#critical thinking 2

[ipbyrne-blog]

Critical Thinking #2: Gender & the Media

The text I have chosen to study for this post is female Hip Hop music album covers. The reason I chose this text is because I think it portrays the female gender in the negative roles outlined in Miss Representation to not only women but, men as well. One study found that most women start to feel like their body images began to be affected by media between the ages of 12 and 14(McCabe, M. a. P., Butler, K. e., & Watt, C. h. 2007). This is also the same age when most women are likely to be listening to 2.5 hours of music a day. This shows that hip-hop music and the album covers used are an extremely popular text that is heavily consumed and seen in today’s world which allows it to reach and influence a massive audience of all ages and genders.

The gender portrayal in these texts represent the negative extremes of the female gender outlined in Miss Representation. It portrays women as objects to be sexualized over, abused and who can be controlled by money and power.

The two hip-hop album covers I want to analyze are by some of the most famous female artists in the industry. These women are Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. Let’s first start by looking at who owns the companies both of these women are signed too.

Rihanna is currently signed to Def Jam Records, which belongs to Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi, a French multinational mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris, France. Nicki Minaj is signed to Young Money, which is also owned by Universal Music Group and therefore Vivendi. So when you trace it back, it is the same company producing both of these women’s music. And as I break down the gender portrayals outlined in their album cover, we can see that they are using each of the artists to appeal to the different genders. 

We will start with Nicki Minaj. Below is her album covers for her Anaconda album.

I think the imagery says it all. Nicki Minaj’s album portrays her as what looks to be a stripper and it is very obvious that the goal of this album cover is to sexualize her body and use it to sell more records. I personally think the main demographic for this album cover was mostly men as they are the largest consumers of hip-hop and this album cover is up front with the sexual image it is sending, instead of trying to artistically frame the image like in Rihanna’s album cover. The impact this has on women’s gender roles is it paints the picture for men, that women are sex objects that can be influenced by money.

Next let’s take a look at Rihanna's R-Rated album cover, which in my opinion, is much more damaging to how women are to be portrayed in society.

Rihanna's R-Rated album cover is a bit darker in my opinion. It portrays her to be a woman who is not only sexualized, but also abused being tied up in barbed wire. On top of that, she is wearing a mask, which in my opinion dehumanizes her even more by sort of covering the fact that this is an actual woman and instead makes her appear to be more of a prop to be used for sex. What makes this worse, is this is a woman who is considered to be the 21st centuries ultimate pop star, which means young women all over the world are looking up to her. In fact, she is actually the most consumed artist by the female population, which means this imagery of her being a faceless sex object is reaching millions and millions of women. Something to note is that Nicki Minaj is number 38 in the top artist consumed by females, which is also why I believe the album cover of hers that I previously discussed, is mainly being used to advertise to men.

The people who produce both of these album covers know that Rihanna’s fan base is mostly women and Nicki Minaj’s fan base is still women, but also includes a significant amount of men being as her label is Young Money. This is why they try and make Rihanna’s appear to be more artistic being black and white while they make the Nicki Minaj album cover much more in your face with the fact that they are using her body as a sex object to sell albums.

Overall, the gender portrayal in both of these album covers is the same. They are both portraying women as objects to be sexualized over, abused and who can be controlled with power and money. What is interesting, is each album cover portrays this gender role to a different gender. Rihanna’s album cover is targeting women, and are therefore is more artistic in nature, whereas Nicki Minaj’s album, which is targeting men, is much more blatant and upfront with the fact that they are sexualizing her body. Both of which have a very negative impact on how women see themselves and their bodies and it also has a negative impact on how men see women and their bodies.

Works Cited:

McCabe, M. a. P., Butler, K. e., & Watt, C. h. (2007). Media Influences on Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the Body Among Adult Men and Women. Journal Of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 12(2), 101-118.

[sophiakim-blog1]

Evolving the Disney Princesses

Disney has created many movie favorites for so many generations. One of their biggest selling points besides the amusement parks and the obvious character Mickey Mouse is of course the Disney princesses. Disney Princess is a media franchise that is owned by The Walt Disney Company, originally created in the late 1990s and launched in 2000. Now from the very first princess, Snow White, to the more recent princess Moana Disney has expand quite a lot over the years.  

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Now the good thing about that is that over these many years Disney has been starting to grow and develop more and more Disney princesses that stand for something more. The original Disney princesses tend to do more on the delicate side, who are rescued by the prince and who will marry at the first meeting. Now a day the princesses are becoming more and more independent. Of course let’s not forget the Mulan, 1998, is still the original princess to step out of a dress and into a man’s uniform to save her father. After this it took a couple more years for Disney to step out of their “comfort zone” to create more girl empowering movies. There was Brave’s Merida and Frozen’s Elsa and Anna and the most recent one Moana. Not only has Disney started to step out of their typical Disney look but now they have the girls doing something important. That is the problem with the media, that is why I chose to talk about this, they have the men saving the world and their female companion is just a side kick. In very rare occasions is a female lead actually saving the world or doing something super incredible. Usually the media is stating that men have to be tough, macho men and will always save the day. Than saying that women are the damsel in distress who need to be rescued and cannot do anything on their own. So to see Disney evolving from their typical princess era is a really nice breath of fresh air. This is important for the millions of girls out there who adore and look up at the princesses. Each Disney princess movie sort of sets out a certain standard for little girls. They start to think and act like the princess and believe that everything that happened to the princess will happen to them.

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Meaning when they see the princess waiting on a prince to save her, they will expect nothing more from themselves. They will grow up wanting to depend on someone and thinking “a girl should not be doing much more than waiting on a man.” However, with Mulan, Brave, Frozen and hopefully more empowering movies to come; little girls will see that they can fight and be just as good if not better than a boy, setting herself set out to do better things. Now looking at two specific examples of good influential movies they are Pocahontas and Mulan. Sure critics will say there are flaws with these movies but even with their flaws Disney had a good intention and made a step in the right direction. Pocahontas came out first as a heroine who is an adventurous young woman who stands up for her beliefs. She is also one of the very few female protagonists whose story does not end in matrimony (Dundes.) Than Disney took a bigger step with Mulan, she was completely breaking down the typical girl stereotype. Not only did she honor her father and her family, she also was able to save all of China with the help of men as her side kicks, not the other way around. This movie also does a terrific job on touching base with really important topics such as honor, gender roles, family pride, obedience and family. Now the big concept of gender roles comes from Mulan obviously dressing as a man, another smaller time is when at the end Yao, Ling and Chien-Po dress as women to save the emperor. Cross dressing can be a touchy subject but Disney conquered it and was able to turn things around. Usually women have to act like men to be able to fight or do something heroic. Yet here are three soldier’s dressed as pretty girls to be able to conquer the guards. This movie allows for that counterpart where boys can maybe see that there is nothing wrong with cross dressing and that girls can be just as strong.

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As this current generation keeps progressing in order for Disney to stay successful they will need to keep developing the company. They will need to keep making more stubborn and strong hearted girls who save the guy, the country or even just the day. Even with Disney’s Moana, they are already showing that they recognize the various cultures, skin colors and body types that are out there. That will allow for Disney to keep successfully growing for the years to come as this generation keeps realizing there is something wrong with the gender portrayal in the media industry.

References Dundes, L. (2001). Disney's modern heroine Pocahontas: revealing age-old gender stereotypes and role discontinuity under a facade of liberation. Social Science Journal, 38(3), 353.

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(it is not letting me add photos into my text properly so I put the numbers where the photos would be and added the numbers above the photo, sorry!! The ones at the end were more for entertainment that I wished to put throughout the text.)

(Also my apologies but I did end up changing my topic a little bit, obviously from taking about just Mulan to gender roles in Disney movies as a whole)

[mediachronicle]

Media Industries (MCST 2010) Critical Thinking #2: Gender and the Media due 10/19 @ 11:59pm

Ok, it’s time to really get you applying what we’re been reading, watching, and talking about in class -- and let you be a little creative and research something that interests you personally. After doing the readings and watching Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In this week, you get to choose a media text and analyze how it uses gender representation to either reinforce or dismantle (or possibly both) the harmful gender roles discussed in our course materials. Your text can be an episode of a TV show, a film, a song or music video, a social media site or feed, a radio program, a website, or a news site or program. I’m also open to other ideas, but you MUST clear them with me first. 

For this assignment, select your text, spend time watching it, listening to it, or exploring it, and then do some research into its production, who owns it (look into corporate ownership)/is responsible for it, what other texts are related to it, what critics and the media have said about it and the gender issues you see in it, who its audience is, and what cultural impact and meaning it has. 

The minimum requirements for your post are as follows:

750-1000 words 

three hyperlinked popular press sources

one academic journal article cited using APA in-text citation with a full reference at the end of your post (see the Writing Guidelines posted on ULearn) -- the librarians can help you with this

at least three images or media links that demonstrate or illustrate your points and the gender representations under discussion 

Your analysis should do the following:

Give background into the text you have chosen (and explain why you selected it)

Describe the gender portrayals in your text and explain how they reinforce or dismantle the gender roles discussed in our materials this week -- be sure to have a clear thesis and support it with examples and sources

Make a case for who the target audience of the text is

Analyze why the producers/corporate owners of this text would want those gender representations and how they might profit or benefit from it

Make a case for the impact of this text and the gender roles in it

Be sure to focus on your text -- don’t try to tackle the entire state of the media. As I said, I’m open to creative ideas with this project -- check with me if you have questions. You can certainly intersect race or other identities with this, too, if you’ve read ahead or want to do research. The librarians can help you, and I’m here to advise you via email, too. Touch base if you have questions.

This assignment is due Wednesday, 10/19 at 11:59pm on your Tumblr. 

[oliviaescribe]

American Pop Music vs. K-Pop

It’s impossible to say that one came before the other --  popular music differs slightly from country to country, and popular music has been a constant since there was music and a wide enough audience to become popular. 

The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives defines popular music by first saying that the genre is incredibly vague, but say it may be preferable to refer to this kind of music as ‘light music.’ Still a vague term, this genre encompasses other genres ranging from folk music to “current chart pops.” In this discussion of popular music, I am referring to the latter, also known as “the top 40″ or “today’s greatest hits” or in South Korea as “케이팝” -- K-Pop. It’s the kind of catchy, loud music that you hear on your morning commute and your brain listens to it all on its own until you fall asleep at night. 

The first and most important distinction between the two countries’ popular music styles is the prevalence of bands in K-Pop. There are several über popular musical ensembles (both male and female groups) lighting up the Korean musical landscape. These bands, such as BIGBANG, Super Junior, Girls Generation, and Sistar, are composed of multiple members with groups having as many as twelve members. Boy bands and girl bands have long been a thing of the past in the US; the most popular boy and girl bands in America (5 Seconds of Summer, 5th Harmony, One Direction) are all from across the pond, either from the UK or Australia. It seems as though literally every other all boy or girl band has broken up since they rose to massive popularity in the 90s and early 00s. K-Pop ensembles like these arose at roughly the same time, in the late 1990s. 

The men and women in these bands, as well as many solo artists, largely share the same look: “They are all flawlessly beautiful and hold up the standards of the Korean Hallyu aesthetic” (Kim 18). Women are petite and lean, with perfect skin, small noses and wide eyes, and the men are similarly lean and very toned, with hairless, porcelain skin and “personalities and smiles that exude warmth and Valentine’s Day-like romance” (Kim 18). 

These acts typically include an impressive synchronized dance number and a lot of flashy production techniques, as evident in many music videos. The members of these groups are raised and molded to become group members and this is a widely known fact in South Korea. Children can attend camps from a young age to learn how to sing and dance, and once they audition and are accepted for a particular group, they continue to undergo training. 

Similar to a lot of American popular music, K-Pop songs center around party anthems and love songs. American listeners will also recognize many of the audio editing techniques and sound effects like autotune, sirens, and other electronic sound effects. 

Scholars have noted the use of American hip-hop characteristics and African American vernacular in K-Pop songs, as in the one above (Big Bang) and below (I Got a Boy). The dress, low riding cars, chains, rapping, and some of the dance moves are all evidence of this borrowing. While they may borrow and engage in hybridization by including bits and pieces of African American popular culture, they “are not seen as legitimate practitioners, largely because their status as Korean artists constructs them outside of genres that many view as solely the purview of black artists” (Anderson 290). 

Because K-Pop originated shortly after American boy and girl bands were at their peak, and because the words (not only African American vernacular but also plain English words and phrases) and techniques are also borrowed from American pop and hip-hop music, it can be argued that K-Pop is appropriating American musical culture. 

Scholar Koichi Iwabuchi described K-Pop as a “culturally odorless” and “Asianized Western” musical phenomenon (Kim 22). In an article published in The New Yorker, author John Seabrook calls K-Pop an “East-West mash-up.” While the vocals and dance moves have “an Asian flavor,” the music sounds Western: “hip-hop verses, Euro-pop choruses, rapping, and dub-step breaks.” Even with all the similarities, very few Americans had heard of the genre before Psy’s “Gagnam Style” became popular. 

American pop music has since strayed away from large vocal ensembles; there is typically one lead singer accompanied by band members, but rarely are groups comprised strictly of numerous vocals. 

Popular music has been more or less the same for the past couple decades because its popularity stems from its predictability. Record labels use their own behavioral data to forecast which artists will rise in popularity and what sounds the public can’t stop listening to. Pop music is manufactured to be catchy, and besides advancements in technology, popular music has had the same sound since the 90s. 

Popular music was forever changed when hip-hop washed into the mainstream in the early 1990s. When hip-hop artists and rap hit the top music charts in 1991, more and more hip-hop was heard on the radio and the cultural stylings from that genre made way into rock, country and pop music, but especially pop music. During this time, pop music became more diverse and introduced listeners to many of the styles heard today from artists such as Macklemore, Beyonce, and Drake. Many of the most popular artists today are more influenced by hip-hop than they are rock, something that was unheard of before the late 80s and early 90s. 

In reality, American popular music isn’t quite 100 percent American. Much of the most popular music today is influenced by African cultural music and other styles that are not the white, Anglo-saxon idea of Americanism that often comes to mind. In an off-beat way, the music that is considered to be influenced by America, like German hip-hop and K-Pop, is in reality influenced by African (American) culture. 

Anderson, C. S. (2016). Hybrid Hallyu: The African American Music Tradition in K-Pop (S. Davé, L. Nishime, & T. G. Oren, Comps.). In Global Asian American popular cultures (pp. 290-303). New York, NY: New York University Press.

Choi, C. (2012, October 21). What Are Some Major Differences Between the K-Pop Industry and the American Pop Industry? Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/what-are-some-major-diffe_b_1818644.html

Definition of Popular Music. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.iasa-web.org/selection/definition-popular-music

Kim, D. (2012). Reappropriating Desires in Neoliberal Societies through KPop. UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 1-98. Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p04h9tf

Mullen, J. (2015, May 6). Study: Hip-hop is more important than The Beatles. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/tech/pop-music-study-hip-hop-the-beatles/

Seabrook, J. (2012, October 08). Factory Girls. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/08/factory-girls-2

Thompson, D. (2015, May 8). 1991: The Most Important Year in Pop-Music History. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/1991-the-most-important-year-in-music/392642/

Thompson, D., & Lay, J. (Writers). (2014, November 17). Who Made Pop Music So Repetitive? You Did [Video file]. In Who Made Pop Music So Repetitive? You Did. Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/382837/who-made-pop-music-so-repetitive-you-did/

[ipbyrne-blog]

MCST 2010 Critical Thinking #1

Google, it started as a name of a company and eventually was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb in 2006. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were studying to obtain their Ph. Ds at Stanford University on September 4th, 1998. It started as a private company but was later IPO’d on August 19, 2004. Although the company is public and Jeff and Sergey only control 14% of the shares, they still maintain 56% of the stockholder voting power. Then on August 10th, 2015, Google created a Holding Company called Alphabet, which is now the official owner of Google. So Alphabet owns Google along with many other businesses, and Google owns the Google Search Engine, the AdWords & AdSense platforms, Google Maps, YouTube, Android, and the Google Play store.

The structure of Alphabet’s holding is without a doubt horizontal integration. They own a variety of different businesses in a lot of different industries and sectors which allow them to extend their reach as a company. The horizontal integration does not stop there. Google, which is one piece of Alphabets horizontal integration, is also integrated horizontally with all of its holdings. Instead of vertically integrating like Disney where they would control every aspect of their product from end to end, Google’s holdings are all in different types of businesses where they only control one thing in each of these sectors, their product. They don’t control the platforms their product is used on in most cases, where people are using their products, how they are getting the products and things like this.

By integrating horizontally Google is able to create a variety of products and platforms that are all in different industries allowing them to really spread their reach as a company. In addition, Google makes really great products that often become the industry leader for each sector they are in. Their map service is by far the best map service available, same with their search engine, their ad platforms and their video platform. Not only is their reach greatly expanded because they are horizontally integrated but it is really blown up because they are often the best product available in every sector they are in. And in the case of video platforms,  YouTube by far completely dominates this industry.

YouTube was originally created in 2005 by 3 former PayPal employees. Only a year after it was created, Google saw the potential of the platform and purchased it for the sum of $1.65 billion dollars(3). The reason Google purchased YouTube is because it compliments their main product, their search engine, extremely well. Many people think of YouTube as a place to be entertained but that’s not why Google bought it at all. Sure, YouTube is full of entertaining content, but why Google snatched it up is because they saw the potential it had as a search engine. And as of now YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Is this a coincidence? No. Google saw this coming and they were ahead of the curve like they are with nearly every product they release.

So why does Google care so much about search engines that they were willing to buy YouTube for such a high price? Is it some unethical reason to dominate the internet and steal all of our information? No. Two words. Ad Revenue. Google makes 90% of their revenues from their advertising platform and there is no better place to have an ad appear than as a search result from someone typing in a very specific query. You literally can not have a more targeted ad. And with YouTube being the number one place people go to see product reviews and tutorials, it makes perfect sense that they would want to be in control of this platform that is perfect for advertisers as this is where Google makes all of their money.

In terms of media concentration, this does give Google nearly complete control over the search engine market. By owning the two largest search engines in the world, they are able to capture well over 70% of all the searches that occur on planet earth. This gives them the ability to have massive control over what people are going to see when looking for things on the internet. And unfortunately, Google has been found to skew the search results in favor of their products in order to boost their revenue. From a consumer’s perspective, I can see how this looks bad or unethical. But from a business perspective, I don’t think it is. Google is not a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing people the most relevant information in the world. They are a business and as a business, it is their duty to maximize their revenues on behalf of their shareholders. In fact, Google could actually get in legal trouble if they weren’t doing this.

Overall, this media concentration does provide the public more good than bad. Information is more accessible than ever before in the history of the universe and this gives people tremendous power. Now people can literally learn about anything they can think of thanks to Google and their search engines. You can find products you would have never known existed, and find people you would have never been able to connect with before by simply typing in a few keywords. You can literally find anything that a college, university, or book would teach you via a Google search for free. Google’s search engines give people more access to information they would have otherwise never been able to reach and this makes mankind as a whole so much better. To argue that this is a bad thing would be like arguing the introduction of books or writing was a bad thing because it gave people information they previously could not access.

So in conclusion, Google purchasing YouTube does provide Google with immense control over the search engine marketplace but at the end of the day, this has without a doubt benefited the public interest at large. People who argue against this would likely be the same kind of people who were saying books and writing would be the downfall of human civilization. Knowledge is power, and thanks to Google people all over the world have more access to power than any other time in human history.

[mediachronicle]

MCST 4010: Critical Thinking #2 U.S. vs. The World due Sat., Oct. 8 @ 11:59pm MT

With this Critical Thinking assignment, you will have the opportunity to analyze (break into parts and examine the components—the meanings or significance) a global media case study. You will need to interpret intersecting media texts (something we make meaning from) to help us to understand how people use media to make sense of their world, their culture, and their identities.

With this assignment, you will need to select television shows or music videos from more than one culture/country -- one (and only one) must be a U.S. text -- and put them in conversation with each other. With this analysis you have several options with regard to ways to engage the global media. You can do one of the following options:

A comparison analysis of two shows that are spin-offs of each other (from the US to another country or from another country to the US),

A comparison analysis of two comparable shows of the same genre (say, soap operas or a reality game show) in two different countries (one from the U.S. and one from another country)

A comparison of two (or more) videos by music artists performing in the same genre from different countries (one -- and only one -- must be a U.S. artist)

A comparative analysis of either television shows’ or music videos’ depiction of a foreign culture from an American perspective and from its own (per our in-class demonstration)

Look for common patterns that demonstrate a significant repetition within the subject matter—e.g., patterns in storyline, characters, settings, use of color, fashion, music, genre; anomaly -- and analyze how these cultures influence each other’s media. Consider the following:

Which was the “original” or earliest text and who inspired whom?

Are these cultures borrowing from or appropriating each other -- or both? Or are these cultures being hybridized? How so and how do you know? Make sure you support your conclusions with strong sources.

Who is the intended audience, age, race/ethnicity, geographic location, etc of each text, and what role does that play in its presentation?

What is the message of this text -- if any?

How do audiences view or use these texts? What factors contribute to awareness of audience in the text? (Search online for any fan communities that have been created around the texts or stars in them. 

This is not an opinion piece. You must perform academic analysis and support your assertions with press and scholarly sources. Your post must be a minimum of 1000 words and include at least video from each text you discuss. Additional images or video that support or demonstrate your points are also good. You should have a minimum of five hyperlinked popular press sources and two academic journal articles cited using APA style  to support your analysis. 

THIS ASSIGNMENT IS DUE ON YOUR TUMBLR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 AT 11:59PM MT

[mediachronicle]

MCST 2010 Critical Thinking #1: Media Concentration due 9/28 @ 11:59pm

Chose one corporate media conglomerate from the list below, research its history, its ownership and holdings, and controversies about both or either. Then, analyze the structure and strategy of those holdings (vertical integration, horizontal integration, something else?). Finally, trace one of its media properties (i.e. Disney’s acquisition of Marvel) and analyze how its structure/strategy allows the corporation to maximize this property and all the myriad ways it employs and distributes that property. Identify any conflicts of interest or other ethical issues with the corporate conglomerate, evaluate what role it plays in media concentration, and assess whether this concentration benefits or harms the audience and the public interest at large: 

The Walt Disney Company

NewsCorp

Time Warner

The Washington Post Company

Tribune Media

Gannett Company

NBC/Universal-Comcast

CBSViacom

Google

Yahoo

Facebook

Explain your assessment of this media concentration case study in a minimum of 1000 words with a minimum of three substantive images, videos or other media that either demonstrate, illustrate, or otherwise support a point you are making or provide additional data or information. The images should be integrated strategically within your narrative where they make or support your point, not collected at the beginning or end of your post. You must also include hyperlinks (hyperlinked text, not a URL cut and pasted into the narrative) to a minimum of five individual popular press articles/sources.  Popular press sources are usually national (but may be local or regional) journalistic news source from around the globe that employ professional journalists and editors with a vetted editorial process (not a blog or social media).  They are usually print newspapers or magazines that also have an online presence, although some are only online or are broadcast entities). You will need to locate international sources, as well as domestic, but for familiarity’s sake, U.S. examples include: 

The Washington Post

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal

The Denver Post

NPR

NBC

CBS

ABC

Al Jazeera

Fox News

MSNBC

CNN

The Atlantic

The New Yorker

Slate

Salon

Time

Newsweek

If you have any questions about sources, let me know and/or ask our embedded librarians for help.

Don’t forget to tag your post properly. This assignment is due on your blog Wednesday, September 28 at 11:59pm MT.

[katywrite]

Off to the Races

Social media is truly revolutionizing processes of the past. From advertising and marketing to event invitations and RSVPs. Most noticeably is the difference in this Presidential race compared to races of the past. Franklin D. Roosevelt was noted as the first “radio president” in the 1930s-1940′s. John F. Kennedy was considered the first “television president” in the early 1960′s. Then there is Obama who really resonated with younger generations by being the first president to utilize the internet to reach his audiences. Now, in the midst of the latest Presidential race, there has been a noticeable spike in the use of social media by the candidates.  The four major candidates are on all of the major and most popular platforms: 

Donald Trump: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope

Hillary Clinton: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Periscope

Bernie Sanders: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Periscope

Ted Cruz:  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope

Donald Trump has over 7.5 million Twitter followers, the most of any of the candidates. Trump definitely uses this to his advantage, using the platform to promote his politics, attack other opponents and media figures, and settle scores. Trump has several times put himself in quite a pickle with some of his less tactful tweets, having to later redact tweets and push out apologies. He truly does understand the power of his Twitter profile and uses it to his absolute advantage. The reason he is so popular on this platform is his use of the shock factor. He understands what will get him likes and retweets, the more outrageous and shocking, the more appealing to the masses. Trumps decision to run his campaign through Twitter indicated what type of audience he is trying to reach. While one might think that the only people Trump appealed would be old white men. His Twitter following is acutally 45% women. 

Trump can be found on the other platforms, but is not any where near as active. His Facebook page has around 7 million likes, but contains the same content as Twitter, a lot of his posts are just copied over. His Instagram presence is way less prevalent than other platforms with a measly 1.4 million followers, largely due to his less shocking posts. Trump can also be found on Snapchat, but is not very active, having no story to view in the last 24 hours. 

Hillary Clinton, like the other remaining candidates, can be found on all of the major social media platforms. What sets her apart is her use of the popular site Pinterest. By using this platform she is very loudly stating what audience she is attempting to reach. Her Pinterest profile is reaching women (the majority of Pinterest users are women age 18-29 with a fairly high average income ), and telling them that she is a regular woman just as they are. She appeals to them with Boards such as; granddaughter gift ideas, women who inspire, and the very personal memorable moments. 

Her Twitter supporters ( over 5.5 million)  are similar to those of Trump, reaching an audience that is 45% female. Demographically they are much different. Hillary is more likely to have African American and Hispanic followers, where Trump is getting likes and follows from whites. Unlike Trump, Hillary’s Twitter posts are normally something of importance to her and her campaign strategy. She uses the platform to push for gun law reform, to empower women and to bring social issues to the attention of her Twitter audience. 

There is cross-over on the platforms she uses, largely between Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. She does not seem to be using different platforms for different agendas or audiences. By doing this she does send a consistent message to all audiences across all networks. 

Like Hillary, Bernie Sanders has chosen a platform to set himself apart from the other candidates. Sanders is currently the only verified Tumblr user. Sanders is very appealing to Millennials and he knows this. By having an active Tumblr account he is engaging the Millennial generation, allowing them to repost and run wild with his campaign. His Tumblr is full of posts with the hashtag #feelthebern. This has been good and bad for his campaign. He is profiting by the reposts by supporters and followers, many blogs have been dedicated solely to the support of his campaign. 

Sanders is also very active on Twitter (although he has only pulled 1.87 million followers) , posting most days in the double digits. Most of the posts are SENSANDERS originals, he does throw in a repost here and there. There is less cross-over posts in the Sanders campaign compared to that of Hillary’s. His Twitter and Facebook don’t share much content, however his Instagram and Facebook seem to be closely tied. This tactic also speaks to his Social Media audience attraction. He has close to 4 million Facebook followers and only 1.2 million on Instagram, numbers much smaller than Trump or Hillary. 

Snapchat, yet another platform that Sanders knows will reach the young people he is aiming to engage with, is filled with #TheBern. His story is constantly being updated, every few hours during rallies. His post include rally coverage, interviews, and even some of his everyday life. 

Ted Cruz has the smallest social media profile of all of the remaining candidates. He is active on all of the major platforms just as Trump is but the number of followers he has is significantly less than the others. This is somewhat surprising as Cruz made history by being the first to read a tweet on the Senate floor. Cruz has only managed to attract a little over 1 million Twitter followers. A year ago Cruz and his Social Media Manager deemed Cruz to be the most highly engaged candidate but todays numbers do not agree with that. 

Cruz has only managed to earn slightly over 1 million Facebook followers, a far cry from Trumps over 7 million. His Instagram is even less popular by a large margin with only 120k followers. These numbers mark Cruz as the least succesful of any of the candidates. His content could be part of this problem, most of it not being anything origanl, most of it being reposts and retweets. 

All of the candidates are using YouTube and Periscope in the same ways. Their YouTube channels are filled with clips of debates and rallies. The main content of most of them being campaign commercials, some of them slander (Cruz and Trump). 

Periscope is successfully being used to live stream events, rallies, and debates to Twitter. 

The numbers show that Donald Trump as of now is having the most success across the Social Media platforms with Hillary a close second on some. This campaign year has proven to the masses just how powerful social media really is. All of the candidates have flocked to these sites like never before, with their every political move being captured and posted for all who chose to watch. As technology and social media evolve, so will the strategies for reaching desired audiences. Success will be measured in followers as we see beginning to happen now. Any one wanting to make a change (run this great country America) will need to be tech savy and have an understanding of how social media has grown and evolved in order to ensure that their message is being heard.