How has media changed political campaigns? What are the positives / negatives?

http://https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+trump&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL64jq8sbgAhWBt1kKHbzIDiwQ_AUIDygC&biw=960&bih=468#imgrc=CROcxSmR0_luvM:

Throughout the years we have seen the number of social media platforms and media tools in general grow exponentially. These platforms have advertised themselves to be useful for connecting users to their friends, family, and strangers. The number of people who have phones and other devices with cameras has increased, as well as the number of people taking videos of anything they see happening and posting it online. Social media platforms have become a forum for public debate on issues that are happening worldwide but mostly political issues. Especially since the last presidential campaign here in the United States, people have discovered that they can make their messages be acknowledged by people everywhere. Most people have even ditched traditional news sources and open Instagram or Facebook in the morning to substitute traditional news sources.

Social media platforms have a lot users, which makes it possible for a random person to share their views on abortion and start a “conversation” about the subject. These platforms have become tremendously crucial to learn about the opinions and beliefs of people in other states or countries and have allowed people to believe that they form a special bond with political figures when they follow them. According to the report, Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014 by Aaron Smith, “Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to say that feeling more personally connected to the candidates and groups that they support is a “major reason” for following those figures on social media”. Since people have become more addicted to their phones, they would constantly see messages posted or shared by these political figures, so these people start believing they are forming a relationship with the political figures. For example, there have been several Donald Trump supporters who have stated that they follow his social media accounts so that they can keep up with his life and are quick to support any of his decisions because they feel connected to him in some way.

Most of us can agree that Donald Trump has been and still is very controversial. He uses social media like no other president before. According to the article, Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016 by Michael Barbaro, “Mr. Trump has mastered Twitter in a way no candidate for president ever has, unleashing and redefining its power as a tool of political promotion, distraction, score-settling and attack — and turning a 140-character task that other candidates farm out to young staff members into a centerpiece of his campaign”. Barbaro writes that Trump has tweeted about 28,000 tweets. This benefits him whether people agree with him or not because the tweets make him relevant and get more people to talk about him. I would bet a million dollars (if I had this kind of money) that every day I go to sleep and wake up there would be some other controversial event that happened surrounding Trump. Perhaps political figures need to update their twitter accounts because it seems twitter or social media platforms in general are the future of politics (for better or for worse).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.