Social media has colossal reach: Facebook is fast approaching 2 billion monthly active users, while Twitter has more than 320 million users — more than the readership of all the English-language newspapers in the world. Politicians use social media to talk directly to voters, and none more so than Donald Trump, who sent almost 500 tweets in his first 100 days as president. However, social media may be changing the nature of modern politics.
Barack Obama was dubbed the ‘first social media president’ because of his use of Facebook and other social networks to propel him to victory in 2008 by encouraging supporters to share YouTube videos, make micro-donations, and campaign on the streets. Donald Trump used Twitter far more dramatically in 2016, speaking directly to his base in unvarnished language and overturning all prior assumptions about the need for a carefully crafted and moderate image. His controversial tweets won him billions of dollars of free television coverage, allowing him to spend just one-third of Hillary Clinton’s television advertising budget.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
