Social media provides politicians with expansive new opportunities to use political language and visuals to influence voters. Activities ask you to evaluate social media campaigns for an upcoming election at the local, state, or national level, and then you will design an online campaign to support your own run for political office.
As Pinar Yildirim of the University of Pennsylvania pointed out, social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, allow political figures, particularly newcomers and candidates, to reach millions of people at little or no cost (How Social Media is Shaping Political Campaigns, Knowledge@Wharton, August 17, 2020).
The 2020 election saw enormous investments in social media by candidates and political parties. Both Presidential campaigns set new records for spending on political ads on Facebook.
Activity 1: Evaluate Social Media Campaigns for an Upcoming Election
Choose a political candidate who is running for office in an upcoming election (within the next 1-2 years). It can be a candidate for President, Senate, House of Representatives, or a state or local office.
Curate a digital collection (e.g., Wakelet, Padlet, Google Slides) of social media posts by the political candidate.
Evaluate the political candidate's use of political language, visuals, and propaganda techniques in their social media posts for how it might influence the partisan brain.
Create an interactive image or screen recording in which you deconstruct the meaning behind the words and visuals of the social media posts that you analyzed and share your digital media product with the public to inform their thinking.
Decide which of these propaganda techniques you are going to use to persuade others to vote for you.
Design a social media campaign to support your run for political office.
The social media campaign should include at least 2 videos (e.g., YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok), 5 example posts, and 3 images (e.g., memes, graphics, infographics) designed by you.
Designing for Learning: Student-Created Activity Example
2c: Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
Knowledge Constructor
3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
3c: Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
Creative Communicator
6a: Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
6b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
6d: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for the intended audiences.