Political propaganda can be a very effective tool for winning an election like the Presidency.  Negative propaganda has had a large increase while positive ads have had a major decrease.  2016 was the first “modern media’ election.

Negative ads and propaganda have been majorly increasing since 2012.  Wesleyan Media Project showed that 48% of ads aired during a portion of the 2012 election were negative, but during  the previous election only about 30% of those ads were negative.  A UCLA study showed that backloading negative ads, or airing them closer to the election, can be more effective than front loading, or airing ads early in the election.  The study also showed that the effect of ads decayed quickly and would be more effective very close to the actual election if the goal was to sway voters.  Some speculate that the increase in negative ads has been from the new ways campaigns are funded, and have been a result from outside forces.

2016 was the first modern media election, using Twitter, Facebook, and large scale communication.  Twitter was one of the most popular sources for spreading fake news and propaganda, and many of the arguments between candidates on twitter became very public and went viral.  Some votes were changed just because of some of the comebacks between candidates.  Twitter was a large source of misinformation and was used for misleading news, and completely false information. 

Positive propaganda has become less effective since 2012.  Because of the increase in negative ads positive ads have fallen to the background.  Only about 15% of the ads aired during the 2012 presidential election were positive, since then positive ads have decreased in most elections.  Positive ads have been replaced with negative ads, and most elections use negative ads to attack opponents, rather than use positive ads to make the candidates look better.

Political propaganda can be used as a very effective tool to win political support and elections.  Modern media and negative ads were very influential factors in the 2016 election.