---
title: "How the 2016 presidential campaign is being discussed on Reddit"
description: "We looked at the role of news on the site and how users were discussing the presidential candidates in the lead-up to the primaries. Here are 5 key findings."
date: "2016-05-26"
authors:
  - name: "Michael Barthel"
    job_title: "Former Senior Researcher"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/michael-barthel/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/05/26/how-the-2016-presidential-campaign-is-being-discussed-on-reddit/"
---

# How the 2016 presidential campaign is being discussed on Reddit

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/05/PJ_2016.05.26_reddit_update-01.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/)

News is a major part of Reddit, an online discussion forum that calls itself “the front page of the internet.” The site has hosted Q&A sessions with newsmakers from President Obama to Amy Poehler, and it sends many of its millions of daily visitors to news sites and other publishers.

Using data from a nationally representative survey and a content analysis of around 165 million Reddit comments, [Pew Research Center looked at the role of news on the site](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/) – and how Reddit users were discussing the presidential candidates in the lead-up to the primaries. Here are five key findings from the report:

Just 4% of U.S. adults are Reddit users, but **seven-in-ten Reddit users say they get news on the site**. Nearly half (45%) of Reddit users report learning something about the 2016 presidential campaign in a given week on the site, a share comparable to those of Facebook and Twitter users and higher than other social networking sites.

**Fully 47% of** **Reddit news users consider themselves liberal**, compared with just 24% of all U.S. adults. In addition, they are especially likely to be young (59% are 18-29 years old) and male (71%).

[![FT_16.02.24_reddit_candidates](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/02/FT_16.02.24_reddit_candidates.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/)

Overall, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was mentioned more frequently than any other candidate in May, June and September of 2015. **Sanders was mentioned in about 165,000 comments**, **more than the number of mentions for the next two highest candidates combined**: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with about 85,000, and Donald Trump, with about 73,000. The main Sanders discussion forum, or subreddit, /r/SandersForPresident, offered not only discussion but opportunities to volunteer and raise funds for the candidate.

**Heavy commenting activity is concentrated among a minority of users. **As we have found with other social networking sites, most users participate lightly, but heavy engagement is more common among a core group. Six-in-ten authors who posted at least one comment naming a candidate did so *only *once, while a quarter left three or more comments. Similarly, our [2015 study](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2015/03/05/facebook-and-twitter-new-but-limited-parts-of-the-local-news-system/) of local news habits found that less than one-fifth of commenters to Facebook pages run by news outlets left more than two comments. [Another report](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/08/19/how-do-americans-use-twitter-for-news/) found that just 12% of Twitter users tweeted 100 times or more during a four-week period.

**Four-in-ten comments mentioning presidential candidates were left in non-political forums** on Reddit such as r/atheism, r/LateShow, and r/forwardsfromgrandma. Still, a majority of comments (60%) were found in explicitly political subreddits, whether dedicated to general discussion of politics, or to particular candidates, parties or ideologies. (For a guide to Reddit terminology, [see our glossary](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/terminology/).)

*This post was originally published on Feb. 24, 2016, and updated on May 26, 2016, to reflect a revised weighting of the original data. For more details, see the report’s [updated methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/reddit-methodology/).*