[kictanet] Democracy After Facebook

[anyega jefferson]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/?utm_source=atltw


We’ve known since at least 2012 that Facebook was a powerful, non-neutral
force in electoral politics. In that year, a combined University of
California, San Diego and Facebook research team led by James Fowler
published a study in *Nature*
<https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11421.epdf?referrer_access_token=3hEGlbqHkEuGY21mtWU9ytRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O-9kUewX3bdNdtBQCWYxxxyT1mLWjysh846djISzhdVQ8te60SwiEQkr8UOR_w6foAEMGP1agrQAR91rzU45X9hd7s6U3lIzEIbd35aX7ruNgD1yER8FcGDfCZKhbg6O9VCsEgb3kEZAqVvcbtCbcEZFbuSfvBx75f4RZqlS8DhyQ4yVH7PQ2vxssZZOlc6z5EWL8qXh-xIkjAG_gl0XMoATarImt_N_loxzfUHP134AZ9TGXojQKJCt64RPRMU58%3D&tracking_referrer=www.theatlantic.com>,
which argued that Facebook’s “I Voted” button had driven a small but
measurable increase in turnout, primarily among young people.

Rebecca Rosen’s 2012 story, “Did Facebook Give Democrats the Upper Hand?
<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/did-facebook-give-democrats-the-upper-hand/264937/>”
relied on new research from Fowler, et al., about the presidential election
that year. Again, the conclusion of their work was that Facebook’s
get-out-the-vote message could have driven a substantial chunk of the
increase in youth voter participation in the 2012 general election. Fowler
told Rosen that it was “even possible that Facebook is completely
responsible” for the youth voter increase. And because a higher proportion
of young people vote Democratic than the general population, the net effect
of Facebook’s GOTV effort would have been to help the Dems.


The research showed that a small design change by Facebook could have
electoral repercussions, especially with America’s electoral-college format
in which a few hotly contested states have a disproportionate impact on the
national outcome. And the pro-liberal effect it implied became enshrined as
an axiom of how campaign staffers, reporters, and academics viewed social
media.

-- 
Anyega M Jefferson

jeffersonanyega at gmail.com

0703824326

Start where you are,use what you have and do what you can.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20171015/64974009/attachment.htm>