Election 2016: Campaigns as a Direct Source of News

Sixteen years after Pew Research Center’s first study of digital communication in a presidential campaign, social media is central to candidates’ outreach to the public, changing the role and nature of the campaign website. While the candidate website still serves as a hub for information and organization, it has become leaner and less interactive compared with four years ago. Campaigns are active on social media though even here the message remains a very controlled one, leaving fewer ways overall for most voters to engage and take part. Two separate studies examining the campaign websites of Hillary Clinton, Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Donald Trump from May 1-June 15, 2016, and on Facebook and Twitter from May 11-May 31, 2016, find that:

• Clinton’s campaign has almost entirely bypassed the news media while Trump draws heavily on news articles
• On websites, citizen content is minimized or excluded altogether; in social media, Trump stands out for highlighting posts by members of the public.
• None of the three websites featured any distinct section addressing specific voting groups or segments of the population – a popular feature of campaign websites in 2008 and 2012.
• Facebook and Twitter usher in a new age in audiovisual capabilities.