Social media has become one of the most powerful and influential platforms in the 21st century. Due to its ability to reach optimal consumers and its networking abilities, social media has altered the way businesses and politics are conducted in today’s world. Facebook is one of the most notorious social media platforms. Over the past decade, Facebook has become one of the most influential and powerful media platforms in history. In McNamee’s (2018) article, the author discusses the powerful impact Facebook advertising had on the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. In the second article, Woolf (2018) discusses the impact Facebook had on the 2016 United States Presidential election. Both of these articles explore how powerful Facebook and other telecommunications companies are when it comes to business and politics. The following summaries the two articles and discuss how technological abilities helped turn Facebook into the powerhouse it is today.
McNamee (2018) discusses the impact and power social media advertising has had on business and politics. In 2016, the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union. According to the polls, the UK leaving the EU was seen as a victory for the “Remain” campaign. However, neither the polling data nor common sense accounted for an important factor: “the new power of social platforms to amplify negative messages” (p. 34). In other words, social media advertisements were used throughout the campaign to influence the decision of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (McNamee, 2018).
Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms use advertising to make money. In this sense, the advertisers become the customers and the audience becomes the product. Roughly one decade ago, social media platforms used a one-size-fits-all model in regards to broadcasting. The advertiser’s success was dependent on producing content to appeal to the largest audience possible. Intriguing content was essential since audience members were able to select from several distribution mediums. As a result, media turned into a battle in order to obtain users’ attention for the longest time possible (McNamee, 2018).
This battle left Google and Facebook with a prohibitive advantage of other media outlets. Both mediums offer real-time data and have over two billion users. This made it much easier for both companies to monopolize their users through technology, and as a result, became attractive to advertisers. Furthermore, Facebook and Google also offer things traditional media outlets, such as newspaper, do not. Newspaper ads are published with the hopes of obtaining the attention from a particular audience. On Facebook, on the other hand, a company is able to reach the exact audience and no one else. Through the use of algorithms, Facebook and Google are able to maximize the ability of advertisements (McNamee, 2018).
It is believed that these platforms had a significant influence when it came to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Advertising campaigns were used on Facebook in order to help convince the citizens of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. These Facebook advertisements made several promises to the United Kingdom citizens, such as improving the National Health System. These advertising campaigns were financially driven. Facebook offers the ability to target specific users. Facebook was a more effective and cheaper platform in regards to cost per user reached (McNamee, 2018). Facebook has also been known to have influence in other political aspects, such as the 2016 United States Presidential election.
Woolf (2018) discusses the impact Facebook had during and after the 2016 Presidential election. In September 2017, the FBI obtained warrants “to gain access to the Russia-linked Facebook ads and details about the accounts that bought them” (Wolf, 2018, p. 29). Facebook admitted that they sold approximately $100,000 in ads to companies that more than likely operated out of Russia. This is not the first time Facebook was involved in a United States Presidential election. During the 2012 Presidential elections, Facebook added an “I voted” button at the top of the user’s newsfeed, which increased voter turnout by roughly 340,000 votes. (Woolf, 2018). Also in 2012, Facebook conducted a psychological experiment on approximately 700,000 users. This psychological experiment was conducted in order to dictate whether the company could manipulate the emotional state of their users by showing them sad of happy content. The results of the psychological experiment showed that Facebook could manipulate the emotions of their users by showing them happy or sad content. The study failed, however, to predict the user outrage that happened in 2014 when users discovered Facebook was deliberately messing with their emotions (Woolf, 2018).
The advantages of social media has resulted in a significant amount of global power and influence for Facebook. Woolf’s article discusses the influence Facebook had in the 2016 election. This article also discussed the influence Facebook has had in other Presidential elections as well. McNamee’s article discusses the power Facebook advertising and the influence it had on the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. Both the Presidential election and the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union are large topics. The idea that one social media platform could be used to influence a large public decision is a technological miracle. Without these technological advantages, businesses or politicians would not be able to advertise on the scale they are today. Overall, the advancements in technology over the past decade has led to Facebook and other social media platforms transforming both business and politics on a global level.
