Twitter and the Election
With all the buzz about the 2016 presidential election, there is no doubt there are going to be other posts around it too. The NY Times article “For Election Day Influence, Twitter Ruled Social Media” by Mike Isaac and Sydney ember speaks about Twitter and its influence on the way people voted on election day. Twitter turned out to be the most popular social media platform on Tuesday. Popular… and powerful.
Twitter is an obvious information cascade. Once Election Day began, the employees were hard at work, placing last minute ads for users in swing states. This is because they know that people are easily influenced by what they read online from other people. Decisions and opinions can be swayed by what people believe other people believe. Networks like twitter and other social media provides influence to other’s behaviors and decisions. “Our goal is to increase engagement in the election process and encourage voter turnout.” This is a direct quote from a twitter employee and is a great demonstration of how Twitter is an information cascade.
Twitter as well as the rest of the internet has followed this election since it began. Bridget Coyne, a senior manager at Twitter, calls the election “the Twitter election, with every step of the campaign playing out in tweets from voters, candidates and journalists,” again showing Twitter’s role as an information cascade. Information passed on by others will influence ones decisions and bias their knowledge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/technology/for-election-day-chatter-twitter-ruled-social-media.html