Hashtag politics gives people who don’t have big money to donate to candidates a way to compete with big donors, or so says social media guru Alan Rosenblatt in a talk at Baruch. Hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter aggregate conversation and opinion, creating “powerful social capital” to compete with financial capital, Rosenblatt says. The hashtag has made it easier for likeminded people to affiliate across physical distances and interact, says assistant professor Katherine Behar, who noted that this presidential race has been called the first social media election.  “One thing we are seeing as never before,” Behar says,” “is the strange sight of news media covering social media.” The hashtag makes interaction with the candidates easier. When Donald Trump is tweeting, says Rosenblatt, he’s “actually interacting directly with a voter who might not have had any opportunity to meet the candidate.”