The drive for the politicians and the elite to control the world view has resulted in massive exploitation of the social media, particularly in the United States. To begin with, the establishment of bias touching on various political topics has been massively cultivated and its extremity orchestrated through social media. Another fact is that a high rate of exposure to social media has resulted in a rise in fake news that is spread by politicians (Dornan, n.d.). The effect of such has been extensive among individuals who have less touch with real time news hence having a powerful impact in influencing their perspectives on various political agendas.
Political influence via social media is especially rampant among individuals who rely upon social networks for news feed. Owing to the sensitive point of view, mainly when alike peers share that news item with their own loyal friends, the outcome is sensitively engaging comments. These comments implicate the overall perception of the news as a high number of peers supporting a particular point of view has a high probability of influencing other peers to buy into their ideological perspectives ( Cohen & Kahne, 2012) . Moreover, due to being emotionally connected to the peers, the intensity of feelings interferes with their political perspectives.
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Through the social media, politicians have managed to spread propaganda and twists on the political narrative due to the massive following that they enjoy in social media platforms. In fact, the problem is evidently increasing with every new day as politicians seek to demonize reports from media houses with claims of fake news ( Marwick & Lewis, 2017) . In backing my argument, it is arguably true that the fake news term has enlarged traction following the frequent use of the term by the current President of the US, Donald Trump. From this point of view, politicians make quick steps at vilifying news that paint them in bad light with claims of being fake news. Additionally, the election of President Trump in the 2016 elections in the United States increased the anxiety about fake news. To some extent, this concern can be assumed to be as a result of moral panic or could be augmented by the rising trend in fact-checking that is characteristic of this digital era.
In the previous US electoral campaigns, more than one hundred websites purporting to report news about the US politics had been hosted by certain groups of people ( Lilleker, 2017) . Furthermore, each of the news website had a Facebook page through which they posted various news articles that reached their numerous followers. Consequently, these websites all posted fake news stories such as revealing evidence that Obama was not an American, mentions of exclusive footage from sex tapes featuring Bill Clinton and making quotes about Hilary Clinton stating the impeccable honesty and incorruptibility of Donald Trump. Regardless of these stories being incorrect, they received massive readership especially through online platforms and were extensively shared through the Facebook newsfeed, which may have appeared as true information to some of the readers.
It is for a fact that human beings have an inclination to side with information that aligns with their system of beliefs and tend to agree with such information especially if it comes from a politician or an elite member of the society. Furthermore, human beings have the tendency to like news that negatively paint the people that they dislike and are inclined to listen to positive news about the people they love. For instance, the stories about Obama and Clinton during the 2016 US elections confirmed that majority of the readers were those that had a dislike for Clinton and Obama. While some of the news particularly strengthened the negative side of Clinton and Obama, the other news emphasized the accuracy and honesty of Donald Trump and his world view. Similarly, news stories on Pro-Clinton narratives were no less ubiquitous as an indication of the effect of politicians on news coverage ( Lilleker, 2017 ). With the increased circulation and distribution of such news by politicians through social media, the truth becomes indistinct and questionable, an aspect that is common in most of the election campaigns.
In conclusion, the US politics is largely influenced by the social media. In fact, the recent rise in fake news and hate speech in the U.S is largely perpetuated by elite groups and politicians in the society through social media. Therefore, the social media needs to initiate algorithms that require individual monitoring of the use of social media by politician before their posts are aired to the public. This will allow fake news to be filtered out and eliminated from public consumption while allowing only authentic and verified news into the public domain.
References
Cohen, C. J., & Kahne, J. (2012). Participatory politics. New media and youth political action .
Dornan, C. (n.d.) Dezinformatsiya: The past, present and future of ‘fake news’ .
Lilleker, D. (2017). Evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee ‘Fake news' inquiry presented by the Faculty for Media & Communication, Bournemouth University.
Marwick, A., & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online. New York: Data & Society Research Institute .
