Despite the increasing popularity of social media in the election process, students still participate in elections through more traditional events like presidential debate watch parties. Nearly 70 students cheered for their candidate of choice as they watched the second presidential debate through a Politico web stream during a bipartisan event hosted by the College Republicans and College Democrats on Tuesday.
While social media has played an increasingly important role on the national stage, students downplayed its role in affecting their political news. Although the first presidential debate garnered more tweets than any other American political event in history, according to Twitter, students nevertheless said that events such as watch parties help to foster bipartisan dialogue.
"We do use Facebook and Twitter, but with such a small and close-knit campus, we prefer to use Blitz," College Republicans President J.P. Harrington '13 said.
ABC News, which televised the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 and was streamed in front of an audience of over 300 students in the Rockefeller Center, featured a live Twitter stream during its broadcast. The streaming source was switched to the Politico website for the debate last night because students found ABC network's tweet streams distracting, according to College Democrats President Mason Cole '13.
"I think news agencies are just really excited about these new forms of media, so sometimes they overdo it in terms of trying to integrate it into these big events," Cole said. "A lot of times it was a little bit trivial and somewhat distracting."
Bridget-Kate McNulty '16 attended the debate watch parties and tweeted her thoughts about what the candidates said and re-tweeted jokes made by pundits throughout the debates.
"You are getting the collective consciousness of almost a million people and what they think," she said. "I just wanted to add my voice whether or not anyone reads it."
Students indicated they use online sources, blogs and foreign news sources to learn about American politics. Chi Mai '16 said she watches BBC News because the network is a "more neutral source of information compared to others."
Gray Zabel '15 said he would likely post on Facebook if the president made strong remarks. Zable said he gathers political news from outlets including The New York Times, the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report.
In response to the increase in social media platforms, government professor Brendan Nyhan said that pre-digested perceptions posted online prevent readers from forming their own opinions. Nyhan said he chose to remain off of Twitter during the debate for this reason.
"I think it is too easy to be influenced by other people's reactions, especially for something as subjective as a presidential debate," Nyhan said in an interview with BBC News Magazine. "You are not just watching the event, you are experiencing other's reactions to it in near real time."
Despite acknowledging the ease of access to live news supplied by social media sites, Nyhan said he chooses to approach them with caution.
"The mainstream media is so interwoven on Twitter that there may be even more of a convergence of narratives because of that," Nyhan said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Similarly, many students discredit political blog posts as being consistently biased.
"I think people who post political statuses to their Facebook tend to be super partisan anyway, and so if I do see a political status, I discount it more often than not," Matthew Lu '13 said.
Bringing students together in a series of debate watch parties will allow students to engage in conversations across the political aisle, according to Cole.
"I hope these events with people across the political spectrum generate some laughs, debates and occasionally some places of agreement," Cole said. "I also hope it helps those who have not really been engaged to learn more, both through the debate and also the fellow watch party members on both sides."
Harrington said, however, that students would learn more about the candidates and their ideas if they read party platforms and studied the records of each candidate.
