Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Black Millennial turnout declined in 2016. Are the Russians and Instagram to blame?



In 2016, voter turnout for Millennials (ages 20-35 in 2016) increased by 4.4% from 46.4% to 50.8%.  But Black Millennial turnout declined by 4.4% from 55% in 2012 to 50.6% in 2018. (Krogstad & Lopez, 2017)

This week two reports commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee to look into Russian interference in the 2016 election noted that in fact more fraudulent activity took place on Instagram than Facebook.  Specifically there were 187 million interactions with deceptive content on Instagram compared with 76.5 million on Facebook. (WSJ, 2018)

Why does this matter?  It matters because 70% of Instagram users are under the age of 35.  That's 540 million people. Moreover, more Black Americans use Instagram (43%) than their Hispanic (38%) and White peers(32% ). (Worthy, 2018)

Hence the great success of the effort.  It's a perfect example of fishing where the fish are.  Kudos to their media planners.


Krogstad, J. & Lopez, M. (2017, May 12)  Black voter turnout fell in 2016, even as a record number of Americans cast ballots.  pewresearch.org.  Retrieved December 19, 2018, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/black-voter-turnout-fell-in-2016-even-as-a-record-number-of-americans-cast-ballots/

Volz, D. (2018, December 17)  Russians Took Aim at Black Voters to Boost Trump, reports to Senate Find.  wsj.com  Retrieved December 19, 2018, from

Worthy, P. (2018, September 26)  Top Instagram Demographics That Matter to Social Media Marketers. hootsuite.com.  Retrieved December 19, 2018, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/


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