Social Media Campaigning: A Curious Echo Chamber | The Odyssey

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Social Media Campaigning: A

Curious Echo Chamber

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How our tweets impact the 2016 Presidential Race.

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For centuries, leaders have consistently sought mediums of communication that act as
direct pipelines of information to awaiting masses. During the Protestant Revolution in
Germany, Martin Luther used the newly invented printing press to mass-produce his
easy-to-read "Ninety-Five Theses"; our Founding Fathers disseminated their revolutionary
ruckus through short, but powerful, pamphlets; and today, we tweet and share our
groundbreaking ideas with our communities via social media platforms. Now, more than
ever, our voting populace demands the instant gratication of packed headlines and
quick gures from both media sources and politicians. This trend has cultivated a culture
of zingy tweets and pejorative political narratives from news sources that are not
explicitly written to inform readers, but rather to satisfy their need to absorb a breadth of
worldly news during their few minutes of avoiding eye contact with others on the train or
while waiting for a barista to sling them a co"ee with a creative misspelling of their name.

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Social Media Campaigning: A Curious Echo Chamber | The Odyssey

12/9/15 1:13 PM

Our recently developed culture of digital news and crowd-sourcing political support has
nurtured a new arena for political discourse, making the race for the White House in 2016
the most publically accessible election in our nations history.
President Obamas successes in 2008 and 2012 have been, without fail, attributed to his
campaign teams focus on voter engagement on social media stages. Political analysts

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have congruently accredited certain candidates lack of connection with young voters to
the fact that they have formerly failed to recognize the power of Internet-based,
feedback-driven sharing platforms. The Kennedy-Nixon debate brought the presidential
elections bully pulpit to television in 1960, allowing voters to stream political happenings
directly into their living rooms. From that moment on, elections have been about
channeling engagement through media campaigns, rather than pulling at voter

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heartstrings in intimate rallies across the country. This shift has ushered in a new era of
politics, in which voters are presented with a self-serving, double-edged sword.
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Through participating in meaningful dialogue on social media, we are genuinely able to

shape the hot-button issues of each election by ooding platforms with concerns about
issues like race relations, health care, or gun control. Meanwhile, social media also gives
politicians the content they need to potentially project our shared views in disingenuous
presidential ploys. Social media campaigns have the possibility to truly become a socially
constructed echo chamber
chamber, where whatever we tweet becomes the bread and butter of

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candidates campaigns.
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Social Media Campaigning: A Curious Echo Chamber | The Odyssey

12/9/15 1:13 PM

The echo chamber theory also allows us to facilitate dialogue between candidates and
political parties. To use a timely example, our publicized responses to certain pertinent
issues framed the highly anticipated GOP Presidential Debate on Fox News this past
Thursday, August 6. Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was the dominant moderator in this
heated panel of the top 10 Republican candidates hoping to attain the Presidency in
2016, and she constantly referred to both polls and social media standing when referring

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to each candidate. A new, yet obviously juxtaposed, section of the debate encompassed
pre-vetted citizens asking questions shared via social media platforms, while Democratic
candidate poll leaders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tweeted to express their disdain
for statements heard during the debate.
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Our new era of political programming di"ers so dramatically from the aforementioned

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debate of the past because it exists on multiple streaming platforms, with both voters
and media sources commenting on front-runners and ga"es long before the debate
ends. We dont have to wait for the morning paper or late-night television programs to
inform us on the highlights of the debates, we can read and interact with others
reactions seconds after a statement is given or an argument ensues.
This ourishing and reactionary form of knee-jerk journalism and tweets contributes to
the peaking resonance of the social media echo chamber, as opposing candidates can
tap directly into the opinions of the populace and use live reactions to tailor their own
campaign messages. Being able to directly interact with voters through their discussions
online is a neoteric, innovative, and dramatic change to campaigning in the modern era.
As voting citizens and members of the online community, we can hold candidates
accountable for the messages they advertise. We should feel proud that our tweets and
Facebook posts are being studied and analyzed by the foremost political analysts of our
time, but we also must acknowledge the power our dialogue and interactions have on the
course of the 2016 election.
Social media allows us to share opinions freely, and we must recognize that this outlet
creates an echo representing direct support for that idea in the mind of any candidates
team. If an idea is retweeted at a high level, it is extremely probable that the sourced
candidate will make it a dominant element of their campaign. We must use our social
media agency to demonstrate the ideologies and policies we truly believe in. Consciously
make history with your social media participation instead of becoming a member of the
proverbial ock. We have the power to take back control of the elections bully pulpit; we
just have to use the tools we constantly use to our advantage.

Meredith Wohl (/author/meredithwohl)

Trekking on a collective journey of discovery about our world, politics, and
music -- anything can change the world, and I plan to write about it.

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Social Media Campaigning: A Curious Echo Chamber | The Odyssey

12/9/15 1:13 PM

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