Agenda Setters: 2015 Candidates Setting the Pace

Posted on by Padraic Kane

This political season is one that has been filled with doubts, hope, and feelings of uneasiness. All of these emotions are credited to things like debates and long-winded television campaigns. One thing candidates have been able to utilize this season, is their political power in social media, specifically through agenda setting and gatekeeping. Agenda setting is defined as the “creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media.” Whereas gatekeeping is a “social system which decides which of a certain commodity – materials, goods, and information – may enter the system.”  This political awareness is made possible through the shaping and forming of what the viewers see on media via these methods. Through this concentration of media candidates can zero in on specific issues that they want to bring to the public eye. Today we live in a time where 90 percent of our time is devoted to some social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter, so it would only make sense for candidates devote just as much time incorporating their campaign platforms to these very social media platforms. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has pulled huge following not necessarily from his speeches or traveling but through his social media engagement through sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Bernie Sanders has a very progressive platform that many people agree with. He has taken a much more organic approach to his posts on Facebook and Twitter, rather than then opting out for flashy, expensive ones. One of the issues that Sanders is trying to tackle has to do with balance of the economy and the people and groups who hold power because of their economic status.

Through his twitter account he is constantly tweeting and calling out the millionaires who need to do more to help out the lower and middle class.

He discusses how students are going to have more loans that are due to college than they ever will with a credit card or car. In his campaign, he has also talked about the country’s problem with the “war on drugs”, and the stopping of “pushing of disproportionately people of color into the criminal justice system.” To set his “agenda” he is constantly listing statistics of these arrests that take place in the criminal justice system, especially when it comes to African Americans. Sanders is a perfect example of a gate keeper, because he is able to consistently push out his political ideals to the public through is handle, while at the same time establishing his agenda.

On the other end of the political campaign you have Donald Trump, who may have in fact mastered the art of agenda setting, especially through the use of his Twitter. His slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is straight to the point and confirms his agenda and attitude towards the way America has been running He’s organic yet blunt approach to what he “believes” needs to be changed in America are very apparent. There have been numerous accounts on his Twitter feed, where you can see his true feelings when it comes to “illegal” immigrants.

He firmly believes that they should not reap any benefit of our country, even if they are playing vital roles in our countries survival be it big or small. He also made it clear that he will call out his completion via social media platforms, which shows that he is not afraid to stir the pot.

Through these two men’s social media following and presence, their agendas are retweeted, shared, and pinned all over the web to establish their place in the campaign trail.

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