Digital Culture: Social Media, Fake News, and the 2016 US Election

This report examines the influence of digital culture, particularly the spread of fake news via social media, on the 2016 US presidential election. It analyzes how platforms like Facebook facilitated the dissemination of misinformation and propaganda, impacting public opinion and potentially influencing voting patterns. The report explores the characteristics of American election campaigns in the digital age, conceptualizes 'fake news' and its economic drivers, and discusses the role of social media in amplifying these false narratives. It presents data on the prevalence of fake news stories, the impact of partisan conspiracy theories, and the declining trust in mainstream media, concluding that the proliferation of fake news poses significant challenges to democratic processes. The report utilizes various academic sources to support its arguments and provides insights into the evolving landscape of digital media and its effects on political discourse and elections. This assignment is available on Desklib, a platform that provides AI-based study tools for students.

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Table of Contents
Case Study Analysis........................................................................................................................2
Characteristics and Candidates of the American Election Campaign.............................................2
Conceptual Ideas about the ‘Fake News’........................................................................................3
Influence of the Social Media..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Case Study Analysis
The changes in the media technologies are influencing the democratic scenario in the
nations. American democracy was also affected by such repeat buffets, which are increasing due
to the drastic changes in the media technologies. In the scenario of 19th century, the improved
presses and cheap newsprint gave the permission for expanding the reaches in a dramatic way.
Allcott and Gentzkow (2017) revealed that that the computational propaganda is spreading the
misinformation about the public policy and politics over the social media platform. The
automation and propaganda together create the impacts on the public opinion, elections, debates,
and political crises. The collected data on this subject ensured that majority of the hashtags and
junk news is about politics that led up to the 2016 Presidential Election in America. The study
would consider the American election campaign, which is dramatically influenced by such
misinformation and fake news. The characteristics of the campaigns would be discussed I this
case study analysis. The circulation of the fake news through social media would be described in
this study.
Characteristics and Candidates of the American Election Campaign
The emergence of the new media technologies, such as social media, has been
dominating the market of radio and television. Most of the news is circulated to the people since
they spend more time of these social media platforms (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). It is noticed
that the social media platform like Facebook has completely different structures than the media
technologies that appeared previously. In 2016, the election campaign of America was highly
affected by the false stories – “fake news”. It is reported that almost 62% of US adults regularly
visit the news stories on social media. Giglietto et al., (2016) alleged that Facebook is the most

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demanding platform where the fake stories are circulated among the people who believe in these
stories. The evidence also highlights that majority of the fake news stories tended to favor
Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton (Pickard, 2017). Considering the news, many of the people
suggested that the Donald Trump won such election due to the circulation of the fake news over
the social media, which was not a right decision. In the article Social Media and Fake News in
the 2016 Election, the conceptual ideas about the fake news and influence on the election
campaign are widely discussed (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). The quantitative data is collected
among 1200 person after the election was completed. The database indicates that almost 156
election-related news stories were completely falsified and these stories were circulated through
the fast-checking websites three months prior to the election.
The article indicates that social media platform is the main source of such falsified
political information and news. People believe in the social media news more than the
information derived from the traditional outlets (Gaughan, 2016). The database obtained from
the survey process determines that almost 115 pro-Trump fake stories were circulated over
Facebook. These stories were posted more than 30 million times whereas almost 41 pro-Clinton
fake stories were posted more than 7.6 million times. It is considered that such propaganda has
influenced the voting patterns in the 2016 election (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).
Conceptual Ideas about the ‘Fake News’
According to Graber and Dunaway (2017), ‘fake news’ is often conceptualized as the
distorted signals that are completely different to the real scenario or truth. It is notable that fake
news arises in equilibrium since it is quite cheaper to circulate. The consumers of the news do
not seek the accuracy at the initial stage since they are more likely enjoying the partisan news. It

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is true that consumers utilize such fake news for some benefits, but it also leads the consumers to
infer the true state of world. It becomes much difficult to choose the right candidate for the
election. In usual cases, the consumers end up selecting the wrong candidate that affects the
condition of the nation (Drache et al., 2015). ‘Fake News’ is defined as the intentionally and
verifiably falsified and could lead the readers towards wrong direction. The study is specifically
highlighting the influence of the fake news that affected the presidential election of US in 2016.
The fabricated news against Hillary Clinton created the negative impact on the US citizens. The
headline of denverguradian.com was “FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead
in apparent murder-suicide” (Nelson, 2017). Many other articles originated on some of the
satirical websites that misled the consumers to undertake the impulsive decisions. For instance, it
is reported by the website wtoe5news.com that Donald Trump was endorsed by Pope Francis for
the presidential candidacy in 2016 (Rochlin & Rochlin, 2017). Majority of the fantasy news
appears on this website, but the consumers prefer such news much considerably.
The theoretical and empirical background is used in this context to frame the debate with
proper clearance. The study focuses on the discussion based on the economics of fake news. The
model of media markets is a theory-based concept, which helps in gathering the firms and
selling the signals of a true state of the world to consumers (Johnson, 2017). These consumers
are benefitted from inferring the truth. The preferences of the consumers to believe in fake news
and take the impulsive decision ultimately lead the world towards the horrified scenario
(Mihailidis & Viotty, 2017). The development of the quantitative data indicates that people share
such falsified information about the public policies and political figures over the social platforms
that create the clouds of misunderstanding. The widespread of the fake news thus can affect the

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conscience of the normal citizen. There are many of the conspiracy theories of political news
have circulated over the last half-century. The clear data of these stories is presented below:
Graph 1: Effects of Historical Partisan Conspiracy Theory
(Source: Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017)
The above graph shows that the circulation of the fake news has been corrupting the
power of conscience since quite a long time. The polling data was compiled by the American

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Enterprise Institute. For example, some of the citizen believed that Franklin Roosevelt had the
knowledge about the incident prior to the Pearl Harbor Bombing case occurred. It was also
rumored that Lyndon Johnson was involved in the assassination of Kennedy (Allcott &
Gentzkow, 2017). The information even went against Barack Obama by stating that he was born
in another country and the US government took active participation in the 9/11 bombings.
Influence of the Social Media
The circulation of the fake news is fueled by many of the reasons that help these stories
to gain more importance eventually. In this current age, enter to the media platform is not much
easy. On the other hand, people can easily monetize web content through the different
advertising platform (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). It is a considerable fact that the media outlets
are much concerned about the reputational value. Social media, on the other hand, is the
dissemination of fake news that has experienced the significant rise in last few decades. The
calculation highlights that in the year of 2016, the number of active users of Facebook reached
up to 1.8 billion (Tambini, Anstead & Magalhães, 2017). The lack of trust and confidence can
also be another most specific reason for the rise of fake stories through social media. The
declining trust in the mainstream media is another consequence of the fake news, which gains
more traction. It is noted that some of the social media sites like Facebook post the stories that
are intentionally fabricated and misleading the readers. These sites even select the names of the
original and legitimate organizations. Therefore, it is quite effective for the readers to consume
these stories and evaluate their judgment accordingly (Lilleker, 2017). Similarly, in case of
American Presidential election, the citizens were highly influenced by the falsified information
shared against both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Conclusion
The obtained ideas from the study depicts that the social media is the current source of
originating the falsified news against the public policies and political figures. The presentation of
the fabricated news creates the recognizable impact on the consumers’ minds. In the scenario of
19th century, the improved presses and cheap newsprint gave the permission for expanding the
reaches in a dramatic way. The consumers of the news do not seek the accuracy at the initial
stage since they are more likely enjoying the partisan news. It is true that consumers utilize such
fake news for some benefits, but it also leads the consumers to infer the true state of world. It
becomes much difficult to choose the right candidate for the election. Social media, on the other
hand, is the dissemination of fake news that has experienced the significant rise in last few
decades. The calculation highlights that in the year of 2016, the number of active users of
Facebook reached up to 1.8 billion. Majority of the fantasy news appears on this website, but the
consumers prefer such news much considerably.

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References
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election. Journal
Of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211–236.
Drache, D., Fletcher, F., Das, B., & Neyazi, T. A. (2015). Report on Media Activism and Other
Manias: How the English Mass Circulation Indian Press Framed the 2014 Election
Campaign.
Gaughan, A. J. (2016). Illiberal Democracy: The Toxic Mix of Fake News, Hyperpolarization,
and Partisan Election Administration. Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol'y, 12, 57.
Giglietto, F., Iannelli, L., Rossi, L., & Valeriani, A. (2016). Fakes, News and the Election: A
New Taxonomy for the Study of Misleading Information within the Hybrid Media
System.
Graber, D. A., & Dunaway, J. (2017). Mass media and American politics. Cq Press.
Johnson, D. (2017). Activating activism: Facebook trending topics, media franchises, and
industry disruption. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(2), 148-157.
Lilleker, D. (2017). Evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee'Fake news' inquiry
presented by the Faculty for Media & Communication, Bournemouth University.
Mihailidis, P., & Viotty, S. (2017). Spreadable Spectacle in Digital Culture: Civic Expression,
Fake News, and the Role of Media Literacies in “Post-Fact” Society. American
Behavioral Scientist, 0002764217701217.

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Nelson, J. (2017). Fake News, Fake Problem? An Analysis of the Fake News Audience in the
Lead Up to the 2016 Presidential Election.
Pickard, V. (2017). Media Failures in the Age of Trump. The Political Economy of
Communication, 4(2).
Rochlin, N., & Rochlin, N. (2017). Fake news: belief in post-truth. Library Hi Tech, 35(3), 386-
392.
Tambini, D., Anstead, N., & Magalhães, J. C. (2017). Is the Conservative Party deliberately
distributing fake news in attack ads on Facebook?. Media Policy Blog.