The 2016 US Presidential Election Campaign - Changing Ways of Campaigning

Running head: THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN – CHANGING WAYS OF CAMPAIGNING
THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN – CHANGING WAYS OF
CAMPAIGNING
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THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN – CHANGING WAYS OF CAMPAIGNING
Introduction
Election campaigns or campaigns in general have witness marked shift from the
campaigns that used to be held some decades ago. A comparison of 2007 and 2010 itself shows
the difference in the style of campaigning especially in terms of political campaigning. The
political campaigns in 2007 in Australia saw the absence of coalition entirely from the digital
space. The labor party undertook a strong campaign but with added emphasis on the word
“change” but did not use the social media as much as it used the traditional media. The minor
parties were the ones that made use of the social media and digital platforms. However, the same
platform was jammed in 2010 with political parties not having any space where they did not have
any competition. Twitter became one of the largest online platforms where the campaigning was
done.
This essay will discuss the 2016 US presidential election and highlight the changing ways
in which campaigning has changed over the decades. The essay will refer to other campaigning
as well to elaborate the topic broadly.
Discussion
In 2016, the election campaigning for the presidential post of the world’s most powerful
country was at peak. The official launch of Donald Trump’s campaign was on June 16, 2015 at
his residence, that is, Trump Tower in New York City (Gambino & Pankhania, 2019). Hillary
Clinton’s election campaign started two months before Trump’s campaign on 12 April 2015
(Gambino & Pankhania, 2019). Both the candidates gave full force to their campaigns by
attending town hall meetings, addressing public gatherings, engaging in debates. However, the
most important tool that the two candidates used was the social media. The campaign was even

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THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN – CHANGING WAYS OF CAMPAIGNING
designated as the “social media campaign” by some scholars. The campaign was covered
extensively in both traditional media and social media across the globe (Gambino & Pankhania,
2019). People throughout the world were made aware of every word that the candidates were
saying. Over the years, the emergence and dominance of new technologies and the social media
has caused ripples across all occupations. In the field of politics and society in particular, the
social media was the most dominant. Political leaders realized the importance of the social media
as a powerful tool to influence the voters. Election campaigns have increasingly become
dependent on the social media. Social movements too found a powerful platform in the form of
social media.
The focus of this paper is mainly on the political campaigns. Political campaigns take
numerous forms from advertising to online promotions, from meetings to road shows, and so on.
The 2016 US presidential election campaign made use of all forms of political campaigns. The
election is considered “historic” mostly because of the outcomes and the campaigns that led to it.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate won the elections with unconventional campaigning
that many thought would not work. The coverage of the campaign was mostly one-sided with
majority of news channels rejecting any chances of Trump winning the nominations even, let
alone the elections. In a report by the Shorenstein Center on Media of Harvard Kennedy School
found that, the media coverage for the 2016 general elections was largely negative for both the
candidates (Shorensteincenter.org, 2019. The study revealed that the topics that talked about the
competency and fitness of the two candidates for the presidential was negatively covered in the
media (Shorensteincenter.org, 2019. Controversies and allegations on both the candidates were
the main topic of debate in most of the media platforms. Although negative coverage sometimes
does a good thing for the candidates, too much negativity often produces a corrosive effect. The