I think social media does have an effect on political campaigns. I don’t think the effect is always negative. For example in the article titled “The Role Played By Social Media In Political Participation and Electoral Campaigns.” They mention that “personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters.” Which to me is very true. Social media allows for politicians to communicate faster with their audience. Especially their younger audience. In this generation well pick up a phone to find out information before we turn on the television to find out information. In the article “Cell Phones, Social Media and campaign 2014” they did a few studies on people who follow political campaigns and why they choose to do so. Some of the reasons were they like to find out information about political news before other people do. They also liked getting more reliable information than what is available from news organizations. In this generation with all the fake news we receive I couldn’t agree with that last statement more.
All in all I think social media helps with campaigns more than it hurts. I feel like it becomes negative when people don’t use their platform the proper way. For example Donald Trump. All he has ever done on twitter was bash people. I don’t even remember when he ever said anything nice about someone. If he ever did it was after receiving backlash about being rude. For example when actress Kim Novak was on the academy awards Donald Trump tweeted “I’m having a really hard time watching. Kim should sue her plastic surgeon.” Of course not until he receives backlash does he send her a private letter apologizing. To me this is where social media can began to have a negative impact on campaigns because with tweets like that you start to tear people down. If social media wasn’t invented he wouldn’t even have the power to make people feel the way Kim felt. At the same time social media can really show the real you. So it can help you figure out who you should and shouldn’t be voting for.
