The Right Wing Fringe and the 2016 Election

When entering this exhibit, I thought the lay out was very simple, yet interesting. The use of three different screens to project the ways in which social media had an impact on the 2016 election intrigued me and in a way made me more interactive with the piece. Alongside this, I really enjoyed the way in which there were steps for viewers to sit on and observe the work; this making the experience more personal and easier to focus on. Nonetheless while viewing each ad I became to wonder as to why each ad seemed to be “pro” Trump and painted Hilary Clinton in a negative demining way. In addition to this, I noticed how each ad was in the form of “meme”, which is essentially a joke. Throughout the exhibit I began to realize how I have personally seen various of these images on my social media timeline, this making me question if I myself had been brain washed by social media in some type of way. Various of images stood out to me but one that peaked my interest the most was a quote by Trump, “The biggest problem this country has is being politically correct”, this making me very confused and questioning if Trump actually did say this. Another image that stood out to me is Trump wearing his famous “Make America Great Again” hat, but someone had photo shopped it from red to white with a new saying “Make America White Again” ; this alarming me. I think it was at this point that I began to realize that this entire portion of the exhibit was on fake news and the ways in which people will believe anything they see online. In fact, in one section of the exhibit an image flashed on the screen with the quote “The media will believe what the media tells them to believe”. This reoffering to myself that this exhibit essentially was made to make fun of the ways that social media does not question what is put on it, they just believe it.