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Johns Hopkins University | AS.480.611

Social Media and American Governance

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Communication strategies are changing rapidly for politicians, political campaigns and for elected government officials from the president on down to state and local officials in this era of new social media technologies like Twitter and Facebook. President Trump is using social media, especially Twitter, to make new government policy throughout the day. Members of Congress tweet from their town halls or from congressional offices on their latest thoughts or legislative proposals. Candidates in 2018 and 2020 will be making more use of social media to announce and define their campaigns. Can actual government policy be made by social media? Communication strategies of politicians, government officials including the president as well as social media strategies and objectives of the mainstream and alternate media sources will be explored and examined in the class. The class will debate and discuss the beginnings of social media and how it is daily affecting government policymaking and the role of the average citizen’s relations with their government. The class will look at the social media strategies of the president, members of Congress and the upcoming communication objectives of the 2018 congressional candidates and the 2020 presidential possibilities. This will be an interactive look at social media as it is being practiced today. We will see how social media is changing our government and political landscape now and in the future.

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