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Block, Joshua

Dr. Colombo

UWRT 1104

13 February 2017

How has social media affected modern-day politics?

Sanders, Sam. Social Media's Increasing Role In The 2016 Presidential Election. NPR, NPR,

www.npr.org/2016/11/07/500977344/social-media-s-role-increases-in-2016-presidential-election

This Article is a discussion between multiple different individuals about how the nature of social

media has made the most recent election one of the nastiest in history. These individuals

discuss Facebook in specific and how it naturally becomes an echo chamber for those to voice

their political opinions. Sanders goes on to explain that those who support a specific side tend to

delete those who have the opposing views in attempt to make their feed more agreeable to their

specific viewpoints, further divided the two sides.

Wilson, Christopher, and Zeynep Tufekci. Social Media and the Decision to Participate in

Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square. Onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 6 Mar. 2012,

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01629.x/full

This Journal discusses the nature of the recent protests due to the outcome of the 2016

presidential election and the influence that social media had on the amount of those who chose to

protest. It explains that social media has provided new information about the nature of protests,

and also influenced large masses of people to participate in them.

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Dahlgren, Peter. Media and Political Engagement: Citizen, Communication, and Democracy.

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011,

www.langtoninfo.co.uk/web_content/9780521527897_frontmatter.pdf.

This source is a book that focuses on the communication aspect of politics and how social media

increases the amount of communication between individuals of both like mind, and opposing

mind. It discusses how social media CAN present a beneficial platform to get across ideals along

with information.

Price, Tom. Social Media and Politics Do Facebook and Twitter Influence Voters?

https://uncc.worldcat.org/title/social-media-and-politics-do-facebook-and-twitter-influence-

voters/oclc/5178026556&referer=brief_results

This article talks about the candidates in the 2016 presidential election and how they utilized

social media to their advantages in their campaigns. Price mentions that the candidates would use

social media to identify and organize followers, and also to raise funds for their campaigns. It

also talks about how social media played a part in getting the hard to reach audiences moreso

involved in politics than they were.

Odom, Brian. Social Media and Politics. Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, 21st ed.,

vol. 110, Booklist, 2014, p. 56. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO].

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This source is an encyclopedia article about the relationship between social media in politics. It

discusses how platforms of social media serve as political battlegrounds of opinions, and that

people are more likely to argue over politics over these platforms rather than in real-life

interaction.

Bruns, Axel, et al. The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. Basingstoke, Taylor

& Francis Ltd, 2016, uncc.worldcat.org/title/routledge-companion-to-social-media-and-

politics/oclc/933433902&referer=brief_results.

This source is an eBook that discusses the imbalance of attention in politics in the United

States/United Kingdom compared to everywhere else. This eBook presents information about the

cross between social media and politics on six different continents and the differences between

the relationship in these different places.

Wihbey, John. How Does Social Media Use Influence Political Participation and Civic

Engagement? A Meta-Analysis. Journalist's Resource, 21 Oct. 2015,

journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/social-media-influence-politics-

participation-engagement-meta-analysis.

This article presents statistics regarding the actual effects that social media plays in politics. It

mentions that messages promoted by friends increased voter turnout directly by about 60,000

voters, and indirectly by social contagion by another 280,000.

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Lang, Marissa. 2016 Presidential Election Circus: Is Social Media the Cause? Government

Technology, www.govtech.com/social/2016-Presidential-Election-Circus-Is-Social-Media-the-

Cause.html.

This article focuses on Donald Trump and his campaign based around social media. It presents

statistics such as how in twelve months, the people of the United States have collectively spent

1,284 years reading about Donald Trump online. The article also talks about how Trump saved

roughly 380 million dollars on his campaign by simply voicing his viewpoints over social media

instead of paying for ad space.