United States politics has proven to be all about the candidate's image. The image portrayed influences the results of the election and voter behavior. For the voters to find more information on the politicians, they have to use social media. Social media highly influenced the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in three major ways. First, social media was used as a marketing platform for a politician. Secondly, social media used to develop and change any time daily. Finally, the politicians used social media for agenda setting. Through social media, politicians could easily tarnish opponents' image and build theirs easily (Enli and Naper 2016).
Social media changed greatly in the United States election from 2008 to 2016 and become omnipresent. In the 2008 election, both Republicans and Democrats used social media such as Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube for their campaigns. By 2012, Facebook significantly increased its users (Enli, 2015). Twitter had also emerged. Twitter had large following hence an added advantage to the parties. There was a significant change in how social media was used between 2012 and 2016. The social media campaign focused more on the images and video. A good example is when Hillary Clinton launched her presidential candidature by just twitting instead of a press conference (Craig, 2016).
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The article explains clearly how social media was used to influence the political campaigns from 2008 until 2016 elections. The gradual changes predict the future use of social media in 2020 political campaigns. Change in social media affects the political approach in the United States.
Researchable questions that might shade more light on 2020 presidential election
Will Joe Biden’s current comments affect 2020 elections?
What will Trump apply to beat his opponent come 2020?
Does social media criticism affect United States politics?
How will Joe Biden popularity help him in 2020?
Role of social media in the United States politics?
President Obama took advantage of social media to beat his opponent. What will Trump do to help him win with a bigger margin?
What are Trump’s weaknesses that Biden can capitalize on for him to win in 2020?
The congress rarely supports Trump’s decisions. How can Biden use this to his advantage?
Biden won on the endorsement with a bigger margin. What tactics can he apply to help him win in 2020?
What are the difference between Biden and Hillary Clinton’s political strategy?
References
Craig G (2016) Performing Politics: Media Interviews, Debates and Press Conferences. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Enli G (2015) Mediated Authenticity: How the Media Constructs Reality. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Enli G and Naper AA (2016) Social media incumbent advantage: Barack Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s Tweets in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign. In: Bruns A, Enli G, Skogerbø E, et al. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. New York: Routledge, pp. 364–377.
