Topic 1 : Politics/ News Discussion Today, political campaigns have utilized soc

Question

Topic 1: Politics/ News

Discussion

Today, political campaigns have utilized social media in many ways to run their campaigns. For example, Bernie Sanders has amassed a number of small donors (those who give less than $200) through a popular digital platform. Ted Cruz’s campaign created “CRUZ’S CREW ” awarding points to supporters who post pro-Cruz messages on social media while asking donors for important personal information in return.

Question 1

Conduct an Internet research to find at least two articles discussing how political candidates use social media to run their campaigns. Discuss how social media has changed the way campaigns are run. Use current examples (at least within the last two years). Include any sources you use. (URL is fine)

This week you watched Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier (Chapter 7) andSecond Life - The Online 3D Virtual World.

Discussion:
Rosedale's mission with Second Life is to fix the problem of alienation that technology created.

Question #1:
Do you believe that more technology, for example virtual worlds, can solve the problem of alienation that technology helped to create in the first place? Why or why not? Is there a solution to this problem? Do you have any experience with virtual worlds such a Second Life or World of Warcraft? If so, what are your thoughts on virtual worlds?

Explanation / Answer

1) Topic 1: Politics/ News

Conduct an Internet research to find at least two articles discussing how political candidates use social media to run their campaigns. Discuss how social media has changed the way campaigns are run. Use current examples (at least within the last two years). Include any sources you use. (URL is fine)

Sources:

http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/18/candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-connect-with-the-public/

https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics/

Article:

Social media are playing an increasingly large role in the way campaigns communicate with voters. In January 2016, 44% of U.S. adults reported having learned about the 2016 presidential election in the past week from social media, outpacing both local and national print newspapers. Moreover, as of July, 24% say they have turned to the social media posts of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for news and information about the election – more than those who turn to either of the candidates’ websites or emails combined (15%).

A new Pew Research Center analysis of three weeks of the candidates’ Facebook and Twitter accounts finds both similarities and differences in the ways Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders use these still relatively new campaign tools. The study of 714 tweets and 389 Facebook posts made by the candidates between May 11 and May 31, 2016, finds that the three candidates post at similar rates but differ in the focus of these posts and in the attention they receive from the public. On Facebook, Clinton and Sanders mostly use links to highlight official campaign communications while Trump links frequently to the news media. On Twitter, Trump stands out for retweeting ordinary people more often than Clinton or Sanders (though retweets are rare). Videos, meanwhile, appeared in about a quarter of Clinton’s social media posts, compared with about one-in-ten of Trump’s; Sanders used video far more on Facebook than on Twitter. Finally, on both platforms, when the candidates mention their opponents, Clinton and Trump focus on each other while Sanders goes largely unmentioned.

Overall, people who follow these candidates on social media see the daily cycle of the campaign through a narrow window. Candidates naturally select messages beneficial to their campaigns to share with followers. While Clinton mostly passes on messages crafted by the campaign itself, Trump reaches out to news media and the public. Sanders employs a mix of campaign communications and news media in his posts.

Trump and Sanders had a few posts that received outsized responses. Sanders’declaration on Twitter that he would debate Trump, for example, had received roughly 28,000 retweets at the time of the study, while a Facebook post from Sanders celebrating Native Americans received over 52,000 shares. And Trump’s tweet attacking Clinton on gun control had received about 16,000 retweets, while his Facebook post supporting policewas shared over 72,000 times. Comparatively, Clinton had no breakout posts or tweets in this period, instead collecting a fairly steady number of interactions on her posts and tweets. Her most retweeted tweet, about drought conditions in California, had received about 5,600 retweets at the time of analysis, while her most highly shared Facebook post was a video attacking Donald Trump that was shared 15,000 times. Even accounting for the posts that drew overwhelming attention, Trump still received the most public response.

Social media has changed the way campaigns are run :

The use of social media in politics including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run. The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters. And the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage their candidates’ images based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost.

Twitter and Facebook have become instrumental in organizing campaigns. They allow like-minded voters and activists to easily share news and information such as campaign events with each other. That's what the "Share" function on Facebook and "retweet" feature of Twitter are for.

Political campaigns can tap into a wealth of information or analytics about the people who are following them on social media, and customize their messages based on selected demographics. In other words, a campaign may find one message appropriate for voters under 30 years old will not be as effective with over 60 years old.

2) Topic 2: Digital Nation

Do you believe that more technology, for example virtual worlds, can solve the problem of alienation that technology helped to create in the first place? Why or why not? Is there a solution to this problem? Do you have any experience with virtual worlds such a Second Life or World of Warcraft? If so, what are your thoughts on virtual worlds?

Yes, we believe that more technology can solve the problem of alienation that technology helped to create in the first place.

It may be that alienation is the human condition and that it can never be fully overcome as the complexity and conflicts of human life make it impossible to reconcile all separations and differences between human beings, nature, and cultures and technologies. Yet we should be aware that technologies ranging from the machine, to assembly lines, to broadcasting media, to ICTs, and most recently to biotechnology profoundly transform human beings. They all arguably produce specific forms of alienation that can be delineated, attacked, and in some cases overcome.

Your thoughts on virtual worlds

The possibilities in second life are endless and the world really does try it’s best to let you do whatever you want. It can be simple like going to a cafe and taking a stroll in the park to riding a dragon and exploring the caves of mars. Other than this there are always events taking place in Second Life.

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