Neither Autonomy Nor Elite Steering: A Political Communication Analysis of Campaign and General Tweeting in the 2012 U.S. Election
22 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2013
Date Written: 2013
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between campaign communications and the discursive frames articulated more generally by social media users in the context of the 2012 U.S. presidential election. It identifies campaign frames with respect to the clusters of terms produced by the campaigns themselves and identifies the extent to which these same clusters prevail over time throughout the campaign in the tweets produced by Twitter users more generally. The findings suggest that some frames fail to resonate at all while others prevail primarily with the intensification of campaign communications. These results indicate that tweets produced by the general public are neither wholly steered by elites nor wholly autonomous. Rather they appear dialogical.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation