Modern tech has become a daily part of life and therefore influences every little thing we do. Social Media plays a role in all aspects of life, especially elections. Candidates will try to back their campaign by manipulating all social media platforms. Media platforms help us to predict outcomes, influence followers, and spread messages to the public. Social media determines opinions and decisions of the public therefore having a direct impact on elections. Diving deeper into political campaigns and elections, its very apparent that social media has both a very positive and negative effect on these events.
Starting first with some positives, social media has become a main platform that people have been able to stay informed and up to date on the events of a political campaign. Social media is a massive part of our daily lives and has become a primary source for all sorts of information. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are an instant form of communication that have proven very effective in providing information to the public. This can be used to post absolutely anything about a political campaign, whether your sharing an event schedule or just clarifying the facts of your political stance. Another important positive to social media in campaigns is that it is a good way to sway or gage the public's opinions. Since social media communication is so popular, it can be an easy and effective way for candidates to appeal to the public and potentially gain their vote. The public's interaction with posts can also be a good way for candidates to predict the outcome of an election and where their campaign needs to improve. Lastly, is the idea that there is no such thing as bad press. Social media spreads news so quickly, it is likely that news will be spread about candidates every day, some good and some not so good. Though social media might foster fake news, many candidates take any sort of news as a positive, simply because its getting their name out there and making it known.
When it comes to negative effects of social media fake news takes the spotlight. It is so easy nowadays to come across non-credible sources. Fake news was not a prominent term a few years ago and today it presents one of the biggest threats to all news, specifically political news. When you think of news you can't help but immediately think of fake news. Twitter and Facebook are two of the most popular sites to come across fake news stories. Twitter users seem to prefer sharing false information and news. Donald Trump has taken over the Twitter world and shared his opinions whether it is important information or not. Supporters believe everything he is saying therefore creating fakes new. Fake news prospers whether we realize it or not. This is not a problem that is going to go away with time. Companies can hire all the robots to organize and filter out fake news as much as they want but it is a waste of money. Fake news is going nowhere.
Social media is one of the biggest, if not the biggest aspect of lives nowadays. We cannot live without it. Media platforms have positives and negatives. They equal each other out for the most part. Candidates will use fake news to their advantage because there is no such thing as bad press. Even though it has created major negatives and positives for the world, social media has created a way to know what is going on in the world instantly.
Written by Account Executive: Lauren Callihan