Social Media and the U.S. Election

janelle.ward@gmail.comwww.janelleward.com

@janelle_ward

Why study social media in a political context?

• In 2008, Obama raised half a billion dollars raised online; 2 million online supporter profiles created.

• In 2008, the social media winner won the election• In 2012? (iProspect infographic; sources: sources: Borrell Associates, Compete, Facebook, Google,

Pew Research, Twitter & comScore)

Social media in a political context

• Obama vs. Romney in the world of social media (Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify)– Tumblr: younger, niche audience = more spirited content

(77 million blogs)– Twitter: usage has multiplied 10 times since the 2008

election, with 500 million users (use for donations, travel details, glimpses into their personal lives)

Social media in a political context

• Obama vs. Romney in the world of social media – Facebook: one of the most influential (as of 9/2012, over

one billion active users); candidates seek to influence the flow of content (via shares and likes)

– YouTube: video ads, personal videos, live chats (800 million users/month)

– Pinterest: Michelle Obama and Ann Romney (over 10 million visits/week)

– Instagram: candid pictures of the candidates (30 million+ accounts)

Why study social media in general?

• Greenpeace International: a campaigning org using social media in innovative ways

• KLM: Meet & Seat lets passengers connect social media profiles to check-in information and choose a seating partner

Questions to keep in mind

• How are political actors using social media to inform and engage citizens? •(Producing the campaign)

• How does social media influence citizen/audience/consumer engagement? •(Consuming the campaign)

• How important is (social) media campaigning in determining the winner? •What role does social media play in the election campaign?

Questions to keep in mind

Studying social media in general:•Which platform should I target? •Where can I find my target audience? •How should I talk to my target audience online? •How can I share interesting content & create engagement? •How can I change people’s minds via social media and earn their trust and loyalty?

What to expect from this course

• Four sessions– Introduction (this week)– Producing the Campaign (29 October)– Consuming the Campaign (5 November)– Aftermath (12 November)

• (voluntary) assignments• Lots of inspiring examples and discussion• Feel free to bring your laptops!

Following the course

• Facebook group– “Social Media and the U.S. Election”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/274868035966477/ – Relevant news, images, links– Course slides will also be posted here

Recommended readings

Recommended readings

• Bruce Bimber and Richard Davis (2003). Campaigning online: The Internet in U.S. elections. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Erik Qualman (2011). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. http://www.socialnomics.net/

• Clay Shirky (2011). The political power of social media: Technology, the public sphere, and political change. Foreign Affairs. http://67.192.45.82/ASSETS/CD85D3ADA91B42BAB28C7B7C1E42ABEC/ForeignAffairs-1521.pdf

Introductions• Name/origin/occupation• Reason for signing up for this course (political junkie? social media fan?

etc.)• Favorite social media platform and why

What do you want to focus on?

• Specifically about social media?• Specifically about campaigning online?

• production? content? effects?

For next week

• Choose a topic and/or social media platform to follow this week, and report back!– Can be about the campaign or another topic as long as it’s

related to social media• For the campaign: 5 Cool Ways to Follow the 2012 Elections Online

Resources

• Nonpartisan campaign news sites. – Elections section of Google News a continuous feed of news stories and commentary

from sources across the political spectrum– Yahoo! News Elections a smaller, more selective collection of stories from the

Associated Press, Reuters, National Journal etc., as well as stories by its own staffers– RealClearPolitics also offers a lineup of commentary and news stories

• Facebook. – U.S. Politics page tracks how the candidates are using social media to reach voters– CNN’s I’m Voting app is a continuous online poll of Facebook users (source)

Resources

• YouTube. – The YouTube Politics page provides user-generated videos and unedited

recording of debates/speeches, plus clips of political commercials and interviews with pollsters explaining the latest numbers

• Polling and Electoral College simulations. – The Internet’s leading aggregator of polling information is RealClearPolitics,

which also provides a Create Your Own Map page that allows you to see what would happen if, say, one candidate wins Florida but the other wins Ohio and Virginia (source)

Resources• Smart Phone apps.

– The New York Times bills its Election 2012 app, available in iPhone and Android versions, as “the best campaign coverage anywhere,” with news, opinion, polls and election-night results

– Talking Points Memo, a news and commentary site, offers PollTracker Mobile, a free iPhone app that allows you to track the latest presidential polls

– If you’re a Democrat, you may want to get Progressive News, a free iPhone app that provides news headlines, videos and podcasts with a liberal bent (there’s also an Android version)

– Republicans have their own analog, Conservative Pulse, but in keeping with the party’s free-market, pro-business outlook, the iPhone app costs 99 cents

– There’s also Dollarocracy, an iPhone app from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics that lets you “follow the money” in the U.S. political system

– TWatcher 2012 Elections Edition for the iPhone lets you aggregate all the tweets about a single candidate

– Another iPhone app, 270toWin, lets you run simulations with various combinations of states, so you can see what your candidate’s path to that magic number is at any given moment

Resources

• Official listings of candidate websites:– Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC): http://www.dccc.org/– National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC): http://www.nrcc.org/

• If you prefer a corporate focus:• http://www.casestudiesonline.com/

• Or from BlogWell:– http://www.socialmedia.org/videos/

How to structure your examination

• Primary question for next week (producing the campaign): • How are political actors using social media to inform

and engage citizens?

• Examine your case/social media platform from the producer’s perspective (the candidate’s campaign, the corporation, the NGO, etc.)

• Please bring relevant images/text/video to share!