Identity politics, social media and the 2016 presidential election

This capstone project explored the impact social media had on the presidential election of 2016. As social media became integrated more into American culture, presidential candidates took advantage of the ability to connect to their constituents on a personal level. The American public was also able to become current on national and global events, allowing them to become political watchdogs. As Americans became more informed, they found that their position in politics and identity politics was seen as their ideologies were not being met and the government did provide for them. Their personal views on various issues may not be met by the current system, thus they aligned with candidates that shared similar ideologies. Social media allowed the candidate and the public to speak together to voice their concerns. Politicians aimed to meet the needs of the public and the public used social media identities to leverage their voting power. Though identity politics is seen on both sides, Trump was able to speak to a “silent majority” repeatedly on social media on a personal yet broad level, attracting voters that the previous president seemed to have ignored. Hillary Clinton appealed to specific social groups that could possibly have had their political needs unmet elected. This paper provided an overview of how each candidate used social media to appeal to a politically divided nation in 2016. Facebook and Twitter are the two main social media platforms discussed in this research.M.A.L.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Eric Urba