A functioning republic bet on an informed population . Yet multitude clearly struggle to keep on much of the information they are deluged with each day . A sketch of the 2016 presidential public debate suggests Twitter can help . Not study it , but tweeting it , since people who endure - tweet about what they witness remember more afterward .
" Throughout the 2016 presidential run , we were particularly interested in exploring the influence of societal medium , including Twitter , on voters ' political attitudes and behaviors , " saidProfessor Mitchell McKinneyof the University of Missouri in astatement . “ We want to assess if those follow and twirp during the disputation really learn anything about political issues . "
McKinney had player watch out the elementary debates and divided them into randomized group . One set were instructed to tweet their support for their best-loved candidate , while another were asked to recreate the use of independent observer , trying to be as exact as potential in summarizing the candidates ' points .
The authors mean to keep their enquiry on the fundamental interaction between social media and political sympathies . A follow - up discipline is to be write in a book of essay on medium and the 2016 crusade .
US presidential election have been heavy study in the past to memorize how voters make their decisions . Nevertheless , 2016 was credibly unprecedented in the importunity of the research , particularly with regard to the direction fake tidings fan out through social media and concerns about increased polarization .
Many assumptions on this issue have yet to be adequately quiz , however . societal media has been find fault for increase polarization , with more and more people only listening to those they correspond with . However , one subject area found that , rather than being responsible for polarization , societal media users were actuallyless polarizedthan their contemporary .
The study could also have implications outside politics . faculty member have ruefully joked for decades that lectures are a method for transferring information from the reader ’s bill to those of the students without passing through the mind of either . Of course , the problem is not that the data does n’t pass through , but that it often does n’t perplex . Perhaps having pupil live - tweet their classes will increase the chance they hold onto some of the noesis they ’re supposed to be gaining .
