On Wednesday November 4 at 7:00 PM, I virtually attended a panel that was part of the Newhouse School's 2020 Election Series. It was titled, "The Day After: What's Next? Breaking Down the Election." The panel, moderated by Newhouse Professor Melissa Chessher, consisted of three media industry professionals in different fields. David Klepper is a newsman for the Associated Press. Michelle Kinney is a national press assistant working for The Lincoln Project. Jen Grygiel is also Newhouse School professor and social media expert. Together, these three panelists brought different perspectives, opinions and expertise to discuss the events that went on in the wake of Election Day.
The purpose of this event was to help break down how the election results will shape our democracy for the days, weeks, months and years to come. While it took place only two days after the election, and there were still no final results, a lot had happened that the panel attempted to unpack. They dove deep into the spread of misinformation, the role of social media, possible civil unrest post-results, the lasting effects of mail-in ballots and more.
This panel was ultimately all about problems in the election that could, should or will be resolved through communications activities. As all three panelists are communications professionals, in different ways, this is what they work to do for a living.
Professor Grygiel spoke a lot about their area of expertise, which is social media. They explained that social media platforms and the people who program the algorithms set the policies that determine what all users see. This allows for social media bias because as long as policies and algorithms are set by humans, there is no way to remain completely objective. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Professor Grygiel explained. It is the job of communications professionals behind these social media platforms to take responsibility for biased content on their platforms and either add warnings or prohibit the content, which would resolve the bias issues we see so often.
David Klepper from the Associated Press spoke more specifically about the spread of misinformation via social media channels and how dangerous this can be. He explained that the two main pieces of misinformation that spread in the wake of the election were that it is inappropriate or unusual to continue counting ballots, and that there were ballots all over the country that were either "lost" or "found." It is now the job of communications professionals and the media to inform the public that these are both false statements.
What we have learned is that in reality, during each election all ballots are counted, even after a president claims victory. This is to ensure that each and every voice matters, because that's what democracy is all about. The huge number of mail-in ballots (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) had delayed this process because the election is so close, so these mail-in ballots truly made the difference in the results. Additionally, no ballots are "lost" nor "found," but rather more eligible ballots were rolling in to election offices as the days go on.
Michelle Kinney spoke about how the American public is accustomed to knowing the results on the night of November 3, causing tension and anxiety as the results were still too close to call days after the election. Klepper joined in, saying that this could be solved by communications professionals. It is the media's job to explain, educate and inform the public of why this was not the case this time around.
Before Joseph Biden was announced as the president-elect on November 7, four days after election day, there was great civil unrest in a deeply divided America. Two months later, with the election results finalized and Inauguration Day in sight, our country is still in a place of deep uncertainty. If this election taught us anything, it is that we are all personally responsible for getting information from trusted sources and not believing everything we see on social media.
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