Anna McPherson Dr. Walraven Presidential Debates and Social Media Presidential debates and campaigns over time have developed widely because of social media. The majority of America can research, converse and ask questions through various types of social media that can lead to positive and negative outcomes. “Although the internet had been around for years prior to the 2008 Presidential Elections, it used to be more of a luxury and now it has become a way of life. It is common belief that social media and the Internet are now one of the most important features that a political candidate could have and it could make or break their race,” (Orozco, 2014). The goal of this paper is to bring awareness of the effects on social media and politics. In this paper, I will be discussing how social media can play a big role in helping and hurting a presidential candidate, the presidential debates in the past few decades, and lastly how social media can be used for good when campaigning …show more content…
He stated that, ‘“Bill Clinton may be the most popular ex-president, but if social media had been around when he first ran for president, there’s no way he would have been elected. The various scandals hovering over him at the time of the election in 1992 included “Troopergate,” Paula Jones and the Whitewater affair.”’ These topics made it into public light eventually, but it was after the election in 1993. However, Jeffers says, “However, as the Trayvon Martin case made clear, social media can make something into a story long before the mainstream media takes interest.” Jeffers makes a solid case that social media would have completely changed the stories that came out about presidential candidates and how fast the story would have gotten
He references the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections to explain his ideas. He claims that from 2008 to 2012 the demographics have changed from mostly young citizens using social media to more than 50% of the population. Because of this change candidates’ behavior have changed, not only online but everywhere. Jeffers second claim is that social media creates a history of the candidates causing mistakes they make to haunt them. Then Jefferson goes on to talk about the “Trillion Dollar Coin
Abraham Lincoln, a self-made man, was the 16th President of the United States of America. He is regarded as one of America’s greatest presidents due to the things he accomplished during his presidency and his unique background. He has an amazing story of starting out with simply nothing and never stopping until he achieved the highest political office possible. “Lincoln 's distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy that endures” (Biography.com, 2016). Today Lincoln’s legacy is shown as popular culture through advertisement, specifically commercials. Oxford dictionaries define popular culture as a culture based on the tastes of ordinary people rather than an educated elite. Companies use Lincoln’s life and achievements as a selling point for their products. While many commercials can be found with Abe Lincoln as the leading character, two in particular stuck out the most to me. One being a Diet Mountain Dew commercial and the other being a GEICO commercial. Both do a great job of
In Nicholas Carr’s article “How Social Media Is Ruining Politics”, Carr writes about the effects that social media has on politics. In his article, Carr focuses more on the negative effect that social media has when it comes to politics. Some points that he makes about social media include specific examples like the recent presidential campaigns, how other technological advances over the years have effected politics, and the effectiveness that social media has on politics
Mr. Clinton left office with low public ratings and a title of conflict. In 1998 this was the number one topic you would speak about and to this day thinking back on the 90s this scandal surely comes to mind. Since the start of Hillary’s run for presidency we have been reminded of the mistakes of Bill Clinton that happened over a decade ago forgetting to separate his life from presidency and privacy. There were many consequences that followed Bill around at the time of the scandal many of those publicized. “President Clinton made a brief appearance in the White House Rose Garden and stated: ' 'Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people."(The History Place) Mr. Clinton is known to be the most controversial president to date. “Widely considered the most investigated President ever, the Clinton administration was dogged by controversy from the very beginning.” (The History
In the Electoral College system, every state has one electoral vote for each congressman and senator. Congressman is allotted by population and every state has two senators, so Rhode Island, which has basically nobody in it, has three electoral votes. California, with 53 representatives and two senators, has 55 electoral votes. The states choose electors and the electors meet in what is called the Electoral College to pick a president. In practice, nearly every state has passed a law that the electors will all vote for the popular vote winner in their state, but as the Supreme Court said in Bush v. Gore, the people of the United States do not have a constitutional right to pick the president. A state could, if it felt like it, select the electors
Before I am completely encapsulated with my emotions (mostly craze) I would like to make two statements whilst my mind remains somewhat stable… somewhat. The first being that several hundred news websites have published their own versions of this article; however, I chose to write about Fox News’ version. The second statement I am going to make is as follows. Fox news is the bane of my entire existence. Thank you.
With this newfound distrust, the media became extremely vigilant about reporting on anything that occurred in politics that would be of any interest to anyone and has played a deciding factor in the success and the failure of different political figures. An example of this would be President Bill Clinton's affair. Such extensive coverage of this public embarrassment was blown out of proportion relative to the size of other scandals of the past century that absorbed less media attention.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Get that picture played repeatedly over the news and it’s worth more than a thousand words; you gather the entire eyes, ears, and minds of a nation. The “great debate” of the Presidential Election for 2004 was well aware of the media power, understanding that there is a 24-news cycle available through TV, newspapers, and Internet. Those who wanted to remain ahead only had to use the media as their guinea pigs to twist out their favorable outcome. President Bush may be incumbent but his team behind the debate is not; John Kerry may be long-winded but his team behind the debate knows how to attract attention quickly. Both candidates may not have known what stage was being set October 4, 2004 but their campaign aids and analysts knew that in order to turn an American audience onto their side they knew manipulation of the media would turn into manipulation of the public.
The changes in social media implied that many people got in touch with the political candidates either directly or indirectly. The people watched their potential leaders of the nation and were able to question them (Mutz 2001).
The researchers present findings that indicate that a politician’s popularity in the voting booth may be related to the frequency with which the candidate is talked about on social media. The researchers goes on to discuss how further research may conclude that social media has a bigger impact on voting outcomes than traditional forms of media, and how that could potentially shape the future of voting.
Social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Flicker, internet websites, and blogs are becoming mainstream attracting a younger more technology savvy voter. Many candidates in the last elections learned to use these mediums so not to overlook tech savvy voters and learned how to use these to their advantage. Candidates took to the internet to raise awareness, state views, and even successfully raised donations. Social media was able to provide instant feedback on the standing of a candidate often days or weeks sooner than a more traditional poll.
Since the first televised debate between Vice President Richard Nixon (R-Calif.) and Senator John Kennedy (D-Mass.), the election process has never been the same. Despite the seemingly important democratic aspect of presidential debates, the actual impact of debates on voters’ perceptions of potential candidates is highly doubted by many scholars. Potential candidates, journalists, and a few scholars have expressed, however, the importance of presidential debates in directing voters’ attitudes (White, 1982; Asher, 1988; Reagan, 1990). For instance, President Reagan was quoted as saying “I almost blew the whole race during my first debate” (Reagan, 1990, p. 327). He believed so strongly that his poor performance against Mondale in the 1984 debate almost caused him to lose the presidency.
“Social media has also created an exciting outlet for the people to see news and stay updated on current events in the world” ("Are Social Networking Sites”). The majority of the media broadcast the troubles and trials the United States have and to some extent people could get ideas from the bad broadcast and could do the same things. Maybe if the media could limit the broadcast of bombing, gun shootings, killing police officers, and much more than all of it would gradually disappear.
Naturally, journalism would spill over to the Internet and as social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook grew in popularity, so did regular citizens involvement with sharing news. The argument can be made that the explosion of social media journalism was due to frustration from the lack of coverage of news that mattered to society. For example, the lack of subjective coverage of Michael Brown 's death helped with the creation of #BlackLivesMatter and spread of news related to African-American’s and other minorities across the country. After all, journalism is supposed to be a public forum. Millions of people on Twitter share their thoughts and opinions on several topics, furthering the conversation and to some degree challenging society. Things such as “Moments” on Twitter provide us with direct links and summaries to the world’s most important stories and encourage a conversation. According to journalism.org, 63% of users on Twitter and Facebook get their news from these websites. Even more eye opening is that 59% of users on Twitter keep up to date with news stories via Twitter while they are in the process of happening.[3] The rise of social media related journalism has caused some issues however. “Inevitably, as citizen involvement grows, more of our media culture is concerned with talking about news, instead of focusing on original reporting and the vetting of it.”[4] Because the general public has the ability to post as they wish and pass it off as news, it has affected the accuracy of many reports. Many stories lack reputable sources but are shared between millions as an accurate and true story. There are several websites designed to spread inaccurate information. The website www.fakenewswatch.com exists to inform people of these sites in order to avoid mishaps. Recently a Connecticut mom went viral for being involved in an online hoax
Making a decision is a very important part of life that every person, at one time or another, has to make. Options are always available when someone has to make a decision. In choosing a President for our country, we have to look at our candidates and decide which ones beliefs can help the country the most. We get to hear the President's opinions through the debates. This year, although we had numerous candidates, the only two that were allowed to participate in the debates was Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George Bush.