Draft literature review
​
The point of the literature review is to organize research studies, find patterns, identify major debates, and assess methodologies, so I believe it will be beneficial to organize my sources in three groups: those supporting my claims, those useful for investigating the questions and those inspiring conclusions.
​
To begin, the project will establish some facts and gather raw data. An Our World in Data headline—“Less than Half of Young Americans Voted in the Last Presidential Election” (https://ourworldindata.org/usa-electoral-turnout)—shows why I am focusing on Gen Z. Quite simply, it offers the greatest potential for manipulation, as more than half of the cohort did not vote in the U.S presidential election despite all the efforts made in 2016. It may have looked like they were much more involved through social media and other new forms of media, but it is very interesting that the final percentage of Gen Z voters did not change much from previous elections.
​
This evidence that many in Gen Z did not vote explains why candidates tried to win their vote. To start with that, I want to discuss how Gen Z differs from other age groups. The following articles explore the characteristics, values, and expectations of Gen Z (or those born after 1996):
Singh, Anjali. “Challenges and Issues of Generation Z.” IOSR Journal of Business and Management, vol. 16, no. 3, www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol16-issue7/Version-1/H016715963.pdf.
McDonald, Jared, and Melissa Deckman. “New Voters, New Attitudes: How Gen Z Americans Rate Candidates with Respect to Generation, Gender, and Race.” Politics, Groups & Identities, vol. 11, no. 2, 2023, pp. 345–365, https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2021.1962372.
​
The latter article indicates that the combined characteristics of Gen Z—such as being tech savvy, prematurely mature, and pampered—are very different from those of the previous Gen Z voters or . The authors argue that Gen Z differs from previous generations in terms of their digital literacy, social awareness, diversity, and entrepreneurship. They also identify some of the challenges and issues that Gen Z faces, such as cyberbullying, mental health, education, and employment. The authors suggest that educators, employers, and policymakers need to understand and address the needs and aspirations of Gen Z to help them succeed in the future. They also suggest that Gen Z voters were influenced by social media, peer networks, and family members in their political decision-making.
​
Using case studies, focus groups, observation, qualitative content analysis, and the like, the peer-reviewed articles below give examples of how both candidates’ campaign teams used new forms of media, especially social media, during the election and examine the issues emerging in the process of such media use. They also use web-browsing data, archives of fact-checking websites, and a new online survey to analyze the consumption and impact of fake news.
Lavi, Liron. “Time and Meaning-Making in the ‘Hybrid’ Media: Evidence from the 2016 U.S. Election.” Journal of Communication, vol. 70, no. 2, 2020, pp. 195–218, jqaa003.pdf (upenn.edu).
I believe that Liron Lavi’s article identifies one of the more distinguishing characteristics of social media as a new forms of media by focusing on how temporal plasticity (i.e., the dynamic employment of time) affects the construction of meaning in news media and social media. The author draws empirical evidence from a cross-media computational text analysis of TV news and Twitter discourse during the 2016 American election and discusses the results in light of the democratic role of old and new media. The configurations of past, present, and future elastically changed before, during, and after the election as a democratic collective identity was constructed (and sometimes contested) by time orientations and time spans in the media.
​
To understand what happened, I need to look at the most significant activities on social media during that time and analyze the tweets in each class for general trends and statistics: the most frequently used hashtags, terms, and locations; the most retweeted accounts and tweets; and the most shared news and links. Their analysis highlights some of the differences between the social media strategies of the two candidates, the penetration of their messages, and the potential effect of attacks on both. The study also aimed to answer research questions such as which candidate was more popular in viral tweets on Twitter, which election-related events elicited the most user reaction, which accounts were the most influential, and how credible were the links and news shared in viral tweets - this is especially helpful with Darwish, Kareem, Walid Magdy, and Tahar Zanouda. “Trump vs. Hillary: What Went Viral during the 2016 US Presidential Election.” Social Informatics, Springer International Publishing, Cham. Trump vs. Hillary: What Went Viral During the 2016 US Presidential Election | SpringerLink (upenn.edu).
Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 31, no. 2, 2017, pp. 211–235, https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.31.2.211.
Even though there is much more social media presence than ever before, I have found that the impacts were mostly negative to both candidates, resulting in an equal outcome to both. An analysis of the social media at that time also reveals many issues, including fake news, propaganda, racism, and mental health, that are well explained in the peer-reviewed articles below:
​
Faris, Robert M., et al. “Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Dash.harvard.edu, 2017, http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33759251.
Figueira, Álvaro, and Luciana Oliveira. “The Current State of Fake News: Challenges and Opportunities.” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 121, 2017, pp. 817–825, main.pdf (sciencedirectassets.com).
Hswen, Yulin, et al. “Online Negative Sentiment towards Mexicans and Hispanics and Impact on Mental Well-Being: A Time-Series Analysis of Social Media Data during the 2016 United States Presidential Election.” Heliyon, vol. 6, no. 9, 2020, pp. e04910–e04910, Online negative sentiment towards Mexicans and Hispanics and impact on mental well-being: A time-series analysis of social media data during the 2016 United States presidential election (sciencedirectassets.com).
The ultimate impact of the election was the global impact, a great example being how COVID-19 could have been handled differently in the U.S and how that changed the direction of global health in the past few years, not only because a different leadership might have yielded a different outcome but also because of the rise of fake news and self-reporting media. The same assumption would apply to more recent global events, such as the Israel-Hamas war and the Russia-Ukraine war. There will be another election soon, but the causes and effects remain the same, so research on this will clarify future elections and ultimately future global impacts. The article below discusses examples of such impacts:
Jacobs, Nicholas F., et al. “State Building in Crisis Governance: Donald Trump and COVID-19.” Political Science Quarterly: PSQ, vol. 137, no. 2, 2022, pp. 225–261, https://doi.org/10.1002/polq.13351.
​
A discussion of the mixture of methods that seems most appropriate for your project, and why. What does each offer, and how do they complement one another?
For the first question, I believe that both quantitative and qualitative methods will be useful for my project. Quantitative methods are objective, fast, and scientific, but can be interpreted in many different ways. As I have experience in statistics and coding, I can use these skills to interpret certain types of data. On the other hand, qualitative methods such as discussion, content analysis, focus groups, and observation can help analyze thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I think case studies will be the most used research method for my project.
A discussion of the scale(s) at which you’ll conduct your research: global, continental, national, regional, urban, neighborhood, household, individual, etc. If you are dealing with collections or flows of media content or data, what will be the scope of your analysis? How will you sample your population, environment, or collection? If you opt for a case study, how will you choose your case(s)? What are the political implications of your choices?
Regarding the scale of my research, most of it will be at the national level since my topic is about a country's election. However, some research may be global to examine the global impacts and issues. My scope and sample population will remain GenZ and social media during the 2016 elections, specifically the final period Trump vs. Hillary. I will choose my case study based on the most significant events, such as the most viral social media presence. The political implication will be to remain neutral and focus on impacts, causes, and effects.
A list of the ethical questions or concerns you might encounter in executing your project; and a discussion of how you might incorporate reflexivity into your work.
​
As for the ethical concerns, politics is a sensitive and subjective topic. It is never black and white, right, or wrong, and many people have strong beliefs about it. Therefore, being completely objective and neutral might not be possible. The other concern is how my final project will be, while doing a syllabus may be an easier option, but it may also be less interesting. If I will be doing an interactive website instead of a syllabus or other text-based projects, what will be the expectations?
​
To incorporate reflexivity into my work, I could reflect on my own biases and assumptions, keep a journal to document my thoughts and feelings, seek feedback from colleagues, and check different sources of the same argument to compare what is biased or not. Finding the right balance between subjective and objective and staying fact-based versus assumption is also essential to the project.