Political election season is a time to see what issues politicians can amend or address; it is a decisive time for the U.S. This is also the time when many Americans are consuming more media news than ever, as they are trying to keep up with the candidates.
Media outlets have always had a big impact on political elections. Over time, these mediums of information have changed and now range from billboards to social media.
This transformation has led to an increase of social media consumption with apps like TikTok reshaping the social media world.
TikTok is a video-based platform, and users and influencers use it in many ways from sharing their daily lives to politicians using it as a way to endorse themselves. Creators are able to communicate with their audience and users can leave comments, share, repost and follow other people.
Former President Donald Trump was known for his posts on the social platform X, formerly called Twitter. X is a social networking application. Users can communicate instantly with each other and are able to reply, like and share posts within the platform.
Both media platforms share similar features; one of the biggest differences is the age of the users and the target audience. TikTok targets a younger audience, but this is slowly changing as older people are starting to use it. X has an older audience as it targets an older population.
Trump used X to share his opinions and used it as a form of communication between his supporters and followers.
Vice President Kamala Harris is doing something similar but through TikTok. Her team has been creating videos of 60 seconds or less following recent trends and audios on the app.
People have begun to question if it is fair to use media apps meant for entertainment as a way to get votes and promote themselves.
The truth is that there is no “right” answer and everyone is subjective in their answer as explained by two professors at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
“Honest and civil campaigning is ethical, and politics is about deciding the parameters of honesty and civility,” Greg Granger, a political science professor at NSU, said. “Political speech is given wide leeway in the broader context of the First Amendment protection of free speech, which raises the question of just where the limits to political speech are, especially in the wild, wild West of social media.”
The truth is that politicians use every resource of endorsement that is available to them. Social media is one of them.
“I think what I would hope to see from any candidate is them — yes, using the platforms at their disposal — but also really focusing on the information about what they plan to do more than so tearing the other candidate down using tactics to try to manipulate voters into making a choice,” Emily Zering, an assistant professor in the New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts department at NSU, said.
Fans and voters, specifically of running candidates for the presidential election, have taken their sides and displayed their stances all over social media. Using social media for campaigning can be a valuable tool, but if it’s used to spread lies about the opposing candidate, it can fog the minds of voters.
“I don’t think they should be able to make false promises and say anything they want and then none of that be true and only have those campaigns just to smear the other candidate. I feel like that’s not ethical; it should be about how they want to make things better and not ‘look how terrible this other person is,’” Abigail Williams, a senior history major, said.
Because of the negative space social media has transformed into, regulations have been discussed and enforced in some platforms but also creates conflict in the public discussion if this is violating the First Amendment of freedom of speech.
“Censorship is a matter of a government limiting free expression. In an informal sense, one might say that a private social media company silencing an account is censorship, but in the law, it is simply a matter of the company enforcing the rules that members agree to when registering an account,” Granger said.
Candidates also use other forms of media to share information such as television, billboards and radio ads.
“I think that if you are going to try to regulate how they campaign themselves on social media platforms, you should also think about how they are campaigning on TV because it’s basically the same thing; it’s just three different audiences,” Williams said. “So if you are going to try to regulate one, you should regulate all of them.”
One of the biggest issues with the implementation of social media is the amount of false information being shared. Apps simplify sharing information to where it helps the public get immediate notice of information even if it’s misleading or not true.
“The company is allowed to set certain parameters on what it will and will not allow to be posted. The most important issue in this regard is not about the sharing of opinions or information but of disinformation in the form of intentionally false information and deepfake images, among other deceptions. The purpose is to sow doubt about the integrity of the political system,” Granger said. “Social media and Artificial Intelligence accelerate the rate and widen the scope of damage that can be done by hostile foreign actors as well as one’s neighbors and anyone in between.”
Because individual users are responsible for the information they share, double fact-checking is necessary, and making sure that the information comes from a variety of different trusted sources is a good way to start.
“We don’t fact check everything we see, and something might just be something of a passing influence and move on with our day, but if it comes in a conversation, we always refer back to the information we saw, but in politics it’s specifically dangerous because it contributes to the polarization of us or them mentality,” Zering said.
Social media analytics, information that shows account holders what content is performing well, allows apps to track user activity and plan more strategic algorithms for users to engage with. While the algorithm is tailored differently to everyone, it usually displays the trendiest content within the platform regardless of whether this content contains accurate information.
When making a decision on who to vote for, it’s important to keep this information in mind: Not everything in social media is true.
