Living in a world with vast resources and information within the grasp of the general public has had tremendous changes on our world state and the governments that compose it. In many cases, newsworthy incidents reach the internet and the eyes of the proletariat masses far quicker than evening news anchors are able to relay broadcasts. In the past century, it would have been almost impossible for world leaders to have their ideas and words reach the ears of their constituency. With the general public becoming tech savvy at an exponential rate, the electorate in first world countries are able to become more informed about their leaders and ideologies. Thus, in today’s world where data is easily spread by the click of a button, candidates for power can easily reach and expand their constituency through the outlet of social media.

With an upcoming presidential election cycle in the United States that is one of the most intriguing and unconventional in the history of America, we are currently seeing how powerful spreadable social media truly can be in the political world. This cycle has seen the political rise of real estate mogul Donald Trump. According to Von Drehle in his article “The Art of the Steal”, Donald Trump has maintained the lead in social media followers among the Republican candidates for the presidency during his campaign. Trump’s success in leading social media followers has directly correlated in his primary election victories in early 2016. Trump has been able to reach the younger generation of voters through the use of bombastic language in his microblogs and twitter messages, all while spending very little of his own money for campaigning. Trump, despite being a multi-billionaire, has been able to run such a successful campaign without spending more than $26 million throughout the election season. This has come heavily from Trump’s use of social media in order to reach his coalition and solidify votes through an unconventional and cheap form of advertising and conversing with his followers and opponents. Trump is constantly posting on his twitter page and retweeting conversations, drawing ever more voters to his side, which is key to his success on a highly personal social media based campaign. Trump is a candidate that can converse, debate, and listen to his social media followers; this gives him a certain legitimacy as the voice of the masses for his coalition.

With the presidential election cycle being such an important part of the news, social media serves as a good medium for the masses to spread their approval and dissent of those who are running for the presidential seat. The general public is able to spread the word for their choice in presidential candidate and figuratively shout their dissents. This public spread of ideas forms stronger coalitions for each candidate; citizen-made pages have heavily supported candidates such as Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

Pages such as the "Bernie Sanders Dank Meme" Facebook group have constantly spread the public support of their candidate through a humorous and somewhat informative way. While this form of spreadable media would not be directly under the control of Sanders and his campaign staff, making the page a possible two edged sword, the ever growing group of 400,000+ members continues to share dozens of pro-Sanders multimedia posts daily in order to entertain themselves as well as inform others of Sanders’ ideology and political plans. With the help of pages like this, as well as his own campaigning and social media pages, Bernie Sanders, who was relatively unknown outside the state of Vermont until last year, has become a favorite candidate for the far left democrats and independents who were searching for an alternative to Clinton.

On the other hand, groups that speak poorly of the presidential candidates exist as well, providing many counter posts to these pages. This free speech on social media sites also plays a role in the candidates actually gaining power. So, whether for or against a specific candidate, the public run pages that have no affiliation with the candidate have tremendous effect on the election cycle.

Overall, especially in America, social media has proved to be an important outlet for politicians. So next time that you decide to get on Facebook to look up something about an election, remember that each post is posted for you and your vote.