Media And Political Campaigns

Social media has become the norm. The world has shifted towards media over the decades. Journalists utilize media more than the traditional newspaper because the majority of their audience views them through media. People easily share the articles with their friends rather than having to physically show their friend in person a newspaper article. Media helps people easily get their opinions out into the world. This is especially true when it comes to politics. Politics have changed from having to convince why your candidate should win to one person to being able to convince many people with the click of a post button. Media has a way of manipulating the way people think and vote. The positive of media when it comes to political campaigns is that it gives the candidates a way to reach the voters and advocate why they fit best for a specific position. People enjoy the fact that the political news can be accessed with the touch of a button on their smartphones. Media makes it easy for people to support and defend what they believe in and connect with people who believe in the same things like pro-life or environmentalists. Media outlets have made way for people to argue their points. The negatives of media when it comes to political campaigns however outweigh the positive. Certain candidates abuse their power on social media. Trump for example used Twitter to bully others. Donald Trump tweeted “I’m having a really hard time watching. Kim should sue her plastic surgeon!(Barbaro)”. He tried to be funny and comment on Ms.Novak’s appearance to please his audience but failed to think about how that would affect Ms.Novak. Trump since then has mastered Twitter as his tweets get hundreds of retweets in seconds. Michael Barbaro wrote ” On Twitter, Mr. Trump has assembled an online SWAT team.” This is considered the negative effect media has on political campaigns. No matter what Trump tweets, there will always be that “SWAT team” group of people that will retweet his tweet, or defend him and his opinions regardless if he is wrong. Those are the people that were brainwashed by social media into voting for him. Based on how much media has influenced political campaigns, I believe in the future all the candidates will turn to social media more to gain the votes of the world.

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