Comment's Section

 

    When using social media as a source of gathering information, something that is often overlooked is the comments section. Although the comments section is oftentimes just your everyday fellow social media users, a lot of people read the comments related to said post and truly believe the information said. Majority of political posts have comment sections that just include people arguing their political side oftentimes by means of ignorance. Even though majority of comment sections are bickering and inability to agree on a common ground, many people who use social media for information gather opinions and information shared within these comment sections.  An academic article written by Drina Intyaswati from Sage Journals included a segment on online education through social media platforms, " The results contributed to understanding the indirect effects of using social media on student’s political knowledge. This influence was mediated by interpersonal communication on social media networks. The political talk serves as a mediating effect on social media use related to politics on political knowledge among students." This exert from the article best concludes that by means of interpersonal communication through these platforms such as comment sections speaking with each other, information can be shared through each person's viewpoints on certain topics. Communicating through these platforms can serve as beneficial when done in a healthy manner to spread information rather than biased information to start a debate.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440211023181

TikTok Politics on the Clock

    One of the biggest changes in political advertisements is the amount of campaign ads/videos listed within popular social media platform TikTok. While most social media platforms are starting to include political ads and information, the biggest success TikTok has within this realm is using snipped clips and including ads. TikTok has grown into one of the most used platforms in the social media world and includes ads to promote voting and even allows users to create their own political content. Many user's on the app create edits using snippets of candidates speeches, to create/promote that candidate in the upcoming election. Although it is just everyday people creating this kind of political content, many other users share and view this content and make their political views/opinions based off certain videos they view on this platform. A study done by Pew Research Center shows that TikTok has become one of the biggest social media platforms in today's age and includes information on why politics are included on the platform. Author Colleen McClain included a statistic related to users on the app," 73% each say TikTok being a place they can make a difference or feeling like it’s something they should do are reasons they post about politics." Due to the free rein users have on the platform, many self generated political motivated content is made to express opinions and/or support certain candidates. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/2024/06/12/how-tiktok-users-view-experience-the-platform/

Propaganda War

Propaganda within media

 Biden message

Trump message

    The links above each display campaign ads by opposing candidates Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. Each election year campaign ads (oftentimes propaganda) flood the internet and social media platforms with messages attempting to sway viewers to either side. Although candidates must vouch for themselves and build their campaigns up, I feel as though this manner should be handled more professionally rather than taking shots at each other via media world. Both messages are endorsed by each candidates party and include stretched information which acts as a form of defamation towards each other. The media teams attempt to slide in certain remarks in order to gain leverage over the opposing candidates party such as the links included above. The Biden message towards the end claims that "Trump does not trust women" due to abortion related laws. While Trump may view these rights differently than Biden's party, claiming Trump doesn't trust women as a whole is a very generalized and targeted response by the Biden party that isn't professional. On the other hand, Trump's message listed above also includes using stretched information to paint a bad picture for the upcoming election against Kamala Harris. The message revolved around "radical Harris" and included details around plans Harris has implemented. Many of the plans or actions Harris has shown in this ad paint her to be a criminal due to actions she has performed that has led to negative reactions. Each candidate reaches to use information they know can sway opinions even if that means using a form of defamation. Although this form of advertising has been used for countless elections, it is time to change how to campaign more professionally via social media and other media platforms!

Facebook Election

 The main issue with politics on social media platform's such as Facebook are the stubborn arguments that arise. Majority of Facebook political debates arise from voicing opinions related to one side of the political matter vs. the other. While everyone has the right to voice one's opinion, it doesn't make it right to encourage arguments via online due to objecting to another person's beliefs. Another issue related to Facebook politics includes the flooding of political posts via advertisements. Facebook, as well as other platforms include political propaganda advertisements that sway users opinions, which then leads to further complications from arguments occurring online. An article from Stanford University by author Krysten Crawford includes a research study by those who quit social media before the 2020 election. The study was conducted in order to see if people's political views changed while being off social media. Crawford includes a statement regarding those who quit "Those who were off Facebook were worse at answering news quiz questions, but they were also less likely to fall for widely circulated misinformation, suggesting that the platform can be an important conduit for both real and false news." This statement goes to show that while social media platforms can include somewhat credible information at times, the real issue is determining what is and is not factual/credible information when indulging on the platform. Overall, Facebook as well as many other platforms, control too much political power over the people, and should not be trusted to gather credible information when trying to self educate on political matter!

https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/facebook-went-away-political-divides-didnt-budge

Risk or Reward?

 

   

 While social media provides an array of options to connect and expand with others, there should be limitations as to how we use these platforms. Many people have and continue to use social media as their main way of gathering information. Although you may gain some knowledge off these platforms, using them for means such as political knowledge may not be the route to go. In a research article by Amy Mitchell, social media has become a mainstream way of gaining political news. The article depicts that these Americans using social media to gain political news, while informed, tend to take the news they gained less seriously due to reading it off social media, and are " less aware and knowledgable about a wide range of events and issues in the news". While social media platforms are mainstream and used by majority of people, when searching for information pertaining to serious topics such as political news, other options must be taken into account to receive factual and trustworthy political current news. The article further shows statistics in regard to political news knowledge, when taking into account which means one used to gain knowledge. The statistics showed that those who use social media as their main means of news conduction are far more less politically knowledgeable than those who use platforms such as the news or radio. Overall, I believe many need to adjust how they gain political news rather than just use social media to gain any knowledge. 

Research article:https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/