Social media in the 2016 United States presidential election
played a predominant role in shaping the course of major events leading up to, during, and after the United States presidential election of 2016. It enabled people to have a greater interaction with the political landscape, controversies, and news surrounding the candidates involved. Unlike traditional news platforms, such as newspapers, radio, and magazines, social media gave people the ability to share, comment, and post below a candidate's advertisement, news surrounding the candidates, or articles regarding the policy of the candidates. This accessibility, in turn, would have a great influence on the events that ultimately led to its outcome.
Candidates would often use multiple social media accounts, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Depending on the digital architecture of each platform, candidates would post, create support videos, link to news articles, and challenge other candidates via fact-checking, discrediting, and response. In turn, users could share, like, or comment on these actions, furthering the candidates' outreach. By doing so, candidates and users both would influence or change peoples views on a specific issue. With candidates using different combinations of these actions, they built a unique style of communication with the public, influencing the portrayal of themselves in the news, and in their own accounts. These accounts then would help build electoral coalitions, which identify voters and, in turn, raise money. As a result, they ultimately aided in voter mobilization and electoral impact. Researchers from Stanford have found that 62% of U.S. adults get their news on social media and that people are more likely to believe in news favoring their choice of candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social networks.
Throughout the campaign, candidates have debated over immigrational, foreign, economic, healthcare, criminal, domestic, educational, environmental, and electoral policy. Using social media, they expanded their base further beyond the broadcast debates, both in the Republican and Democratic primary, and in the general election. In one instance, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton feuded over economic and educational policy in a series of tweets. In another, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump feuded over Obama's endorsement of Hillary Clinton, and the deletion of Twitter accounts. Overall, these and many other events on social media contributed to the outcome of the 2016 election by endorsement, controversy, or other exhibits providing discussion for political discourse.
Background
As the campaign began, analysts assumed that, because of the increased reach and capacity of social media sites of all kinds since the last election cycle, social media would be used in potentially powerful new ways. The Wall Street Journal predicted that the use of campaign advertisements targeted at individuals using newly available data would be among the more notable innovations.The political newspaper, The Hill, concluded not only that "ocial media's influence in this presidential election is stronger than it has ever been," but that it "will shape campaigns for years to come." According to The Wall Street Journal, the "traditional media" and the Democratic and Republican parties have lost "dominance" of public opinion to the "digital revolution."
Frank Speiser, the co-founder of SocialFlow, said, "This is the first true social media election." He added that before the 2016 presidential primaries, social media were a mere "auxiliary method of communication," but in this new era, "folks on social media to act on your behalf by just sharing it around. You don't have to buy access to reach millions of people anymore." According to Republican political strategist Patrick Ruffini, in the 2012 election cycle, candidates would make short statements, and re-tweet or thank followers. The candidates were able to use social media to get free advertising from their supporters. Attendees of political rallies would take photos with the candidates that would then be shared on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. This generates more visibility for the candidate at no cost to them.
The Guardian compared Internet memes to political cartoons, arguing, "For the first time in a US election cycle, community-generated memes have grown to play a significant role in political discourse, similar to the classic printed cartoon." While an Internet meme is unlikely to destroy a political career, lots of memes targeting a candidate might.
Donald Trump campaign
According to the Pew Research Center, social media is playing a pivotal role in the presidential election. 44% of the Americans have admitted to getting their information in 2016 from social media. The Pew research Center posts the finding of public's responses to three presidential candidates- Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders. It finds that while these three candidates post at the same frequency, Trump receives the most responses, with one example being Trump becoming widely discussed across Twitter and the media when he announced his proposed Muslim ban. Unlike other candidates, Trump's Twitter and Facebook posts link to news media rather than the campaign site to focus more on media appearance. Based on the data gathered by the Pew Research Center, 78% of his retweets involves the general public.The Trump presidential campaign benefited from large numbers of supporters who were active on social media from the beginning of the campaign. In the first Republican Presidential debate, held on August 6, 2015, the moderator asked candidate Jeb Bush if he stood by a statement made the previous April that illegal entry into the U.S. by undocumented migrants is "an act of love." Bush replied that he did and the Trump campaign immediately posted his comment as part of a video showing mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the US, alternating with footage of Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony… It's an act of love." According to Eric Fehrnstrom, political analyst and media strategist, the video marked a crucial turning point in the campaign for the Republican nomination. Political analyst Michael Barone regarded the ad as a key moment in Trump's political rise. The San Francisco Chronicle described the ad as pivotal in transforming Instagram from a personal photo-sharing app that some celebrities and politicians used to enhance their images, into a propaganda tool.
Supporters of Donald Trump and opponents of Hillary Clinton conducted an Internet campaign between June 2015 and November 2016 in an effort to sway the election. During this time period users of social media, especially Reddit and 4chan, conducted numerous "operations" to sway public opinion using Internet memes, Internet posts and online media. The Internet conflict that arose from this campaign has been dubbed by some as "The Great Meme War".
Right Side Broadcasting Network frequently uploaded live streams of Donald Trump rallies on YouTube. As of September 2016, the channel has received over 210 thousand subscribers, exceeding the subscribers of MSNBC's YouTube channel.
On Reddit, r/The Donald was a pro-Trump subforum that ranked consistently as the most active on the site. Due to the very active community that outpaced the rest of the website, the algorithm that dictated what content reached the "r/all" default page of the website resulted in the significant portion of the page being r/The_Donald content. In response, Reddit made changes to its algorithms on June 15 in an attempt to preserve variety of r/all. On July 27, 2016, Trump participated in an Ask Me Anything on r/The_Donald, answering thirteen questions from his supporters. r/The_Donald is more active and has a higher subscriber count than the subreddit for Hillary Clinton, r/HillaryClinton.
Trump has become well-documented in his frequent Twitter posts. With social media acting as free media and publicity, Trump harnessed Twitter as a platform to respond quickly to his opponents and tweet about his stance on various issues. Before the Republican National Convention where Trump was named the Republican candidate, he would relentlessly target his fellow Republican candidates when their poll numbers would rise. President-elect Donald Trump utilized Twitter frequently both during and after the 2016 presidential election, explaining that social media helped him win the primary and general elections even though his opponents spent "much more money than spent". While Slate explains that Trump succeeded because he retained his "vulgar vigor and translated it into the political arena", the Washington Post has called his Twitter account "prolific, populist, and self-obsessed".
Hillary Clinton campaign
Hillary Clinton's campaign team used already established social media strategies and tactics that the candidate had used in previous elections to help boost her popularity in the 2016 election. None of the other candidates had recently run for president, making the tactic unique to Clinton. During the campaign, Trump and Clinton both used external links on their social media posts to connect their audience with outside information. A Pew Research study showed that 80% of Clinton's posts included links to her website or campaign pages, while 78% of Trump's posts included links to news media. It was also found that on Facebook, Clinton linked to her campaign 60% of the time, and the news media a quarter of the time. The Clinton campaign used social media to advertise Trump's use of fake news and potential Russian intervention. Many argue that Clinton's loss was in part due to Trump gaining the votes of groups that do not use social media, while Clinton's audience is active on most social media platforms.In April 2016, Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton super PAC, announced a program called "Barrier Breakers" intended to rival the largely online volunteer efforts of Sanders and Trump supporters. With $1 million in funding, Correct the Record employed paid staff described as "former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers" to post "exclusively positive content".
On June 9, 2016, as a response to Donald Trump's tweet regarding Obama's endorsement to Clinton, she wrote with a three-word tweet: "Delete your account"; it became her most retweeted tweet of all time. After the Democratic National Convention, Clinton began campaigning with running mate, Tim Kaine, and while on the campaign trail, she stated, "I don't know who created Pokémon Go...I try to get them to have Pokémon Go to the polls".
In August 2015, Clinton was involved in a back-and-forth with Jeb Bush. Bush copied one of Clinton's Twitter graphics that discussed student debt. Clinton responded by crossing out the words on Bush's graphic and stating “F: The grade to Florida for college affordability under Jeb Bush’s leadership.” with the caption “@JebBush Fixed it for you.” Bush responded with a graphic of his own that used Clinton's logo to criticize the growing tax rate.” In this incident, Clinton and Bush used popular social media trends to capture their target audience and grow their social media presence.
Clinton began using social media platform Snapchat to chronicle her campaign across America. One of her videos, where she proclaimed that she was, "Just chillin', in Cedar Rapids", quickly became a meme on video-sharing app Vine.
Ted Cruz campaign
According to The Guardian, Cruz was "skewered by social media memes". His run for the Presidency was ended by a series of memes, including a viral video of an unusually awkward attempt to shake hands with his running mate Carly Fiorina, which was edited to emphasize his awkwardness in reality. The video was viewed 3.5 million times online. In addition, a mock-conspiracy theory faux-asserted that Cruz was actually the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified serial killer active in northern California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.Bernie Sanders campaign
Bernie Sander's large spending on Facebook and Instagram ads had attracted a large following of young voters. His online advertising also bolstered his campaign by raising nearly 230 million. His use of language on Twitter is more emotional and plain. In one of his post regarding affordable college tuition, he writes, "It's a disgrace that hundreds of thousands of bright and qualified young people are unable to afford higher education. This must end." His Twitter posts regarding affordable college tuition gives him more retweets compared to Hillary Clinton.Social media is widely acknowledged to have played a crucial role in the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. As of May 2016, 450,000 people belong to the Facebook group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash, one of the several online groups supporting Sanders. Memes were used as the primary means of starting conversational topics in groups such as Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash and Bernie Sanders is my HERO, which were primarily devoted to debating & educating, and praising Bernie whilst pointing out flaws in rival candidates Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton in comical ways. Another group, Bernie or Hillary?, dedicated to creating mock-campaign posters comparing Sanders to Clinton. Sanders supporters who succeeded in closing down a planned Trump rally in Chicago in March 2016 was organized via Facebook.