The roles of social media in 21st century populisms: US Presidential campaigns

  • George Julian Hendrix East Carolina University
Keywords: personalization; political engagement; self-informing.

Abstract

In the United States, “populist” is a controversial and often misunderstood signifier in common discourse. In addition, the current state of mass media and introduction of social networking tools has created a hyper-partisan spectacle of politics – especially during presidential campaign seasons. Through the review of literature on populism, traditional and social media, and presidential campaigning in the United States, this article constructs a new view on the relationship between these three topics in the 21st century. Important steps in this article’s process include defining populism and its place within campaigning and media; presenting social media as a political tool and a dynamic personalized informer; and analyzing the US presidential elections since 2008.  Resultantly, because the trends of online activity, on the part of both the citizen and the candidate, impact social media users’ self-informing and political engagement, the process of selecting a new US president has become more susceptible to various populist practices in this century than before.

 

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Published
2019-04-13
Opr
How to Cite
Hendrix G. J. (2019). The roles of social media in 21st century populisms: US Presidential campaigns. Teknokultura. Journal of Digital Culture and Social Movements, 16(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5209/TEKN.63098

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Grupo de Investigación Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales. Cibersomosaguas