Helping populism win? Social media use, filter bubbles, and support for populist presidential candidates in the 2016 US election campaign

Abstract

International audienceUndoubtedly, populist political candidates from the right and the left, including Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, changed the tenor and direction of the 2016 presidential contest in the US. Much like Barack Obama’s electoral successes that were credited at least in part to his savvy social media campaigning in 2008 and 2012, since Trump’s victory, the notion that social media ‘helped him win’ has been revitalized, even by Trump himself [McCormick, R. (2016a). Donald Trump says Facebook and Twitter ‘helped him win’.The Verge. Retrieved fromhttp://www.theverge.com/2016/11/13/13619148/trump-facebook-twitter-helped-win]. This study therefore explores citizen support for populist and establishment candidates across the ideological spectrum in the US to specifically examine if using social media was related to an increased likelihood of supporting populist presidential political candidates, including Trump. Differing forms of active, passive, and uncivil social media were taken into account and the findings suggest active social media use for politics was actually related to less support for Republican populists, such as Trump, but that forms of both passive or uncivil social media use were linked to an increase in the likelihood of support to a level roughly equivalent to that of the traditional television viewing. These patterns are almost the inverse of support for Democratic populists, in this case namely Sanders

Politicians’ Self-Reported Social Media Activities and Perceptions: Results From Four Surveys Among German Parliamentarians

“…For example, social media play an increasing role for political information (Newman et al, 2017) as well as in other fields of public communication (e.g., Broersma & Graham, 2013). Moreover, a new kind of political actor was growing with the help of social media (e.g., Groshek & Koc-Michalska, 2017). On the other hand, the results could be explained by the fact that Facebook and Twitter were already the most prominent social media platforms used by German MPs at least since 2012 (results not presented).…”

Populism and the 2016 American Election: Evidence from Official Press Releases and Twitter

“…Justification for selecting the two means of communication is twofold. First, I am responding to a recent call for more research in the role that media, including social media, play in the process of vote choice (Ernst, Engesser, and Esser 2016;Groshek and Koc-Michalska 2017). The comparative perspective across the two media allows us to notice differences and similarities in campaign discourse for mainstream media, targeted by official press statements, and social media, through Twitter.…”

Mediated Skewed Diffusion of Issues Information: A Theory

“…However, there are still multiple reasons to study the effects of social media on public opinion. First, social media platforms are not typically news producers and while people may report not trusting social media as a source, they may still view diverse stories through their social media feeds (Groshek & Koc-Michalska, 2017). The increase in mobile technologies allow people to use the interstices of their days to scan for news and entertainment via social media platforms (Meijer & Kormelink, 2014).…”