ABSTRACT
Donald Trump's rapid political ascent to the presidency from a career as a real estate tycoon and reality television celebrity speaks to the extreme level of citizen frustration with conventional politics in 2016. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign Trump's use of Twitter set the political agenda for the media and the other candidates. For news consumers generally, though, media use patterns remained relatively similar to those of recent presidential elections. Trump routinely returned fire on his critics, using campaign-style rallies and Twitter to attack mainstream media outlets as failing business entities and as purveyors of "fake news". Trump's campaign benefitted from mass media consumption patterns that enabled conservatives to use Fox News and online news outlets to receive largely congenial news reports of Republican causes and candidates. Even so, Trump's treatment on Fox News's Special Report during the 2016 presidential campaign was not particularly upbeat, though Fox was less critical than other comparable news programs.
