The Social Media Election of 2016

Abstract

Social media radically upended the traditional campaign norms and practices in the 2016 presidential campaign. Its use was unprecedented in volume, scope, and tactics. The Trump campaign was transformative in relying on social media as the primary communication channel. This chapter reviews how the both campaigns utilized social media to include Quora, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vox, Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Facebook, Instagram, Longform, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The authors caution that although social media and digital communication were critical in the 2016 contest, it would be an overstatement to claim that social media elected Donald Trump. However, the campaign changed the way social media will be used in the future.