Social media sites such as; Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have changed the way political campaigns are ran and how everyday Americans are able to interact/communicate with the candidates/elected officials. Many people, between the ages 30-49 now use their cellphones to track current elections, with the number of people taking part in this increasing to 40% according to “Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014.” There has been an increase with using social media for politics because “people want to find out about political news before other people do.” They also want to develop a more personal connection with the candidates/political parties. Another reason as to why using social media for politics has increased is because many are beginning to view the news on social media as being more reliable because it is unfiltered. “The Role Played By Social Media In Political Participation And Electoral Campaigns” states that “personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens in a more targeted manner and vice versa.” Many politicians now prefer to use social media because they get to control how they are portrayed on their accounts and what image/message is being broadcasted to their supporters, whereas if they depended on mass media such as the news channels on the television, they would not be able to stop the news sources from painting them as a negative person or bashing/critiquing their viewpoints/policies. Using social media gives them the opportunity to only show-off their positives to distract from their possibly many negatives. The use of social media also brings in new audiences for many politicians because their messages and campaigns are multiplied and shared all across sites such as Twitter, which then reaches those who may have needed an extra push to support a specific candidate. A major benefit of using social media for politics is that it costs no money for the candidates/elected officials since they are using it to advertise without paying for advertisements. An example of this would be politicians creating advertisements and posting them on YouTube for no cost. With the many developments in social media, campaigns can now view data/statistics about people and customize their messages to better relate to their audience by age and gender. However, there is a negative which involves a politicians’/candidates’ decision on whether to use social media or not. In the article “Crossing the Campaign Divide: Dean Changes the Election Game ,” it is stated that if a “campaign decides to use social media, they are risking leaving behind traditional organizations for decentralized networks that allow supporters and non-supporters to have some control over the campaign’s message.” That control can either go in a positive direction or a negative direction seeing that if you are a non-supporter, you would only be spreading negativity and an unpleasant image of the politician. However, if they do decide not to use social media and maintain their relationship with the traditional organizations, they become more in control with what is being broadcasted, but suffer because these traditional organizations don’t allow the average person to contribute/interact with the campaign. A campaign without interaction can be defective because your supporters won’t feel as though they can connect to you or have their complaints/desires heard. Using social media is a powerful weapon for politicians such as Donald Trump because he has showed others that they are able to use it “as a tool of political promotion, distraction, score-settling and attack.” However, seeing as it is a powerful tool, you must be careful what you tweet, share, and post as a politician because you can receive a lot of backlash and erupt controversy on the internet which can backfire against your campaign if the message is hostile/offensive. Being able to take a step back, pause, and think about how your message can affect/hurt your supporters is an important skill to possess, and we can all see that Donald Trump doesn’t have that skill which is why he is so controversial and always bringing hurt/fear into the lives of many Americans.
Feb 19