In the past, campaigning, travel, and speeches have been a huge role in getting known as a candidate. These still play a part, but now a strong presence on social media is just as important. Whether the media portrays a positive or negative image, your name is still getting out there. Donald Trump, in particular, strongly took advantage of this. Most of the time this publicity was negative, but it effectively made him one of the most well known people in the world.
This election has shown us the power the internet now plays. Donald Trump has over 14 million followers on twitter, Hillary Clinton has 10.7 million, and Bernie Sanders has 2.8 million. These numbers are large, but do not even aproximate the number they actually reach. This reach can increase tenfold or more with retweets alone. It also does not include endless third party accounts that bank off of publicity from these candidates. However, this reach comes with it's drawbacks.
Oftentimes, negative aspects get seen the most. Yes, it gets the candidates name out there, but it also paints a very negative picture. When we see posts like this, we loose trust in what these candidates stand for. This creates problems. The President of the United States should be someone "we the people of the United States" should have confidence in to do good. The president is the leader of our country. The image he conveys carries over to us as a people whether we like it or not.
To show reach, here is an example of a third party account that made a video about the presidential debate. This is a copy of the video that got nearly 30 million views on Facebook. Presidential Debate Preview
Oftentimes, negative aspects get seen the most. Yes, it gets the candidates name out there, but it also paints a very negative picture. When we see posts like this, we loose trust in what these candidates stand for. This creates problems. The President of the United States should be someone "we the people of the United States" should have confidence in to do good. The president is the leader of our country. The image he conveys carries over to us as a people whether we like it or not.
To show reach, here is an example of a third party account that made a video about the presidential debate. This is a copy of the video that got nearly 30 million views on Facebook. Presidential Debate Preview
I think you made great connections between our rhms class and the recent (and shocking) elections. I liked you point about the negative aspects which mass media dwells on. This is something I have been thinking about for a while. Only living in the US for 4 year now, I have often felt uneducated about US politics and how things really work. However, when looking for information, the news, or updates I have not been sure where to look. There can be useful information, but there is a lot of negative unproductive things out there and it is difficult to know which sources to trust.
ReplyDeleteSeems like anyone who is old enough to be able to operate an online account has an online account in some form of online community, and what better way to reach out to the people directly than through the ever so populated social media. The ability to retweet and share a post is a tool for politicians to be heard globally in an instant. Donald Trump clearly took advantage of this.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really important post. I knew that social media in this election was somewhat important and relevant, sure, but not this important. It's incredible to think about how much political impact EMC can have in how it may create a more prominent image of a candidate. The reach of media, too, as you pointed out, has huge potential for garnering followers and more attention on the campaign trail.
ReplyDeleteI agree that media has an ever increasing presence in everything including politics. It is interesting to think that our election results may have been based on the amount instead of the quality of media presence of each candidate, and therefore even the media criticizing Trump helped him become popular.
ReplyDeleteNoah - Oh social media and Trump, what a topic. I can't go on Facebook anymore because every day, I see 20 new articles about him. There is so much information on the web now that it is pretty difficult to navigate what is actually useful. I do want to say though that I enjoyed your post, I think you develop your argument well. I like your points about the presidential image! I was taking to a Trump supporter the other day who was telling me that his politics are more important to her than his "not so great" personality. It's pretty crazy that not everyone is affected by his negative image on social media (like his supporters). Nice post this week!
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