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.

Social media has become a big game changer for much of our lives. It has become a new way of marketing. Just like businesses, politicians are marketing themselves online. Gathering crowds that can relate to them and allowing these viewers to see news and goals first. Instead of political campaigns through ads and speeches, they now have Instagram and Twitter. It allows to build a portfolio of what they believe in, go live and speak to their people in real time, etc.  

Of course, social media is not always best for politicians. They have to be careful with what they post. One offensive post can lose thousands of followers who could be potential votes. Donald Trump is a great example of why politicians should stay off social media. Trump usually tends to go to social media to disrespect and bully other people. Instead of dealing with serious issues, he prefers to tweet them instead. This is embarrassing and will change politics because his online presence is large so he is encouraging this type of behavior.

I believe social media is necessary for the future for every career. It keeps one up to date and helps spread information and awareness. It just depends on how public figures use these large followings to benefit their work and benefit the rest of us. “— and hundreds of thousands of strangers defend him, spread his message and engage in emotional debates with his critics, all the while ensuring he remains the subject of a constant conversation.” (Barbaro). How do people defend Trump? Some voted for him due to things they saw on social media, which some were rumors, of course. Good or bad, many believed the lies or saw a future with Trump if they had similar views. Therefore, social media can hold both positive and negative forces over campaigns.

Before social media having an impact on political campaigns, a way a political candidate would interact with their followers would be by doing speeches across the United States. Thanks to social media platforms especially Twitter it has changed political campaigns one can just write a 140 message and they are instantly interacting with their followers. Throughout the years many Americans use their cellphones to track political news or campaign coverage. According to “Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014”  28% of registered voters have used their cell phone in this way during the 2014 campaign, up from 13% in 2010.  Although television and print are main sources of communication social media has become a great interaction for citizens to gain their news straight to their smartphones. In “Crossing the Campaign Divide: Dean Changes the Election Game” they introduce SNTs which is social networking techniques, it allows users by bringing people together who are unlikely to have otherwise encountered one another.  For example people were meeting up to talk about the political candidate on their own without any help of the campaign organization. It sounds positive that social media has changed how one looks at political campaigns there comes along a negative side of it. The negative is how one takes the use of a social platform without the measures it can have after.  In “Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016” Trump as what they described as using twitter to bash and gain political power over others. During his campaign he used twitter to discuss his concerns making him be mentioned in 6.3 million conversations and 8 times more than his rival candidates.

Social Media has changed politics, by having more political information go on media now. Now people can talk and send out information, ( true or not true) to their friends or people that are following the. People like Donald Trump have found out the best way to stay relevant is through social media. In the text,”Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016,” by Michael Barbaro,  it states,”His online dominance is striking: Over the past two months, on Twitter alone, he has been mentioned in 6.3 million conversations, eight times as many as Republican rivals like Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson — not to mention more than three times as many as Hillary Rodham Clinton and nearly four times as many as Bernie Sanders.” Despite Donald Trump being seen as an unfit president, he stays relevent more than these other canidates, and he can tweet out more misinformation out, but since everybody wants to hear what he said than really knowing what he said, he can get away with it. A positive with media changing political campiagns is people now can pay attention to politics, as seen in the article,” Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014,” by Aaron Smith it says, ” Voters of all ages are more likely to take part in these behaviors than in the previous midterm race, but that growth has been especially pronounced among 30-49 year olds. Some 40% of voters ages 30-49 have used their cell phone to follow this year’s election campaign (up from 15% in 2010) and 21% follow political figures on social media (up from just 6% in 2010). Voters in this age group now take part in each of these behaviors at rates nearly identical to 18-29 year olds.” A negative is some people can’t access social media, while other people can access social media. People that can’t access social media, probaly won’t get the right information about a candidate, and will make a bad decision of who they elect. Also sensitive information about political canidates can get released on socilal media as they have been political canidates that had to answer questions about what they did in the past. People shouldn’t have to have personal information be sent out on social media.

Media’s effect on politics has made it so that no political campaign will never be seen without one. This is free publicity and it can reach a wider audience than one usually would without it. The beauty behind it is that you let the people spread a message you sent out, then you let them, the people who are followers of what you represent become the messenger of your plans. This all began with Howard Dean and his democratic race for president. In February 2003, Howard Dean has groups who are spreading the awareness of his candidacy through a website called “Meetup.com”. This allowed for many people to be informed of what Howard Dean’s mission is and putting their feet to the ground to push their candidate. In the article Crossing the Campaign Divide: Dean Changes the Election Game it states “Over 10,000 people attended Dean Meetups in early May. By the end of the summer, the number of attendees passed 100,000, and by early 2004, it had swelled to over 170,000.”, that’s an amazing achievement to gain 17 times the initial group size over one summer. This is a positive for those who are trying to bring awareness to their campaigns throughout the country, and if people really believe in you then they’ll support you no matter how small you are.

Barack Obama has even used this method to further his presidential run in 2007. He began the slogan “Yes, We Can” which would mean that we can do whatever we put our minds to as long as we can work together and then help one another. This peaceful campaign spread the ideas of people being in the position to try another president who wasn’t white and allow for a melting pot of nationalities to come together for this rare occasion. He showed that he had the interest of those who aren’t really heard, acknowledged and to be a fairer society to everyone who lived outside of big business. This style of campaigning won him two presidential elections in a row by landslide victories. Social media contributed heavily to his run but with good, there’s always a bad and social media has shown that in the past few years.

Social media definitely has a negative side to this, and that’s people will utilize their platforms to be immoral, spread a false narrative and lie repeatedly; the same way Donald Trump did and does. Donald Trump used social media in a way where being politically correct doesn’t matter and spreading lies to push an agenda that only satisfies his and the other elite. “His online dominance is striking: Over the past two months, on Twitter alone, he has been mentioned in 6.3 million conversations, eight times as many as Republican rivals like Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson — not to mention more than three times as many as Hillary Rodham Clinton and nearly four times as many as Bernie Sanders.” – “Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016”. This is a prime example of how powerful negativity can be by upsetting those who don’t agree with you and then riling those who believe in what you’re preaching enough to become radical. Social media can be your greatest asset or your worst nightmare, this all depends on the message you’re carrying and how you deliver it to the masses.

The effects that social media has made during the times of campaigning has been very overwhelming. Social media has made a drastic difference in the way our political leaders has connected with its people. In the article, “Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016” it states how president Donald Trump has dominated Twitter as a political leader. It mentions his engagement with his followers and the attention he receives from it. Who would’ve thought that social media would gain that type of attention and power? The media is a place where there are rules, you may not ask certain questions, speak on certain subjects that can hurt your career, etc. but today with social media, a place where there’s barely any rules, these thoughts don’t apply. As mentioned on, “The Role Played By Social Media In Political Participation And Electoral Campaigns” it states that today, social media has grown rapidly in political activism. When it comes to citizen journalism and political engagement with platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook many people regardless of where they stand in life are given the chance to speak out and connect to their followers with just a push of a button. In the article, “Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014” by Aaron Smith, it mentions how today, many Americans go to social media to be informed on anything related to politics and even to register to vote in the upcoming elections. We see how not only social media but technology has changed the way we interact with important events such as important as that. As mentioned in the reading, “Crossing the campaign divide: Dean changes the election game” it states how overall, social media has given political leaders from all around the world a new platform that allows them to engage with people from all around the world and from a variety of age groups.