Social media—and, in particular, social media influencers—are playing an increasingly central role in shaping public opinion on a variety of issues. The political sphere is no exception. In response to the impact that social media influencers have on citizens’ political views and voting behaviors, political parties adapt their messages and policies during election campaigns. Media outlets, too, faced with competition for readership from social media, are adjusting their news coverage. To analyze the nature and extent of the impact of social media on parties’ policies, media outlets’ news reports, and citizens’ opinions, we used a game theoretical model of electoral competition involving four key stakeholders—citizens, political parties, media outlets, and social media influencers. Our results show that with social media, parties’ policy positions become more moderate while media outlets’ editorial positions become more extreme. We also show that citizens’ opinions may become more polarized when the influencers’ true editorial positions are more homogeneous as a result of increased information distortion.

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社交媒体时代的选举竞争：社交媒体影响者的角色

社交媒体，尤其是社交媒体影响者，在影响各种问题的公众舆论方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。政治领域也不例外。为了应对社交媒体影响者对公民政治观点和投票行为的影响，政党在竞选期间调整其信息和政策。媒体机构也面临着来自社交媒体的读者竞争，正在调整他们的新闻报道。为了分析社交媒体对政党政策、媒体新闻报道和公民意见影响的性质和程度，我们使用了选举竞争的博弈论模型，涉及四个关键利益相关者——公民、政党、媒体、和社交媒体影响者。我们的研究结果表明，通过社交媒体，政党的政策立场变得更加温和，而媒体机构的编辑立场变得更加极端。我们还表明，当影响者的真实编辑立场因信息扭曲增加而更加同质时，公民的意见可能会变得更加两极分化。