As the election of Nov.

6 has come to a conclusion, the results in Texas are favorable

towards the Republican Party. In Texas, Ted Cruz defeated Beto O’Rourke for the U.S. senate

position. In the gubernational election, incumbent Republican governor Greg Abbott defeated

Democratic candidate, Lupe Valdez. In the local level, Mac Thornberry received 71.46 percent

from Wichita County as Thornberry is re-elected in Wichita Falls’ district county of Texas’ 13th

congressional district.

As individuals voted for candidate, individuals were also informed about candidates. In a

questionnaire among six respondents that attends Midwestern State University, all six

respondents used television and social media as a means of getting information about candidates.

Natty Cervantes, general business junior, said she was originally informed about

candidates with the platform of social media.

“A lot of it started on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. You never get the full

story, however, on social media. I went off on my own and did my own research, upon articles I

came across Google. I did listen to speeches on television and going to their rallies. I tried to give

each news broadcast such as FOX their time just so I can stay informed,” Cervantes said.

Paige Cantrell, education sophomore, said she got infomation from television and new

sources.

“Television and news articles are where I get my sources from. Just like articles that are

unbiased, an unbiased source. I don’t watch one specific TV source. I switched around various

channels to get my information,” Cantrell said.

Ellie Gunderson, political science senior, said she would not change any of the media

coverage as it was instantenous.

“The media coverage was great. The election was on the news, 24/7. I wouldn’t change any

media coverage,” Gunderson said.

In order to minimize misinformation, Jeremy Duff, associate professor of political

science recommends two sources of information.

“The quickest way is to go to the candidates’ website. These days, most candidates even

at the local level have a website or a Facebook where the candidates stand at things. Now, you

have to take a grain of salt in that, it is published by a candidate themselves to be put in the most

favorable light of a candidate. The other way I recommend of getting information is that the

League of Women Voters puts out a voters guide for every election. They cover not just the

statewide election, but also the local candidates too. They send a questionnaire to each of the

candidates that are running for a particular office, the candidates fill it out, send it back to the

League of Women, and the League of Women publish it to their voters guide. Because it’s

questions asked by the League of Women, it’s not just here I am, I am awesome. It’s them

answering specific questions asked by the League of Women, it’s straightforward,” Duff said.

Steve Garrison, associate professor of political science argues that needs to be regulations

of clickbait titles.

“One, you have to as an individual is follow up and do that stuff. In the grander bigger

scheme of things is that our society needs to find a way of regulation on social media. I think it’s

too irresponsible. There’s need to be some form of check on people, posting random wrong

things. A good analogy is that, if you have ever driven, everyone has seen a car wreck, everyone

slows down because they’re looking at a car wreck but the police stands at the wreck to make

you continue to drive, we need some form of regulation on the internet for that,” Garrison said.
 Duff said that it is hard to avoid clickbait titles that could mislead information about a

candidate.

“It’s tough. In this day of age, I don’t think you could avoid it [misinformation]. The fact

is, that even websites and organizations that are respected as far as providing decent political

information falls trap to clickbait stuff because they got to make money,” Duff said.

An approach according to Duff is to read the article as opposed to the headline.

“Read the article, not just the headline. When you read the article, it’s much more nuance

than the headline, which could be outrageous,” Duff said.

There are two sources of information that Duff would recommend for voters to get

information about politics.

“One I would recommend that is pretty helpful is RealClearPolitics. That is a news

aggregation website. They’re [RealClearPolitics] going to provide you with tons of different

links to different websites and articles. They also keep track of public opinion pollings very well.

Not just there’s, but lots of different polls such as presidential approval and election polls.

Another one is POLITICO. They tend to be non-partisan,” Duff said.

Garrison said that he would recommend sources that has minimal analysis.

“As far as sources go, I would go for a writers report because it’s more factual, things like

the Associated Press writers where they don’t put as much as analysis on their stories,” Garrison

said.

Duff said he noticed how enthusiastic students were about the recent election.

“I have seen some more of that in my classes where, it seem like I had more students this

semester that was more energized about going to the polls and voting. I saw social media posts
where they [the students] were more energized of going to O’Rourke and Cruz’s rallies. We

could very well be moving towards in that direction,” Duff said.

RESPONDENTS COMMENTS:

Carlos Gonzalez: I got my information was a little bit from television and social media.

FOX, CNN and NBC were my main information from television. In regards to websites, I got

my sources from Beto’s and Ted Cruz’s websites.

Valerie Martin: I got a lot from the news, I researched myself about them and my dad was

a lot passionate. I watched FOX news

Leia de la Garza: I watched CNN, FOX and MSNBC, you have to get a bit of everything

to be informed. I get my social media information from Twitter.