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Coms 307 Blog 6

With the new world we live in where technology has changed the course of public communication it only makes sense that politicians have turned their attention towards the platform of social media. An instant form of constant information what could be better for someone that wants a whole country of people to vote for them. Well just as social media can be a politician’s best friend it can also be an enemy. Showing peoples true colors at the worst possible times.
Trump follower putting his best foot forward! We can only pray auto correct changed every word!

            Both presidential candidates this past election had a large social media presence. Obama used social media in his presidency especially towards the end but with the 2016 election social media use for presidential candidates took a huge turn. Donald Trump was a revolutionary so to speak when it came to social media use. He has two twitter accounts and is the first president to freely operate his own twitter account. This has given Trump a great resource for putting out his opinions and now that he is in office a great platform for letting the American people know what is going on in the white house. However, Trump tended to do more harm with his tweets than good. Lets just listen to a few before we get started.

            Trump has every from of social media you can imagine. He has a Facebook page, two Twitter accounts, an Instagram page, and now he even has Snapchat. Now to some if us this may seem a bit excessive but today for a president to not have these would be a bit more suspicious. The only problem is these accounts can cause great turmoil. There is no censor or filter so to speak on what the president says. The media can filter, the presidential staff can plan, the speechwriters can make a great script but none of that matters when Trump can say whatever he wants on social media. No one can create more controversy in 140 characters or less than Donald J. Trump.
Can you say multi-tasking! Supporting LGBTQ rights while taking a jab at yet another woman.

            Twitter is Trumps strongest platform and he is constantly posting with his opinions on political issues but more often then not he is posting with quips and comebacks to defend his public image. The problem is that without a filter Trump has been known to say a few hurtful things to large groups of people like entire races and ethnic backgrounds.
            Trumps online platform was created in a very engaging way. Running his own twitter page is ground breaking, people feel like they are actually in touch with the POTUS himself. This boosted his campaign in many ways like pushing him way up on the relatable scale. I mean who hasn’t went on a short social media rant at one time or another? He did however hurt himself by posting with haste and little to know thought. He could have improved his online profile by pulling back just a little bit with his remarks towards other people directly. People like him for his controversial style but making sexist remarks and threatening to sue Ted Cruz for not being a citizen goes a little bit to far.

            When we step back and take a look though his controversial tweets like his tweet towards Megyn Kelly (on the left), were the ones that garnered the most attention. Albeit bad and sexist attention but it created publicity. We never saw much in the media about Clinton’s social media but trumps tweets were on the national news every night. With hindsight I think we can say we know which technique seemed to work better.

            Most of Trumps most interesting work with social media has been his constant push back on media and celebrity outlets that continue to bash him. We know Hollywood hates Trump, we know news outlets and journalists have problems with Trump and every time someone says something they are going to hear back from the man in the front office, directly. Social media has changed the world for everyone, even world leaders, all we can do is sit back and let the comments begin.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQMU3MZjTd0
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/18/502306687/commander-in-tweet-trumps-social-media-use-and-
https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 29, 2017 at 10:23 AM

    Tanner,
    I thought the use of the video of Irish people reading Trump's tweets was an effective way of showing how silly his tweets can be. The fact that they are not from the United States gives a very unbiased opinion of Donald Trump's posts, which is good because many Americans do not view Trump favorably. You also have a great point in that technology has changed Public Communication in this current time. Without a doubt Politicians use social media to their advantage in order to get attention and more votes.

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    Replies
    1. Tanner SmithMarch 29, 2017 at 6:27 PM

      Peter I thought the Irish Video was a great representation as well. An unbiased view is always refreshing to those of us still living in a cloud of campaign fallout after a long long election. Also as for what Social media has done to change our world if you are interested in that I suggest you look up what happened to the U.S. Military Rules of Engagement in the Middle east in 2004 to 2005 when MySpace and other early social media sights really took off if you don't already know exactly what happened it is a very interesting turn of events!

      Delete
  2. UnknownMarch 29, 2017 at 1:48 PM

    I think that there is a fine line between gaining notoriety on the internet and abusing the platform.Along the same lines there's also a fine line that everyone walks in terms of First Amendment rights and hate speech. Trump walks a fine line that it is really up to the individual to decide where their online comments fall. At some point someone on his PR staff just has to say enough is enough and shut down the account or something or we are in for a long 3 and quarter years.

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    Replies
    1. Tanner SmithMarch 29, 2017 at 6:30 PM

      It could be said you are right about that fine line. However, others may argue that free speech whether Hate speech or not is still a right and one that the president shares with the rest of us. You are right I think that the campaign team might try to step in and put a stop to his wild and free spirited social media posts but if you look at Donald Trumps personality I really don't think he will be taken off the air so to speak as easily as one might think.

      Delete
  3. UnknownMarch 29, 2017 at 9:26 PM

    Thank god for autocorrect, right?! It is safe to say Trump is the President of the Twitter world due to his abundance of tweets ranging from sane to who knows what it means. I think someone needs to assist him and steer him towards his job as President and away from the Twitter madness. It is pretty obvious Clinton took the backseat during the election when it came to media, but she had class with her posts compared to some controversial things said by Trump, which hurt her in my opinion. Overall, well done and entertaining blog!

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