Political Participation Analysis

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During the 2014 midterm election, analysts recorded the lowest voter turnout since World War II (DelReal). Only 36.4 percent of the eligible voting population cast ballots, which illustrates the continuing decline in midterm election voting participation (DelReal). While the results are disappointing, analysts are not shocked; since the 1964 election, when voter turnout was almost 49 percent, political participation has experienced continual decreases (DelReal). The decline cannot be ignored, as all people must participate in government processes in order to promote freedom of speech. Therefore, the United States of America must address the issue of low political participation, but this is a complicated task. One solution, which appears to …show more content…

Many studies have analyzed the impact that Facebook exerts on political involvement. One study was conducted on the Congressional midterm election day of 2010, when over sixty million users on Facebook received a special message encouraging them to vote. These users observed messages at the top of their news feed pointing to the nearest poll places, offering a place to select “I Voted,” and displaying a list of their friends who had already voted. Two smaller groups, with roughly six-hundred thousand people each, were the control groups. One group was given voter-encouragement messages without reference to the behavior of Facebook friends. The other did not receive any voting-related messages. The researchers also analyzed the voting behavior of 6.3 million subjects using records available to the public. The study found that “the Facebook social message increased turnout directly by about 60,000 voters and indirectly through social media contagion by another 280,000 voters, for a total of 340,000 additional votes” (Bond et al, 5). Therefore, online political messages do contribute to a visible difference in voting behavior. Facebook, as a specific source of entertainment, can be used to positively impact voter …show more content…

Class differences, particularly those concerning the amount of education, are eminent in online, offline, and social networking site (SNS) activity. However, the class differences are less noticeable in the SNS sphere. Furthermore, political engagement on SNS drastically increased between 2008 and 2012, when the survey was conducted. According to the Pew Research Center, “the number of social networking site users has grown from 33% of the online population in 2008 to 69% of the online population in 2012.” With this increase comes a notable number of SNS users that claim their SNS activity that led them to conduct additional research and become involved in social and political issues. Lastly, despite the growth of online platforms designed specifically for political activities, “Americans’ day-to-day political conversations mostly occur offline” (Smith). The source illuminates the wide range of factors that could influence one’s political activity in this new era of technological advancements. Politicians must be weary of their campaign strategies, as a strategy that combines online messages with offline messages appears to be most

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