Project Title: America's Divide: Why Social Media Has Caused Our Country to Split
BASIS Advisor: Charles Hutchison
Since the dawn of American politics, politicians have been using mass marketing to advertise to American citizens. Only recently, politicians have begun to use modern social media outlets (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google) to advertise. With this trend of social media advertising, politicians also have new strategies to attract voters. Many are moving towards the extremes of their parties which may be contributing to the polarized society that we live in now. Many times, Democrats and Republicans cannot even have a civil conversation because they rally behind leaders with extreme policies. The goal of my senior project is to research how political campaigns use social media marketing, specifically Facebook, to capture voters and implement their campaign strategies. I will be tracking President Donald Trump’s and the Democratic Nominee’s Facebook advertisements and the effects of the advertisements. The final goal of my research is to determine how politicians use social media marketing effectively and why this has contributed to the polarization that we see today.
My Posts
Final Blog Post!
Jun 25, 2020
Hello everyone, This is my final blog for my senior project! Thank you so much for reading about my research on the relationship between social media and political polarization in the United States nowadays. As I have mentioned many times in my earlier blogs, political polarization has greatly increased since the late 1990’s. My thesis […]
Week Nine
Jun 04, 2020
American society has absorbed social media and it has changed from simply a way to share personal news and connect to others into a media outlet. Many people, especially teenagers, receive their news for Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. Although journalism is still very prevalent, social media is catching up to print and online newspapers. A […]
Week Eight
May 30, 2020
This week I researched political polarization in the global context. A 2020 study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that compared to eight other democracies, polarization in the United States has grown the most. The study showed that Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland saw a rise in polarization, but not nearly as […]
Week Seven
May 29, 2020
As an incoming college freshman at Brandeis University, I know that I will be entering a highly tense political environment. College campuses have become entrenched with politics, in both the academic and social spheres. Some students enter college without much involvement in politics and graduate very active in politics. Others enter college already involved in […]
Week Six
May 28, 2020
Many factors affect a person’s political beliefs: family, economics status, gender, religion, race, and others. People’s political views tend to reflect what they believe in, how they grew up, and who they surround themselves with. While each of the factors that I listed above is essential to a person’s political identity, family is one of […]
Week Five
May 27, 2020
Throughout this project, I have used the term “polarized” quite a lot. In this blog post, I am going to examine what exactly a polarized society means. In a democracy, disagreement and argument is essential but Americans seem to have taken it a step further. Americans not only disagree with one another, but refuse to […]
Week Four
May 27, 2020
Covid-19 has had many detrimental and unprecedented affects in our world. All across the world, people’s lives have been turned upside down from losing loved ones, high rates of unemployment, and quarantining. This week I researched how the coronavirus has affected the political atmosphere in America specifically. One of the major changes we have seen […]
Week Three
May 06, 2020
This week, I researched the media’s effect on polarization in America. A 2017 Forbes article stated that America’s media environment is most polarized in comparison to other Western Countries. When Americans want to check the news, they have their “go-to” outlet. The majority of left leaning Americans go to CNN, while the majority of right […]
Week Two
May 06, 2020
Hi everyone! This week, I researched the history of American Political Parties. I believe to understand our current political system, it was necessary to observe the way that the American two party system began, and developed into the democracy we have today. In 1787, there were the Federalists and Antifederalists. George Washington won the presidency […]
Week One
Apr 12, 2020
This week, I focused on the presidential candidates (Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump) advertisements on Facebook and how their campaigns use specific language to attract voters. Although Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race earlier this week, he has many supporters across America that will continue to stand by his beliefs and […]
Week 0: Social Media Changing American Politics
Mar 30, 2020
Hi! My name is Jackie Goloborodsky and I’ve been at Basis Independent for 4 years. Throughout my time at Basis, I have developed an interest for politics and began to follow American Politics closely. As I read articles, watched debates, and listened to politicians speeches; I realized that our political atmosphere in America has changed […]