The US Presidential Election: social media, populism and big money
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The BBC's Jon Sopel and Channel 5's Andy Bell took part in a US Politics event at St Benedict's, organised and led by A level Politics students Evan Hobson and Finlay Healy.
![St Benedict's Sixth Form led US Politics Evening](/_site/data/files/images/news%20images/Politics/B04D588BAFDC8EB9A3AE51D71EB335B4.jpg)
Given the current volatile and fast-moving political situation on both sides of the Atlantic, it was something of a coup to get two high-powered political journalists - the BBC's North America editor, Jon Sopel (via Skype) and Channel 5's Political Editor, Andy Bell - to attend. Both gave insightful responses to the four main questions put to them by Evan and Finlay: What are the major differences between US and UK politics? Is Trump on the road to a 2020 victory? What is fuelling the rise of populism? What is the impact of social media on election campaigns?
![St Benedict's Sixth Form led US Politics Evening](/_site/data/files/images/news%20images/politics/0C0DBE4ACEB37020609C6729A0A74DF2.jpg)
Digital artwork by Nicola Buttigieg (cousin of Democrat candidate Pete Buttigieg) provided a useful case study for this last question, in the form of her mosaic composed of 1000s of images submitted via Twitter. A US election campaign intern also talked about how she uses social media to draw together and connect followers, before a lively question-and-answer session drew the event to a close.
![St Benedict's Sixth Form led US Politics Evening](/_site/data/files/images/news%20images/politics/7C049E52F1ECF61EC03D809ACC7A9581.jpg)
![St Benedict's Sixth Form led US Politics Evening](/_site/data/files/images/news%20images/politics/7ECF7A2918DB58AEDBB94B5C8DA29BA1.jpg)
![St Benedict's Sixth Form led US Politics Evening](/_site/data/files/images/news%20images/politics/45F0C0EBD0E5D006EF33D0F1A060815D.jpg)