Facebooks role in Trumps win is clear. No matter what Mark Zuckerberg says.

[JoeStuckInOH]

9. Facebook and twitter are merely tools. Mass media tools, but tools nonetheless.

That the trump campaign used them and cornered those media tools while the people running the democratic campaign did not is quite savvy. And was certainly a failure by the democrats in undervaluing that segment of the campaign front.

I personally don't think there was anything inherently wrong about the use of Facebook/Twitter in this manner... even if I don't necessarily agree with the political stances they favored. Until there is codified regulation of that kind of media with agreed upon standards, then it should be fair game for whomever to utilize how they wish.

I mean what if in the early 1900's during the dawn on modern aviation, Germany paid pilots and planes to sky-write political messages or fly aerial banners over cities during to influence an election. Is it OK for the losers to cry foul that the winners had an unfair advantage in tapping a new method of propagandizing?

The only real difference is that in the 21st century everyone has mass media devices in their pockets and the republican campaign figured out how to more effectively saturate everyone's personal media consumption. It was a truly a game-changing election and the new tactics leave a lot to think about in future campaigns. From an academic standpoint, it really is quite interesting.