Opinion Change and Learning in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: Evidence from a Panel Survey Combined with Direct Observation of Social Media Activity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Eady ◽  
Jan Zilinsky ◽  
Richard Bonneau ◽  
Joshua A. Tucker ◽  
Jonathan Nagler
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Opinion Change

Information Hubs or Drains?

2017 ◽  
pp. 157-178
Author(s):  
Terri L. Towner
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Knowledge Levels ◽  
Online Sources

This chapter investigates the link between young adults' attention to campaign information on offline and online media and their knowledge about political facts and candidate issues. The findings, based on a unique, three-wave panel survey conducted during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, show that attention to campaign information on offline sources, such as television, hard-copy newspapers, and radio, was not significantly related to political knowledge. Instead, young adults' attention to online sources played a more important role. Specifically, political knowledge levels were significantly and positively linked to attention to campaign information in online newspapers and television campaign websites. In contrast, attention to campaign information on social media, particularly Facebook and Google+, was negatively related to political knowledge levels during the fall campaign period. Therefore, this study suggests that certain forms of online media serve as a drain on political knowledge whereas attention to other digital outlets can serve as hubs of information.

Information Hubs or Drains?

2020 ◽  
pp. 112-134
Author(s):  
Terri L. Towner
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Knowledge Levels ◽  
Online Sources

This chapter investigates the link between young adults' attention to campaign information on offline and online media and their knowledge about political facts and candidate issues. The findings, based on a unique, three-wave panel survey conducted during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, show that attention to campaign information on offline sources, such as television, hard-copy newspapers, and radio, was not significantly related to political knowledge. Instead, young adults' attention to online sources played a more important role. Specifically, political knowledge levels were significantly and positively linked to attention to campaign information in online newspapers and television campaign websites. In contrast, attention to campaign information on social media, particularly Facebook and Google+, was negatively related to political knowledge levels during the fall campaign period. Therefore, this study suggests that certain forms of online media serve as a drain on political knowledge whereas attention to other digital outlets can serve as hubs of information.

Fake It “Till You Make It”: Debunking Fake News in a Post-Truth America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-133
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
American People ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The Media ◽  
The U.S

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attacks on the media have been relentless. “Fake news” has become a household term, and repeated attempts to break the trust between reporters and the American people have threatened the validity of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this article, the authors trace the development of fake news and its impact on contemporary political discourse. They also outline cutting-edge pedagogies designed to assist students in critically evaluating the veracity of various news sources and social media sites.

Does Social Media Engagement Translate to Civic Engagement Offline?

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402199944
Author(s):  
Jaclyn Piatak ◽  
Ian Mikkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Informal Volunteering ◽  
Using Data

People increasingly engage in politics on social media, but does online engagement translate to offline engagement? Research is mixed with some suggesting how one uses the internet maters. We examine how political engagement on social media corresponds to offline engagement. Using data following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, we find the more politically engaged people are on social media, the more likely they are to engage offline across measures of engagement—formal and informal volunteering, attending local meetings, donating to and working for political campaigns, and voting. Findings offer important nuances across types of civic engagement and generations. Although online engagement corresponds to greater engagement offline in the community and may help narrow generational gaps, this should not be the only means to promote civic participation to ensure all have a voice and an opportunity to help, mobilize, and engage.

Social Media and Regionalism in South Korean Voting Behavior: The Case of the 19th South Korean Presidential Election

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (03) ◽  
pp. 1840006
Author(s):  
JAE MOOK LEE ◽  
YOUNGDEUK PARK ◽  
GI DONG KIM
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Bonding Social Capital ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Independent Effects

This study examines the moderating effects of social media use on regionalist voting behavior in South Korea. Analyzing the survey data conducted during the 2017 Korean presidential election, we test how social media functions in electoral processes, particularly with respect to region-based voting in the Korean electorate. The findings of this study reveal that social media use affects region-based voting behavior among the Korean electorate by connecting people with different regional backgrounds in online political communication. That is, social media use can create “bridging” social capital rather than “bonding” social capital in society. In this respect, results differ significantly from findings in the 2012 presidential election. In 2012, only the independent effects of social media existed with a liberal bias, without revealing interaction with regional dummies. These independent effects disappeared in 2017, and different kinds of social media were statistically significant only when they functioned as moderating variables for regional dummies. This implies that as the functions of social media in the Korean election process have evolved in more complexity, they now are able to affect progressive as well as conservative voters.

scholarly journals Activity in the brain’s valuation and mentalizing networks is associated with propagation of online recommendations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa C. Baek ◽  
Matthew Brook O’Donnell ◽  
Christin Scholz ◽  
Rui Pei ◽  
Javier O. Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Opinion Change ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mentalizing System

AbstractWord of mouth recommendations influence a wide range of choices and behaviors. What takes place in the mind of recommendation receivers that determines whether they will be successfully influenced? Prior work suggests that brain systems implicated in assessing the value of stimuli (i.e., subjective valuation) and understanding others’ mental states (i.e., mentalizing) play key roles. The current study used neuroimaging and natural language classifiers to extend these findings in a naturalistic context and tested the extent to which the two systems work together or independently in responding to social influence. First, we show that in response to text-based social media recommendations, activity in both the brain’s valuation system and mentalizing system was associated with greater likelihood of opinion change. Second, participants were more likely to update their opinions in response to negative, compared to positive, recommendations, with activity in the mentalizing system scaling with the negativity of the recommendations. Third, decreased functional connectivity between valuation and mentalizing systems was associated with opinion change. Results highlight the role of brain regions involved in mentalizing and positive valuation in recommendation propagation, and further show that mentalizing may be particularly key in processing negative recommendations, whereas the valuation system is relevant in evaluating both positive and negative recommendations.

scholarly journals WUJUD PERSUASI DAN RESPON KAUM MILENIAL DI MEDIA SOSIAL FACEBOOK PADA PILPRES 2019 (THE FORM OF PERSUASION AND MILENNIALS RESPOND IN FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2019)

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Indrawati Indrawati
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Data Checking ◽  
Existing Data

The Form of Persuasion and Milennials Respon in Facebook Social Media inPresidential Election 2019. This research aims to reveal how the persuasion andresponse of millennials on social media Facebook in the 2019 presidentialelection. This research uses methods of qualitative content analysis. The data theauthor takes is data on Facebook social media from February to April 2019. Formof data in the form of sentences that have a persuasion message used by millennialson social media Facebook in the presidential election 2019. The source of thisresearch data observations directly on social media Facebook which thenresearchers Screenshoot. Data analysis is done in several ways, namely: (1)Observation of the sentence upload on Facebook social media, (2) reading andunderstanding sentences that have a persuasion meaning, (3) grouping,identifying, and analyzing existing data, (4) Conclude the results of researchanalysis. Data analysis is done during and after the data is collected. This researchimplements triangulation and data checking to obtain the validity of data. Basedon the research, there are several form of persuasion in uploading sentences ofmillennials in facebook social media in presidential election 2019. Thatpersuasion form are: (1) persuasion form and millennials respond with strongarguments, (2) persuasion form and respond with neutral arguments, (3)persuasion form and millennials respond with weak arguments, (4) persuasionform and millennials respond with peripheral.Key words: persuasion, milenialls, facebook social media AbstrakWujud Persuasi dan Respon Kaum Milenial di Media Sosial Facebook padaPilpres 2019. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengungkapkan bagaimana wujud persuasidan respon kaum milenial di media sosial facebook pada pilpres 2019. Penelitianini menggunakan metode analisis isi kualitatif. Data yang penulis ambil adalahdata yang terdapat di media sosial facebook dari bulan Februari sampai denganApril 2019. Wujud data berupa kalimat yang memiliki pesan persuasi yang dipakaikaum milenial di media sosial facebook pada pilpres 2019. Sumber data penelitianini pengamatan langsung di media sosial facebook yang kemudian penelitiscreenshoot. Analisis data dilakukan dengan beberapa cara, yaitu: (1)pengamatan terhadap unggahan kalimat di media sosial facebook, (2) membacadan memahami kalimat yang memiliki makna persuasi, (3) mengelompokkan,mengidentifikasi, dan menganalisis data yang ada, (4) menyimpulkan hasilanalisis penelitian. Analisis data dilakukan selama dan setelah data terkumpul.Penelitian ini menerapkan triangulasi dan pengecekan data untuk memperolehkeabsahan data. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, ditemukan beberapa wujudpersuasi dalam kalimat unggahan kaum mileniual di media sosial facebook padapilpres 2019. Wujud persuasi tersebut meliputi: (1) Wujud persuasi dan responkaum milenial dengan argumen kuat (strong argumens); (2) Wujud persuasi danrespon kaum milenial dengan argumen netral (neutral argumens);(3) Wujudpersuasi dan respon kaum milenial dengan argumen lemah (weak argumens); dan(4) wujud persuasi dan respon kaum milenial dengan argumen sampingan(peripheral).Kata-kata kunci: persuasi, kaum milenial, media sosial facebook

scholarly journals Political communication in post-truth society

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-87
Author(s):  
Nina Gorenc
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Apathy ◽  
The Impact

The research behind this paper is set in the context of the 2016 US presidential election that has come to symbolize the post-truth era. We conducted a literature review on the 2016 election, with the aim to better understand the impact of computational propaganda on the election outcome and on the behaviour of voters. The paper opens with a definition of post-truth society and related concepts such as fake news and computational propaganda. It explores the changes of political communication in a digital environment and analyses the role of social media in the 2016 election. It probes into phenomena such as the trivialization of politics and the loss of credibility of political actors, which are both common in post-truth societies. The reviewed literature seems to indicate that social media have become strong actors on the political stage, but so far not the predominant source of political information and influence on the behaviour of voters. The paper makes two important contributions. Firstly, drawing on the concept of post-truth society, it analyses the role of computational propaganda in the 2016 presidential election, and secondly, it attempts to explain the paradox of general political apathy on one hand, and increased political activism on the other. These are some of the challenges we are now facing, and in order to be able to cope with them it is important to acknowledge and understand them.

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