Agenda-Setting
During the 2016 election Donald Trump on his website https://www.donaldjtrump.com/ had a
page of videos with him explaining his views on all different issues. This has
now changed and most information on that website has been taken down because he
uses https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy
now. On this website Trump’s issues page is set up as one of the main tabs and
under it are six issues. These issues are in list: America First Energy Plan;
America First Foreign Policy; Bringing Back Jobs And Growth; Making Our
Military Strong Again; Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community; Trade
Deals That Work For All Americans.
_________________________________________________________________________________
 |
| Obama's Issues Tab |
 |
| Trump's Issues Tab |
I decided to compare Donald Trump’s issues page to Obama’s
to get an idea of how the presidents differ in using the same website to
promote their views on issues.
One of the major differences is that Obama has
many more issues and breaks them down into categories from Popular Topics, Top
Issues, More and even More. Once clicking on the issues page of Trump’s it is
straight forward, easy to read and maneuver. Obama has articles, pictures,
links, categories and quotes.
 |
| Trump's Main Issue Page. (straight to an Issue) |
When clicking on an issue on Trump’s page there is the Title
of the issue and then a typed out message of Trump’s views on the situation. Straight
forwards, simple facts, no pictures just his plans for changing America. On
Obama’s issue website when you click on an issue it goes into more detail,
broken down into sections with images, quotes statistics and resources.
 |
| Obama's Main Issue Page (list of Issues) |
The different approaches to the same website could be because
Obama was president for eight years so more information has accumulated but it
could also be from Trump taking a different approach on communicating politics.
Throughout his campaign he appealed to the people that were tired of politics,
people that wanted clear and easy information and his website does just that.
_________________________________________________________________________________
 |
| <--------------One of Obama's Issue Tabs |
 |
| One of Trump's Issues tab----------------> |
_________________________________________________________________________________
I looked at a few different sources to compare what
candidates, media and the American citizens find to be the most important
issues or concerns.
- Trump’s top priorities: Energy plan, Foreign Policy, Bringing back and growing Jobs. Obama’s top priorities: Civil Rights, Climate Change, Economy.
- When considering the media I went with how much I hear about issues when watching the news or when I am on social media. Those concerns would be terrorist attacks/immigration/foreign policies, planned parenthood/abortion, and gun control.
- And then I looked at what American citizens are most concerned with: Healthcare, economy, and terrorist attacks.
_________________________________________________________________________________
References:
I found it funny on Trump's website that he has a "shop" tab so people can buy his merchandise. He is a businessman! I believe that Trump doesn't really make his own agenda, but that his team makes most of those decisions. I mean honestly foreign policy and health care isn't really "up his alley", but things that would make more money are his forte.
ReplyDeleteI like how you analyzed the White House website instead of his campaign one. Trump always likes to insinuate that his policies are better than Obama’s without elaborating on it so I think it’s good that you touched on that. Also, it’s interesting to see the vast difference between Trump’s top priorities online compared to the ones the media tends to highlight. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteWow, I was blown away at how in depth you went on this blog post and how good of a job you did at comparing the two presidents. It was a great interactive tool to see the pictures of both presidents issue pages at the times to get an idea of how they differed, where they were the same. It seems weird to say that Trumps top priority is the energy plan considering how little he wants to believe about global warming, but that is what his website says. Anyways, great job on this blog post.
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job on this one! I loved how you compared and contrasted both Obama and Trump in terms of how they presented their solutions to key campaign issues. It again portrayed why so many people were worried about a Trump presidency because he never gave answers to the "why" on his approach to fixing problems, while Obama laid out the reasons why he wanted to make the steps he did! Again, great job on this one!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your use of media and how you took screen shots of the actual web pages. I also like how you compared Obama and Trump. It is very evident that Trump like you said does appeal more to the anti-establishment voter by looking at his issues.
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose to compare Trump and Obama instead of Trump and Clinton. Although there are some very popular policies that I am very aware Obama supports there are still smaller policies that I am unclear on. However, when comparing Trump and Obama I do see how Obama is a little more clear with his convictions.
ReplyDelete