It is no secret that social media is a “HUGE” *in Trump’s voice, factor in deciding the 2016 election. In fact, a panel at the 2016 Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit, in San Francisco, this past week, argued that this election is marked as the “social media revolution” election. Social media platforms allow for new faces and new candidates to ramp up their surfacing stage appearance. Through platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat, candidates are not only able to gain name recognition amongst millennial but they’re also able to create a personal one on one connection with voters like never before. This utilization of social media in political campaigns has rhetorically constructed an image of authenticity around candidates having an effective and strategic appeal to voters, especially millennials. It is also important to recognize the idea that this era provides the environment for outgoing candidates to thrive while introverted candidates fall behind. This has allowed candidates, like Donald Trump and his use of Twitter for example, to clog up consumer’s feeds with a commotion of twitter rants. The panel, made up of women CEO’s from multiple companies, determined that this “loud” behavior over social media doesn’t exactly mean you’ve got the presidency in the bag.
This panel and this conference gave many insights and opinions on this election but it is also important to look at the symbolic role this type of conference has in our society. For years, men have held summits discussing their financial and business successes. Here, we have powerful, influential and successful women talking about and informing people on their lives and society today and more importantly how they can improve this world that we live in. I think this is imperative to point out that despite the relatively new age of women occupying this type of corporate successful role, women have found it a priority to give back to society. These women who have pioneered and championed over a patriarchal society to occupy highly coveted corporate positions have found it critical to create a community that empowers women and focuses on making these roles the standard for all women in the future.
Source: http://fortune.com/2015/12/01/social-media-2016-election/
I’d wager a guess that this campaign in 2016 has been the first in American political history where the average voter got the majority of their news and exposure to the candidates through social media (such as FaceBook, Twitter, and Snapchat). It’s not entirely clear what the implications of this going forward are, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Never before have we seen so much controversy arise from a tweet by a candidate for president. There’s no doubt this platform changes the rhetorical game plan for future elections.
As for the other part of your post, it is of course refreshing to see such an important panel being led entirely by successful women. You’re exactly right when you say that women’s roles in society are changing and we’re better off as a collective group because of this.