IT’S ALIIIVE: How social media created a monster and then allowed it to be President
On November 8th, 2016 the world waited with baited breath to see who the 45th President of the United States would be; billionaire businessman Donald Trump or polished politician Hillary Clinton. When it was announced that Trump had won the election, the public were quick to take to various social media platforms to vocalize their panic and dismay about the results, pleading for an answer to the question “how did this happen?!”. The underlying reason for his success is not a new concept, so it shouldn’t surprise people that the reason that Trump won the election is all thanks to Social Media.
Social Media has always been a prominent tool when it comes to garnering the support of the public in order to achieve desired results, and Trump’s victory is not the first time a bigot has attained a successful outcome in a political campaign thanks to social media’s advertising capabilities. Hitler is one of the most famous examples of a demagogue who used various propaganda mediums to convince the German citizens of their superiority over the Jewish people, and secure his place as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler was a mastermind when it came to the development of influential propaganda. With the help of Josef Goebbels, the director of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, they used posters, radio, films, and even school textbooks to twist public opinion in their favour by using tactics that included, “euphemisms, name-calling, fear, and “bandwagon”. These techniques parallel the ones that Trump used in his own presidential campaign, which illustrates the power that social media has over public opinion and how valuable of an asset it is in the enabling of a demagogue’s success.
Trump is first and foremost a businessman, which means he is continuously thinking of strategies that will lead to the success of his chosen endeavor. So, despite the fact that the 45th President of the United States is a racist with a bad wig, he still deserves credit for the tactical way he used social media during the election to stay relevant, and how he continues to do so after a year in office. Trump took advantage of contemporary society’s technological and social media obsession by consistently making use of his various social platforms, primarily Twitter, in order to instantly reach a vast audience that included the American public and major media outlets. In turn, the public and the media empower Trump with every like, retweet, share, comment, and hashtag because through our social media usage we are enabling Trump and creating a world where he and his ideas are ubiquitous. For example, any time the name Donald Trump comes up, the first thing that probably comes to your mind is the famous wall he promised would be built if he won the election. This promise not only got the attention and enthusiasm of his central supporters, but it also got the attention of the rest of the American public as well as the major media outlets who, as a result, gave him a dominant amount of coverage and air time over other presidential candidates. The constant attention that Trump receives as a result of society’s continuous engagement with his social media posts only serves to feed him and his ego, which in turn fuels his demagoguery even further.
But social media doesn’t just allow for the enabling of demagogues, it also has the potential to provide the same opportunities and experiences for peacemakers such as Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has a long standing reputation in the media for being a strong, powerful, confident woman who is a defender of people’s rights and truths. In today’s society there is an immense amount of upheaval with regards to inequality and minorities, which have lead to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Society looks for reconcilers like Oprah who are honest and passionate about working to create a better and more equal tomorrow, whom they can place their faith in and support, and they do this through social media. An example of how effective this medium has proven to be in terms of empowering reconcilers, is the outpouring of support Oprah received on social media after her speech at the 2018 Golden Globes, which called for her to announce her bid for presidency in the 2020 elections. The point is NOT that people want her to run for president, rather, it’s that there’s so much admiration and faith in her because she has the people’s best interest at heart that motivates social media users to continue to support and empower her through this medium. She has built a stable relationship with the public that is grounded in trust, and it’s this honest relationship that Oprah has with society that allows us to see her and other reconcilers like her as worthy of validation and empowerment through the powerful tool of social media.
As aforementioned, social media is a powerful tool used in the creation of individuals, whether they be demagogues, reconcilers, or just ordinary people like you and I. We also social media users have the power to build people up or even tear them down. With this immense power comes immense responsibility and as such we need to really to examine and make thoughtful decisions about whose success we are enabling. #Oprah2020
