Information Cascades in Election Season
Election season, the only time the majority of Americans care about the political decisions being made in the country. Yet in today’s political atmosphere the actual stances of stances have begun to matter far less as voters get more information on candidates from secondary sources rather than the candidates themselves. Thanks to social media, information spreads rapidly and any video, article, or audio clip can be circulated to a large group of people with just the hit of a share button. The Democratic debate Saturday night highlighted the importance of social media to the process, with CBS showing a live curated tweet feed of people using the hashtag #demdebate. As important moments in the debate occurred, mentions of that candidate would spike, representing a sudden spread of that candidate to a new group of social media followers
As a result, it is possible for poll numbers and voters to be impacted by information cascades as they think about which candidate they want as president. Given that an individual is friends with or following their acquaintances on Facebook or twitter, it’s likely they will share some basic political ideas, or at least each individual will assume that. Then, if a large portion of the graph that represents friends/followers begins mentioning one particular candidate, it’s quite likely that the undecided friends might be biased toward following a particular candidate if their friends are following that candidate without actually vetting that persons positions on different topics. The influence of a social network also feeds the cascade by providing media or clips of pundits that support that one candidate. This media might provide an unbalanced view on the candidate, once again abstracting away information from the candidate’s website and presenting opinion as fact in certain situations.
This strategy has worked well for Bernie Sanders, who has embraced his hashtag #feelthebern and allow social media to propel him to popularity among younger audiences. By many polls as a result, especially those based on social media reaction, Sanders has been the leader in the democratic race. As his content is shared by followers he gains more and more supporters from reshares and retweets. When polls across social media ask who won the debate Saturday, the obvious answer then becomes Bernie as he has had the largest social media spread and social media users who are not necessarily versed on political stances might be easily swayed to say Bernie because other people in their network feel the same.
Because of this, it’s possible for the uninformed voter to base a vote for a candidate on the opinion of their friends, the information cascade generated by the local social network, yet think they are informed on the issues as a result of these second hand sources of political information. It’s important for the American population to be engaged every election season, however it’s important for citizens to do their own research on each candidate and understand the different candidates’ positions rather than basing their opinion on the opinion of other people in their network.
http://www.hngn.com/articles/150632/20151115/democratic-debate-sanders-wins-per-online-snap-poll-social-media.htm