Penn State, #Election2012 and Social Media

Penn State, #Election2012, and Social Media

In order to better understand Penn State students’ social media habits and the 2012 presidential election, undergraduate students filled out a survey indicating their social media behavior. We elected to focus on students’ social media behavior regarding the two most popular presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The survey aimed to gain insight into how many Penn State students closely follow the major candidates’ online activity.

Seventy percent of students follow Barack Obama’s official Twitter account, while 85 percent follow Mitt Romney’s Twitter account. Although Twitter has grown in terms of both popularity and user numbers, from this survey we learned that more people “like” the presidential candidates pages on Facebook, with 79 percent “liking” Barack Obama’s official Facebook page and 91 percent “liking” Mitt Romney’s official Facebook page.

Over 82 percent of Penn State undergraduates surveyed report following political blogs, Facebook pages, or Twitter accounts. Thirty-six percent of Penn State undergraduate students indicated they use these these sites to obtain political information “sometimes,” with only 12 percent indicating they use these sites to obtain election information “very often.”  

Still, many students do not allow their beliefs to be swayed by what they read on social media--in fact, 65 percent of students reported that they have never changed their attitudes, opinions, or political beliefs because of something they saw posted on social media.