had more than sixteen million e-mail addresses. Others sources of direct social media that campaigns use are candidate-sponsored websites, campaign websites, and special interest pages for groups such as senior citizens, veterans, college students, or young

Social Media has significantly increased in the past couple of years, with the development of multiple platforms increasing the connectivity between people. It has integrated a new way of communicating through mobile devices without any barriers, allowing people to be continuously connecting with each other. Social media has a tremendous impact on individual and organisational decision making. Furthermore, social media websites have played an essential role in various elections around the world. This essay will highlight the most important points on how social media affected

In recent years, we have also seen how new media can play an important role in social change and political mobilization, with the 2011 Arab uprisings and then-Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as salient examples” (Elchahabi 3). Author explaining here that new media changed the form of how public and candidates see each other perspectives. The increasing access to the Internet around the globe, many candidates and citizens in the evolving world are also revolving to new media, which played a major role in the 2014 Indian elections also (Elchahabi 5). “When Narenda Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, he was the second most “liked” politician on Facebook in the world, trailing only President Obama. “We saw a trend, we read this trend, where the youth of the country were embracing social media as their first tool when they started using the Internet, and we made sure our presence was there," said Arvind Guptahead, head of the social media campaign for Modi’s party. However, in Nigeria’s modern general elections, both major presidential candidates and their parties preserved active on Twitter and Facebook accounts and the Independent National Electoral Commission proactively engaged with citizens on social media to report inquiries associated to the electoral process. Social media

The Internet and social media has become a great way for people to get news, but it has also become a way for rumors, scams, and false political stories to spread. These things have all become classified as ‘fake news.’ Fake news started with the internet, and it has evolved through social media to become a real problem. People are being tricked by fake news into giving up personal information or being led to believe in false rumors about people or politics. Fake news has become such a ubiquitous idea that even the President of the United States has started calling entire news companies ‘fake news.’ This trend of calling entire news outlets fake has made it difficult to understand what is truly made-up news, and what is news that simply stretches the truth for their own benefit or to support a political side. Fake news has become a 21st century threat because of how it can falsely influence people to support one side of an argument.

One of the primary factors for the rise in fake news is the ease of access to information. In a study done by the Knight Foundation their data reports, “Two-thirds of Facebook users access news on the social platform, and with 67 percent of U.S. adults active on Facebook, that translates to 44 percent of the overall U.S. population which accesses news on the social platform” (Gottfried). The news is heavily implemented on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Social media provides an outlet for news agencies to curate and target their content towards readers on a personal basis. Technologies like browser cookies and user tracking give news agencies a way to profile their readers and provide content that can easily be misinforming. It has become very easy for anyone to set up a website and gain money for their content. Bloggers are now monetizing their web content through advertising platforms; the more views they get the more money they

In politics today media is being used a lot more in presidential elections. The media has been helpful regarding getting information further to a greater audience. Although people do not agree with the fact that social media does not play a big role in today’s election just because media doesn’t have anything to do with politics. Media is no longer only used for personal