Group research project completed in the Spring Semester of 2016. Studied undergraduate students at Florida State University in order to gain knowledge on how they used social media platforms to gain information about the presidential election.

1. RT for Trump, Fav for Clinton
LIS 3201-Research and
Data Analysis
Team 1
Hayden Miller, Kelly Koeppel,
Spencer Lowy, Gabi Giuliano,
Pablo Calderon,
Zachary Viskovich

2. Problem Statement
Social media plays a huge role in informing the public on
political information and updates. According to a study by Pew
Research Center (2015) “young adults (ages 18 to 29) are the
most likely to use social media – fully 90% do” (Perrin, 2015).
Current knowledge of social media usage for gaining information
on the presidential election is very limited. Our research will
evaluate Florida State University undergraduate students’ use of
social media for acquiring information and news on the 2016
presidential election.
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3. Purpose Significance
This study holds significance because more
and more young voters are using social media as
their main source for political information and
updates. Social media users “cite breaking news as
a major reason why they follow political figures on
social media” (Anderson, 2015, p. 1). These social
media applications are delivering political news
faster than other forms of online media.
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Presidential campaigns now incorporate the
use of social media to inform voters on the
candidate’s views and current endeavors. Boulianne
(2015) states that “the 2008 and 2012 Obama
campaigns have fueled interest in how social media
might affect citizens’ participation in civic and
political life” (p. 524). We will seek to gain an
understanding of how students use social media for
political purposes.

4. Research Questions
➢ RQ1: How do Florida State University students use social
media applications to gain information and updates about
the upcoming 2016 election?
➢ RQ2: Do Florida State University students prefer to use
social media to acquire information and updates about the
upcoming 2016 presidential election over traditional media,
and why?
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5. Methods
➢ Our chosen research method was survey
➢ We performed volunteer sampling
○ Non-random sampling method
➢ We shared the link to our qualtrics survey on multiple FSU Facebook groups (Class of 2016, Class of
2017, and Class of 2018), emailed it to all of our class rosters (LIS3201, PUR3000, DIG3118, COP2258,
and COP4342), and posted flyers in the first floors of Strozier, Dirac, and the Student Union.
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6. Analysis (Demographics)
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Freshman
by year,
junior by
credits
We received a total of 56 respondents to our survey.

7. Analysis (Demographics)
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There was an
almost
perfectly even
distribution of
respondents by
political party
affiliation.
Other: Independent,
libertarian

8. Analysis (Findings/Results)
RQ1: How do Florida State University students use
social media applications to gain information and
updates about the upcoming 2016 election?
➢ Students prefer Facebook to gain election
information over any other social media
platform.
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Youtube, Reddit

9. Analysis(Findings/Results)
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RQ1: How do Florida State University students use
social media applications to gain information and
updates about the upcoming 2016 election?
➢ Majority of students check social media 2 or
more times a day, and more than 75% of
respondents claiming to check it 5 times or
more per day.

10. Analysis (Findings/Results)
While students DO
use social media to
gain political
information, they
DO NOT like to
discuss their
personal views on
that platform.
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11. Analysis (Findings/Results)
RQ2: Do Florida State University students prefer to use social
media to acquire information and updates about the upcoming
2016 presidential election over traditional media, and why?
➢ 84% of respondents said that they did use social media for
political updates, BUT it wasn’t the main source for many.
○ Many students stated that they still rely on news
websites and television.
➢ Students who do use social media stated that it presents
the most up-to-date presidential election information.
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12. Analysis (Findings/Results)
RQ2: Do Florida State University students prefer
to use social media to acquire information and
updates about the upcoming 2016 presidential
election over traditional media, and why?
➢ Social media is seen as a trustworthy
source by most of the respondents, but
they specified that they only trusted
articles from specific newspaper accounts
or other credible sources.
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13. 10. Do you use social media to gain information and updates on the
upcoming 2016 presidential election? Why or why not?
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“I use Snapchat for election
results”
“I do not trust tv,
newspapers, and other
mass media.”
“Social media has
given the social
world another way to
keep up on
debates.”
“no, all the candidates
suck.”
“I don't use social
media to learn about
presidential debates”
“Not really, because it
is extremely biased
most of the time.”

14. 17. Do you consider social media a trustworthy source for
information and news on the 2016 presidential election? Why or
why not?
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“It's a good indicator of the political
climate; how voters are feeling. We hate
Trump.”
“Depends on the source of the
information, if it is a credible and well-
known news source like CNN then I
am more likely to trust its information”
“I don't trust social media for accurate
news on the presidential election.
Multiple times I have seen stories that
are inaccurate, so I don't even read
them anymore.”

15. Discussions/Implications
➢ In our literature review, we learned that Facebook and Twitter
were considered the top social media sites for political
discussion. Research done by Murthy “provides evidence of
Twitter as part of a larger media ecology” (Murthy, 2015, p.828).
➢ We also found that most of our respondents have 3 or more
social media accounts, which proves how widespread this media
platform is. Social media’s “participatory character, particularly
blogging, social networking and content sharing, has encouraged
more people to be involved in political issues” (Lim, 2008).
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16. Conclusion
After conducting our research, we concluded that
students at FSU..
➢ Only trust information on social media if it comes from a
credible account
➢ Use social media because of its convenience and shortened
versions of articles
➢ Do not prefer to discuss their own political opinions on
social media.
➢ Still rely on other forms of media for political updates. 16

17. Limitations/Future Study
➢ We didn’t reach as many students as we had hoped. We should have
distributed the survey through more mediums to reach a higher number of
respondents.
➢ We also received many short, vague responses to open ended questions
(or no response at all)
○ This may have been because they were not interpreted correctly by the
respondent
○ This may have been because the respondent was too lazy to fill in the 17

18. Reflection
➢ Group communication was a big issue for us at the
beginning of the semester
○ It was difficult for all 6 of us to meet outside of class
because of our hectic college student schedules.
○ Divide and conquer was also not the best approach
for assignments because it left them unorganized
and unclear.
➢ But we managed to all get on the same page, and
produce a solid final research project together as a team
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