Social media crutch

 

        The video above depicts news feed from the 2020 election, and information regarding the uprise in social media for gaining political information. The video hits key points and mentions how over 50% of people would rely on platforms such as Facebook to gain political information/input. The ongoing issue with this action is that there is almost more fraud than truth that is uploaded onto social media platforms. Many of the information you read is also just opinion based information created by fellow social media users to provoke arguments or to steer voters into a different party. The video goes on to also include how important face-to-face conversations are regarding politics, to prevent or lessen the chances of bias and to be able to verbally hear out different ways of thinking. Overall, the biggest issue concerning social media and its reign on politics is just like anything else you read online, take it with a grain of salt. 

The social media effect on political advertisements

 

        One of the biggest changes regarding politics over the years has been the communication methods used to reach the public. Before social media emerged onto the political scene, one of the crucial ways candidates would campaign would be strictly via news coverage. The news coverage allowed the candidates to depict their reasoning for campaigning and to give public speeches to persuade voters into voting for them. Ever since social media began to erupt within the political scene, it allows politicians and candidates to campaign at a much larger scale and more accessibility. While most of these social media platforms have regulations, they do not have to remain "neutral" or only allow non-bias information. Although some news coverage doesn't follow their own rules, many remain neutral and allow candidates to campaign and promote advertising if it doesn't include any ill intent. Many of the social media platforms allow free speech and do not have to maintain a professional persona like the mainstream news coverages would. An article written at Wharton by Pinar Yildirim depicts the ease of social media for candidates nowadays , " Beyond communicating their policy views, new candidates can humanize themselves through their social media accounts, and that helps voters feel more connected to them. " This message from Pinar while accurate, isn't always used in a professional manner. While you start to see politicians express themselves via social media, candidates also use this as a way to exploit their opposing candidate, and oftentimes campaign by throwing slander on their social media platforms. Although social media is a huge upgrade for many reasons, mainly to connect to others, it must be regulated in regard to politics to retain from unprofessional behavior such as exploiting rather than self promoting. 

How social media is Shaping Political Campaigns. Knowledge at Wharton. (n.d.). https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wharton-podcast/how-social-media-is-shaping-political-campaigns/ 

Algorithms within social media

 

Social media algorithms

    The video listed above includes a conversation with Dr. Stuart Russell who depicts the intent behind algorithms and how people are sucked into them. The basis of algorithms is for people to maximize clicks in order for the web to gain more insight on what content to provide for each individual. Russell explains how algorithms intend to manipulate people's brains in order to guide opinions into certain scenarios such as current events. Algorithms have created a manner that journalists and other news providers are pressured into creaking click bait titles and means in order to receive clicks. An example of such is during the election months through channels such as political campaigns. All throughout the election months there are constant popup advertisements or clickbait titles that manipulate people into further diving down algorithm holes, which only creates more. Within social media politics, there is constant click bait to gather more intel on advertisements to provide further data as to what will appear next on social media pages. The more clicks means that more related information will continue to flood social media pages, resulting in different forms of algorithms. Overall it is interesting to depict how everyone dives into certain algorithms, and the ways these algorithms affect daily social media data and usage. 

    

Political advertising is reintroduced to X?

 

Elon reinstates political adverting on X platform

    One of the interesting things that occurred during the election was Owner of platform X, Elon Musk, reinstates that the platform can now allow political advertising to be unlisted as it was previously banned by previous chief executive Jack Dorsey. While this action occurred before Musk made it clear he was in favor of either candidate, it is something to think about and wonder as to why Musk decided to use social media platform X, as a political campaign like many others. While Musk spoke on the reasoning behind this action was to " give the power of speech back to the people", it is also said to have been done in results of having many big corporations leave the platform, leaving a loss of revenue to be made up somehow. All of this action occurred before the election was even close, but what makes things tricky is how Democrats are uneasy to participate due to comments Musk had made regarding the candidates for that political side. We all know now Musk endorsed Donald Trump as the election just occurred, but one can only think of how much impact this might have had for Trump's victory as Musk made it possible for X, one of the most common and leading social media platforms, to promote political advertising. This action could have aided either political side as it was reversed to allow anyone to promote and contribute to political campaigns, making it a fair game for both parties to promote their agendas. One of the issues concerning this is that many republicans are finding this platform more attractive due to many reasons, and now we can see that due to Musk's endorsement, why wouldn't they? The owner of X shares his political agenda and expresses his emotions via X, making it a positive place for one side of the political parties. Overall this move by Musk could have been in good intent as it was reinstated to generate more revenue and allow voters to express themselves while their political parties did the same. 

Murphy, H. (2023, December 20). Elon Musk’s X in political advertising push to offset revenue falls. Subscribe to read. https://www.ft.com/content/b7845bef-55d5-4297-a15a-db37f71e014e     

Snapchat Stories

 

    Snapchat influencing voters?

    With the upcoming election, many social media platforms are including political advertisements and clips to promote campaigns. Just like any other advertisement one would witness on television, these being included on social media platforms such as Snapchat are influencing citizens with false information. Many of the stories on Snapchat are clips derived from speeches from the candidates that are edited to make it appear as though these candidates say certain information that is untrue. The goals behind these stories are to sway the opinions of the Snapchat users, as well as to create drama to gain views. The platform includes features such as filters, that are election related and start many trends. This popularity brings a lot of attention to the platform, that also allows videos of misled information to be spread and manipulate voters. It is very common for people to witness a video and believe its content due to lack of information pertaining to the video, and Snapchat allows edited videos to be included to promote attention to the app. "More than 80 million Americans of voting age use Snapchat every month, according to the company. In 2020, the app registered 1.2 million people to vote, making it a prime platform for advertisers to reach voters." This quote from Yahoo Finance showcases how popular the platform is and how easily it can influence its users. Due to such attention, it is can be very dangerous to allow certain content to be posted due to how quickly it can spread and convert misled information. All in all social media platforms should remain as a neutral site in order to refrain from misled/foul information being spread to keep a fair election. 

 Yahoo! (n.d.). Snap leans into election coverage in bid for political ads. Yahoo! Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/snap-leans-election-coverage-bid-170000676.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMVoH52QZI0MnxGqt04dkTaYk-TLOxoXE0X5eJf9ql22cOH9NoEVKuTHkyOD6i0lTSw5vp9W7uQ-oHLnInRuhAHVAeIwdGIekJyrysf1rnXwg61A58Zfs3zC-FZr2qvog6TQxFDqezJ2HCKrRogB2no8vZ57x33MaaUu8325WQFo