Political candidates use social
media for online advertising and to capture a certain audience. In the video
below, Ted Cruz is using social media as a way to get his point across and to
sell himself as a worthy presidential candidate. He is telling the views that
he has always aimed to be truthful and that the Republican people are looking
for someone to tell the truth and to stand up for them. Ted Cruz is
capitalizing on his person to sell himself and gain supporters in the process.
If Ted Cruz is successful in his campaign through social media and online
advertising, he may win the election.
In this post Ted Cruz is advertising
to the population that is against Obama care. He even hash tagged full repeal
to sow hoe he feels about it. This is a very bold statement aimed at a specific
group. If they were not interested in Ted Cruz before, this will direct their
attention towards him.
The Americans Against Tea Party page
is attacking the republicans pretty hard. They are definitely taking on the
role of campaign surrogates by being the attack dog. In the meme about Palin,
they are not only attacking her but, they are also taking a big risk by also
attacking Rick Perry, who is not running for the 2016 presidency.
The Tea Party does not seem to be a
campaign competitor because they seem amid on destroying the image of the
Republican Party, but posting this like this:
The truth behind this image may not
be correct, but the Tea Party is definitely getting the attention of those who
are not doing research on thing they are posting. This image was posted but
there was no link attached to be able to provide information on how they came
to this conclusion.
Social media allows for politicians, parties and
interest groups (p.57), to cover the election and what is happening. This
also allows for them to input their own opinion, which may lead to inaccurate
information being put out. This way of advertising the campaigns can have
both positive and negative effects.
One of the positive effects is
bringing in more people to support the campaign. In 2012, during the
presidential election, Obama’s supporters received a Facebook message asking
them to ask their friends to vote, register or volunteer in the campaign (p.
13). This had a significant turn out and 5 million people
responded. This is a small example of how using social media by the
candidates can help them in their elections. Since social media has only
become more popular, the candidates will use this to reach out to the younger
generation and get them to become more involved.
Some of the
negatives effects that online advertising and social media can have are on the
issues being discussed and how the candidate feels about it.
Some people vote or take the side of
the candidate whom they feel best represents them and their values. If
the candidate feels a certain way about a certain issue, some people may
disagree and decide to either find someone else, or not be involved at
all. This is not a good thing because they lose supporters for their
campaign. Another crucial issue Is unwanted leaked information or the
candidates secret personal feeling about something he may not completely agree
with.
The main problem both of these parties will have is controlling the message that they put out to accurately represent them. The other parties, if acting as a campaign surrogate, will try to twist the message the other party is putting out. The other problem is having campaign competitors in the same campaign. The media will undoubtedly try to put candidate against candidate but, it is up to the candidates to control this. The best example is on the video of Ted Cruz when they tell him Rick Perry has said that senators are not the best to run for president. Ted Cruz did an amazing job by completely ignoring the question and responding that they are friends and he is delighted to have Perry running for the presidency. Cruz's response allowed him to control the message and avoid any tabloids or rumors stating that there may be some hostility between them.
References:
Americans Against the Tea Party.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2015.
Myers, V. (n.d.).
Controlling the message: New media
in American political campaigns.
Ted Cruz.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2015.
Very nice post
ReplyDeleteWith social media being an outlet for Americans receive news and spend most of their day for information, political figures can have more effect on the people by posting for the people daily on their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great way to look at the political campaign of social media and online advertising but I hate to burst your bubble but Ted Cruz has a low percentage and it would take a lot more of social media and online advertising to win the president election. However, I like your ideas of the video showing Ted Cruz being interviewed because this a way to advertise to people that Ted Cruz is a friendly person and a person that you can trust. In Ted Cruz’s social media page, there are many harsh statements. However, I fell that he is making these harsh statements to let his audience now that he does not like the Obamacare and that he will stand up for the his audience. I like the way you phrase it “by being the attack dog” it was interesting way to put things because that is what this independent source does is make humor out the Republicans. I agree with you that the American against Tea Part is only attacking the image of the Republican Party but because of these statements, they are getting the attention from their audience as well as other audiences that disagree from this Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Samantha about Ted Cruz. Yes, social media helps but it is not big enough to make a bold claim such as it will cause him to win.
ReplyDeleteYou had some great examples from the book and some great ideas in relation to the facebook pages. Overall, nice job!
I agree with you entirely. I especially like how you added the parts about how different politicians and different political parties will use Facebook and various social media outlets to criticize their fellow candidates and opposing parties. With this criticism their followers will start to attach to them greatly by seeing all the things they believe in their mind are unjust and support their politician or party even more.
ReplyDeleteObama leveraged social media to great effect, but he was slightly ahead of the curve. Now, with every politician having hired a team of social media experts to help the campaign, maybe social media's effect on voting patterns will be more diverse.
ReplyDeleteSo many voters are already locked into specific candidates, parties, and ideals. Winning a popular election really comes down to whether or not one can appeal to the independents. Of course, the primary is the major focus right now, but without a widely appealing foundation, how can a candidate in today's tech society hope to lock down even that?