Social Media and Politics

Guest: Jennifer Stromer-Galley, PhD, Professor in the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, author of “Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age” It has been four days since President Donald Trump made an attack on Twitter. Sunday afternoon he Tweeted a couple of times about the “failing New York Times” and the “Fake News” media, which is one of his favorite lines of attack lately. But since Sunday, Trump’s tweets have focused on congratulating himself and his party rather than tearing anyone down.  Does that surprise you? After all, Donald Trump’s become legendary for his negativity on Twitter. But when data analysts at Syracuse University actually tallied up the substance of social media posts made by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the election cycle, they found Clinton was more negative.  See Prof. Stromer-Galley’s analysis of social media during the 2016 election here.