Mass Media Social Media How does social media

Mass Media: Social Media How does social media shape the public perception?

Do Now: Analyze the following political cartoon! What does this imply about our current political state of affairs?

Politicians are Brands

Sales and Votes are Synonymous Marketers use the “buying funnel” to target interested consumers to purchase products. Political consultants/campaigns use similar principles to target voters and win elections.

The Buying Funnel Explained The buying funnel essentially illustrates theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a product or service The more expensive the good, product, or service, the longer it takes for the consumer to move through the funnel (undecided voters behave the same way!)

Discuss! In your group’s opinion is agenda setting an effective strategy to educate the American electorate?

Limitations of Traditional Media communicates the specific agenda that government has a needs to be communicate. Government leaders and businesspeople are political activists who engage the public in specific issues by investing their capital. Examples of political activists: - Members of interest groups Political party leaders Politicians Head PR firms Leaders of federal, national, local government

Traditional News Must Set an Agenda

Agenda Setting was Initially Rejected! Scholars initially believed in the Minimal Effects Hypothesis that concluded that the news did not have an impact on votes and deemed that political campaigns only marginally persuaded/converted voters!

Changes in theories Shanot Iyengar and Donald Kinder manipulated stories participants saw on the news They found that they could significantly alter the importance people attached to a given problem by splicing stories into the news over the course of the week. In other words, the more viewers saw certain stories over a certain period of time, the more important these stories became!

What is agenda setting? Ability of the media to influence the importance of topics on the public agenda ● If a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the audience will regard the issue as more important ● Agenda-setting effects are particularly effective among politically knowledgeable citizens ● This means that the media can deliberately and thoughtfully influence sophisticated citizens who rely on the news as a credible source of information

Discuss! How could new media create an advantage over old media?

Conclusions New media allows politicians and online journalists to set their own agenda - Politics is now set by High-tech politics where the behavior of citizens and policymakers, as well as the political agenda itself, is increasingly shaped by technology - Politicians must use mass media to get their message out to the public - including television, radio, newspapers, magazine and the Internet (websites, youtube, social media platforms etc. )

How much is being spent? Total political ad spending is expected to reach an astounding $11. 4 billion, 20 percent more than the amount spent in 2012. Spending on social media is estimated to account for more than half of the $1 billion budget for digital media.

Who is getting all this money?

GOOGLE (Obviously!)

But does the Internet provide us with more information? Scholars had thought that the Internet would provide people with a host of information to become educated on politics BUT… The fact that so much information is at one’s fingertips doesn’t mean that people are taking advantage of this source to become informed about politics!!

DISCUSS! Take a look at the following slides and assess the information! How does this reveal the interest level of Americans in politics?

Conclusions - - Social media has caused more division among liberals and conservatives Users of social media platforms are fatigued with political commentary and discourse online Customized news feeds have created echo chambers where more conservatives than liberals would prefer to live in an environment with like-minded individuals Millennials are getting their news from social media platforms than their older baby boomer counterparts (but are voting less)

Why don’t Americans engage more on the Internet? Internet is purposive - what people see is the product of their own intentional choices. - Internet has created a limitless amount of choices Politics is only one of the things can be searched for on the Internet Most American’s interest in politics is fairly limited as a result

Blogs have provided political activists (who want to promote their own agendas) with a means to make their concerns heard. Anyone can have a blog but getting attention to blogs can be difficult! Most successful political bloggers need to have credentials that are far more similar to the leading traditional journalists (Hugh Hewitt, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga)

Discuss! Do you agree that Blogs create a more equal opportunity for people to share information? Why or why not? Do blogs do more to confuse or educate the public? Why is that the case?

Conclusions - Blogs can be advantageous/disadvantageous depending on the author’s credentials and expertise Blogs can fall into the same trap as traditional media because there success relies on engagement/clicks resulting in clickbait articles that lack substance The searchers need to be educated/savvy when conducting research to avoid inaccurate online information The blog entries that show credible evidence and research are more trustworthy than those that rely on opinion and hearsay

Summary Agree or disagree with the following statement. The internet has done more to help the political process and to educate the American electorate. Explain your choice.