Harvard Sample HOW SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE AMERICAN VOTERS

How Social Media Influence American Voters 1

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE AMERICAN VOTERS

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How Social Media Influence American Voters 2

How Social Media Influence American Voters

The political landscape has been changing in the last few decades. With the

number of Internet users growing every day, social media is evolving into a dais for

social, educational, and political change. Recent American elections, especially the

Trump vs. Clinton contest, have turned out as a sharp inflection point in the impact of

social media on the decision of the electorate. Campaign managers now appreciate the

need to integrate social media platforms, especially Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,

in the campaigns to popularize their candidate and capture the social media support.

For instance, President Obama’s reelection in 2012 and Trump’s election in 2016

clearly indicated that social media could influence the minds of voters owing to its role in

civic engagement campaigns, politics, and advocacy. According to a survey, 44% of the

U.S. voters relied on information from social media platforms, whereas 24% received

news from the candidates’ Twitter posts (Williams 2017). Although strongly convincing

public rallies help voters decide whom to support, social media influence American

voters in various ways, serving as a source information, adverse publicity, and peer

pressure among others.

Firstly, many Americans using social media, especially Facebook and Twitter,

access more information on different candidates than other media can provide.

Interactive media has proved to be a reliable source of information, particularly during

the election period. Hellweg (2011) points out that social media has considerably

modified the accessibility and availability of crucial content on particular candidates. The

primary reason for organizing and undertaking political campaigns is not just to share

information on candidates but also to appeal to voters to decide whom to support.

How Social Media Influence American Voters 3

However, using the correct channel to communicate is imperative. Social channels offer

a vast and flexible platform for sharing information and opinions and enable voters to

follow the political wave. Caplan (2013) explains that Twitter’s structure is designed to

support a specific form of disseminating information. Twitter posts, commonly called

“tweets,” are a reliable channel of communication that reaches a large population.

Before Twitter increased the number of characters from 140 to 280, the tweets used to

dish out small bursts of crucial information to a large mass of followers (Caplan 2013).

By doing so, it provides concise but crucial details on various candidates. Hence, voters

using Facebook, Twitter, and other Internet-based platforms make voting decisions

based on the information they get from these media.

Furthermore, social media gives candidates the platform to create negative

publicity to win the voters of their opponents. In politics, attacks on rivals are considered

normal and are an effective way of gaining support. Negative publicity campaigns have

become a tactical approach of many candidates. Ordway and Wihbey (2016) note that

over 60% of Clinton’s ads attacked Trump, whereas 31% were positive and focused on

her. At the same time, President Trump used contrast ads that mainly focused on

promoting him by portraying Clinton negatively (Ordway & Winbey 2016). He invested in

running negative ads against Hillary Clinton instead of using positive publicity to earn

countrywide support. Facebook and Twitter have millions of users; thus, politicians use

these platforms to attract this mass of voters. Among the many impacts of social media,

posting negative sentiments or using them to publish negative ads can affect the

decision of voters (Biswas, Ingle & Roy 2014). The 2012 and 2016 American elections

How Social Media Influence American Voters 4

utilized social media, which had not happened before. Thus, these two election results

were significantly influenced by Internet-based negativity.

Moreover, peer pressure that social media users generate plays a critical role in

impacting the behavior of voters. Politics, similarly to any other social aspect, involves

peer pressure, which makes individuals want to fit in a certain group or be identified with

a particular party or candidate. Studies have confirmed that peer pressure on social

media urges people to go out and cast their vote (Kiderra 2013). Interactive media such

as Facebook is identified with vicious political rants and raves expressed by supporters.

For example, when opinions, fake news, posts, photos, and videos are shared there,

they are viewed by friends or group members of the person who has shared the

information. Peer pressure makes voters who see such information about the candidate

or party to want to fit in or identified with the supporters of that politician. Furthermore,

running a positive message at the top of the news feed urging registered voters to cast

their vote has been found to have a considerable impact on the election outcome.

Fowler, a political science professor at the School of Medicine, conducted a study in

2010 about the way Facebook influenced the voting process. The experiment showed

that a single Facebook message viewed on the Election Day made about a third of a

million Americans to turn up at the ballot box (Riezebos et al. 2011). Also, it revealed

that online social networks could influence essential real-world behavior. Thus, peer

pressure exerted on social media makes voters leave their comfort zones to go and

vote.

In addition, politicians use social media to publicize content that appeals to a

particular audience. They utilize targeting during election campaigns to ensure that ads

How Social Media Influence American Voters 5

and messages are directed to the right population. With interactive social sites such as

Facebook and Twitter, politicians have learned the art of designing population-specific

ads (Kiderra 2013). For instance, if a candidate is seeking to send his or her views on

concerns linked with women, college students, or voters from a particular group, he or

she can tailor the ad message. Therefore, social media allows candidates to utilize

analytics and targeted advertising to ensure that messages are personalized and are

delivered to the right audience.

In brief, social media is increasingly taking center stage in shaping the political

landscape, especially in American elections. The Internet, particularly social media, has

been the primary driver of political transformation witnessed in last two Presidential

elections. For instance, the recent political campaigns, notably those of Trump and

Clinton, proved that social media is a crucial factor that can shape the minds of

American voters. As discussed earlier, voters today rely on information shared on

different social networking sites to make decisions in an election. In summary, social

media influence voters in several ways, serving as a source of decisive information,

promoting negative publicity and creating peer pressure. As part of a campaign

strategy, candidates share voter-specific information through different sites such as

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to appeal to voters. Furthermore, in politics, peer

pressure on social media platforms makes voters to associate with one party but not the

other. Lastly, social media allows politicians to make ads or messages that target a

particular group. If the news is convincing enough, those who access it are highly likely

to vote in support of the candidate who prepared it.

How Social Media Influence American Voters 6

References

Biswas, A, Ingle, N & Roy, M 2014, ‘Influence of social media on voting behavior’,

Journal of Power, Politics & Governance, vol. 2, no. 2, pp.127-155.

Caplan, J 2013, ‘Social media politics: Twitter use in the Second Congressional District

of Virginia’, The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications,

vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 5-14.

Hellweg, A 2011, ‘Social media sites of politicians influence their perception by

consultants’, The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications,

vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 22-36.

Kiderra, I 2013, Poked to vote: Social media and voter participation. Available from:

<https://phys.org/news/2013-01-vote-social-media-voter.html>. [25 May 2018].

Ordway, D-M & Wihbey, J 2016, Negative political ads and their effect on voters:

Updated collection of research. Available from:

<https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/ads-public-opinion/negative-

political-ads-effects-voters-research-roundup>. [25 May 2018].

Riezebos, P, de Vries, SA, Vries, PW & Zeeuw, E, 2011, ‘The effects of Social Media on

Political Party Perception and Voting Behavior’, in Proceedings of the IADIS

International Conferences ICT, Society and Human Beings 2011, e-Democracy,

Equity and Social Justice 2011, IADIS Publishing, Lisbon, pp. 11-19.

Williams, CB 2017, ‘Introduction: Social media, political marketing and the 2016 U.S.

election’, Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 16, no. 3-4, pp. 207-201.

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