slides from October 22, 2012, the introductory session of the course Social Media and the U.S. Election. The course is taught by Janelle Ward and hosted by the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

1. Social Media and
the U.S. Election
janelle.ward@gmail.com
www.janelleward.com
@janelle_ward

2. Why study social media in a
political context?
• In 2008, Obama raised half a billion dollars raised online; 2 million online
supporter profiles created.
• In 2008, the social media winner won the election
• In 2012? (iProspect infographic; sources: sources: Borrell Associates, Compete, Facebook, Google,
Pew Research, Twitter & comScore)

3. Social media in a political context
• Obama vs. Romney in the world of social media
(Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest,
Instagram, Spotify)
– Tumblr: younger, niche audience = more spirited content
(77 million blogs)
– Twitter: usage has multiplied 10 times since the 2008
election, with 500 million users (use for donations, travel
details, glimpses into their personal lives)

4. Social media in a political context
• Obama vs. Romney in the world of social media
– Facebook: one of the most influential (as of 9/2012, over
one billion active users); candidates seek to influence the
flow of content (via shares and likes)
– YouTube: video ads, personal videos, live chats (800
million users/month)
– Pinterest: Michelle Obama and Ann Romney (over 10
million visits/week)
– Instagram: candid pictures of the candidates (30 million+
accounts)

5. Why study social media in general?
• Greenpeace International
: a campaigning org
using social media in
innovative ways
• KLM: Meet & Seat lets
passengers connect
social media profiles to
check-in information
and choose a seating
partner

6. Questions to keep in mind
• How are political actors using social media to inform and
engage citizens?
•(Producing the campaign)
• How does social media influence citizen/audience/consumer
engagement?
•(Consuming the campaign)
• How important is (social) media campaigning in determining
the winner?
•What role does social media play in the election campaign?

7. Questions to keep in mind
Studying social media in general:
•Which platform should I target?
•Where can I find my target audience?
•How should I talk to my target audience online?
•How can I share interesting content & create engagement?
•How can I change people’s minds via social media and earn their trust and
loyalty?

8. What to expect from this course
• Four sessions
– Introduction (this week)
– Producing the Campaign (29 October)
– Consuming the Campaign (5 November)
– Aftermath (12 November)
• (voluntary) assignments
• Lots of inspiring examples and discussion
• Feel free to bring your laptops!

9. Following the course
• Facebook group
– “Social Media and the U.S. Election”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/274868035966477/
– Relevant news, images, links
– Course slides will also be posted here

10. Recommended readings

11. Recommended readings
• Bruce Bimber and Richard Davis (2003). Campaigning online: The
Internet in U.S. elections. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Erik Qualman (2011). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the
way we live and do business. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
http://www.socialnomics.net/
• Clay Shirky (2011). The political power of social media: Technology,
the public sphere, and political change. Foreign Affairs.
http://67.192.45.82/ASSETS/CD85D3ADA91B42BAB28C7B7C1E42ABEC/ForeignAffai

12. Introductions
• Name/origin/occupation
• Reason for signing up for this course (political junkie? social media fan?
etc.)
• Favorite social media platform and why

13. What do you want to focus on?
• Specifically about social media?
• Specifically about campaigning online?
• production? content? effects?

14. For next week
• Choose a topic and/or social media platform to follow
this week, and report back!
– Can be about the campaign or another topic as long as it’s
related to social media
• For the campaign: 5 Cool Ways to Follow the 2012 Elections Online

15. Resources
• Nonpartisan campaign news sites.
– Elections section of Google News a continuous feed of news stories and commentary
from sources across the political spectrum
– Yahoo! News Elections a smaller, more selective collection of stories from the
Associated Press, Reuters, National Journal etc., as well as stories by its own staffers
– RealClearPolitics also offers a lineup of commentary and news stories
• Facebook.
– U.S. Politics page tracks how the candidates are using social media to reach voters
– CNN’s I’m Voting app is a continuous online poll of Facebook users (source)

16. Resources
• YouTube.
– The YouTube Politics page provides user-generated videos and unedited
recording of debates/speeches, plus clips of political commercials and
interviews with pollsters explaining the latest numbers
• Polling and Electoral College simulations.
– The Internet’s leading aggregator of polling information is RealClearPolitics,
which also provides a Create Your Own Map page that allows you to see what
would happen if, say, one candidate wins Florida but the other wins Ohio and
Virginia (source)

17. Resources
• Smart Phone apps.
– The New York Times bills its Election 2012 app, available in iPhone and Android versions, as “the
best campaign coverage anywhere,” with news, opinion, polls and election-night results
– Talking Points Memo, a news and commentary site, offers PollTracker Mobile, a free iPhone app
that allows you to track the latest presidential polls
– If you’re a Democrat, you may want to get Progressive News, a free iPhone app that provides news
headlines, videos and podcasts with a liberal bent (there’s also an Android version)
– Republicans have their own analog, Conservative Pulse, but in keeping with the party’s free-
market, pro-business outlook, the iPhone app costs 99 cents
– There’s also Dollarocracy, an iPhone app from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics that
lets you “follow the money” in the U.S. political system
– TWatcher 2012 Elections Edition for the iPhone lets you aggregate all the tweets about a single
candidate
– Another iPhone app, 270toWin, lets you run simulations with various combinations of states, so
you can see what your candidate’s path to that magic number is at any given moment

18. Resources
• Official listings of candidate websites:
– Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC): http://www.dccc.org/
– National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC): http://www.nrcc.org/
• If you prefer a corporate focus:
• http://www.casestudiesonline.com/
• Or from BlogWell:
– http://www.socialmedia.org/videos/

19. How to structure your examination
• Primary question for next week (producing the campaign):
• How are political actors using social media to inform
and engage citizens?
• Examine your case/social media platform from the
producer’s perspective (the candidate’s campaign, the
corporation, the NGO, etc.)
• Please bring relevant images/text/video to share!