via WordPress http://ift.tt/2ffWgqy
(CNN)Donald Trump’s candidacy was not taken seriously by the mainstream media and even the establishment of his own party, but his strategic use of social media propelled him to the presidency.
Second, social media is fueling the so-called “post-truth” era in American politics because it allows candidates to bypass traditional fact checkers — reporters and debate moderators — to communicate directly with the American people. According to PolitiFact, just 14% of Donald Trump’s statements have been true. Fake accounts then amplified Trump’s (sometimes inaccurate) tweets. The website Twitter Audit found that 39% of Trump’s Twitter followers — compared with just 5% of Clinton’s — were computer generated bots.
Another problem is that fake news stories have proliferated on social media. According to Buzzfeed, people in the town of Veles, Macedonia, developed a cottage industry over the past year, creating at least 140 fake news sites that spread pro-Trump stories across social media platforms. Zeynep Tufekci, associate professor of information and library science at the University of North Carolina, noted that a single false story purporting that Pope Francis had endorsed Trump was likely viewed by tens of millions of people on Facebook.
Van Jones talks to Trump voters
Tim Naftali: Trump, don’t repeat Nixon
‘Riggin ironic: More people voted for Clinton
Doctor: Trump’s reality on health care
Frida Ghitis: Speak out vs. bigots
Joseph J. Ellis: Backlash against progress
Peter Bergen: Trump’s national security guru
What would Jackie O. say about Melania?
How Trump can avert a human tragedy
Trump’s shocking victory: What it means
Third, social media is deepening the divide among more conservative and liberal Americans. Eli Pariser has noted that social media users now live in a “filter bubble” in which social platforms tailor the content we see to our interests, leaving us unexposed to other points of view (the divide is so stark that this year the Wall Street Journal created an interactive to show Americans what the Facebook feeds of the other side actually look like.)
New York Post columnist Johnny Oleksinski argued recently that this explained why Clinton supporters were so shocked by the results of the election, because “neither America believes the other really exists. Because it’s nowhere to be found on its Facebook news feed.” Too often people fail to engage in productive conversations with friends on Facebook who have differing views, likely because discourse on social media has become so vitriolic. A Pew study released last month found that 84% of social media users somewhat or very much agree that “people say things when discussing politics on social media that they would never say in person.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. Citizens could demand that politicians use social media more substantively and truthfully — and tweet back to call them out when they don’t. Social media executives could better police false content (Facebook and Google both announced actions to combat false news this week). And we can all try to engage constructively with people of a wide range of beliefs to debate the issues of the day.
There is reason to think this can work. One study found that if social media users see that a lot of people recommend a particular story, they will click on it even if the news source is partisan and not in line with their beliefs. This suggests that there is still room for dialogue between people with red and blue feeds.
Read more: http://ift.tt/2fviVSM
The post Where Donald Trump got his real power appeared first on MavWrek Marketing by Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment