Political engagement on social media reaches new high during US presidential election
In a Pew Research study, roughly one-third of social media users indicate they often (9%) or sometimes (23%) comment, discuss or post about government and politics on social media.
Social media plays a part in the US presidential election / Courtesy of NBC News/YouTube
On YouTube alone, users have spent over 20 million hours watching the presidential debate live streams on YouTube. YouTube will also be live streaming the results of the election starting at 7pm ET on 8 November from NBC News, PBS, MTV, Bloomberg, Telemundo and The Young Turks.
For the second presidential debate on 9 October, 63 million TV viewers tuned in, which was a 20% decline from the first. On YouTube, debate content, including all videos related to the debate, garnered 124 million views, a 40% increase compared with the first. Another 3.2 million tuned into Twitter’s livestream and Facebook’s Live broadcast partnership with ABC News now has 7.4 million views, according to Wired.
Facebook has driven people to the polls with an intense online effort to get people out to vote. The world’s largest social media platform placed a reminder at the top of user’s news feed, 18 years and over, in 32 states. Washington DC also encouraged them to register to vote. According to the Center for Election Innovation and Research, the social media giant has been responsible for a sevenfold increase in voter registration in Illinois, as well as an increase in all 16 states that were tracked.
In addition to the social media platforms themselves creating content to drive voters, individual campaigns have been launched to encourage voting.
Anonymous Content brought together one hundred of America’s most influential stars to create #VoteYourFuture in order to inspire fans and followers to register to vote. Through short videos distributed on social, some of the most influential talent such as Kendall Jenner, Julia Roberts, Samuel L. Jackson, Anna Akana and more, came together to encourage participation in this election.