Election 2016 might not go down in history as much for who becomes the next president of the United States as how communication technology was used to take over the Oval Office.
At least that’s the opinion of two local political analysts.
“It is unlike any presidential race in history. Social media has changed how elections are conducted,” said Rick Mullaney, director of the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute.
Matthew Corrigan, a political science professor and chair of the Political Science and Public Administration department at the University of North Florida, agrees.
He said social media has made it easier and much faster for a candidate to distribute information and to a wide audience since so many people use mobile devices.
“Stories can spread quicker and that’s where people get their information. It’s in their pocket,” he said.
According to a report published Oct. 25 by the Pew Research Center, 62 percent of American adults use Facebook and 20 percent use Twitter.
Even though users’ contact group profiles for the two social media are substantially different, both mediums are regarded as strong sources for political content and opinion.
Pew reports that 66 percent of Facebook users said they mostly follow only people they know personally, while just 3 percent said they mostly follow people they don’t know.
Among Twitter users surveyed, only 15 percent said they mostly follow people they know personally, while 48 percent mostly follow people they don’t know.
Mullaney said the electorate’s access to information is unprecedented, in terms of how much is available, how many differing opinions can be accessed and the high level of convenience to access the information.
“You carry your smartphone in your pocket and you have more information available than was in the library where you went to college,” he said.
The tone of the multitude of political conversations on social media also was addressed in the Pew report.
Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said posts are less respectful compared to discussions that take place in other places and only 5 percent regard online discussions as more respectful.
Nearly half — 49 percent — said political discussions on social media are angrier than in other places.
Corrigan said social media has contributed to a “coarsening” of political discourse, possibly because people feel there are fewer barriers than there are in a face-to-face conversation.
“People feel they can say what they want to say online,” he said.
Mullaney added, “It can get nasty.”
He said the tone of social media conversations probably reflects another historic element of this presidential election.
“It’s the first time in history both candidates from the major parties have a greater than 50 percent unfavorable rating,” Mullaney said.
The report states that generally, social media users refrain from engaging in political arguments they see on their feeds –— 83 percent said when they see something they disagree with, they try to ignore it.
But 15 percent said they get into the fray and post a comment of their own.
Disagreeing through social media can eventually affect a user’s perception of their circle of online friends.
According to the report, 31 percent of social media users said they have changed their settings to see fewer posts from someone because of a comment related to politics.
The report also suggests political content may be having an impact on how users feel about their social media experience.
Fifty-nine percent said their online encounters with people who hold opposing views are “stressful and frustrating” and 64 percent said online interaction with people who have other political views than theirs leave them feeling “as if they have even less in common than they thought.”
For some, they eventually have enough, with 27 percent having blocked or unfriended someone over the other person’s political stance or opinion about an issue.
Corrigan and Mullaney said it’s impossible to predict how and to what extent social media will continue to shape the public’s political discussions, based on how rapidly the medium already has changed the environment.
Based on responses to the Pew survey, social media’s influence may have peaked due to the current perceived overload of political opinion content.
Only 20 percent of users said they like seeing more political content, but nearly twice as many — 37 percent — said they are “worn out” by the amount they’ve seen during the campaign.
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