What Was the Problem in Parkland? Using Social Media to Measure the Effectiveness of Issue Frames

Aslett, Kevin, Nora Webb Williams, Andreu Casas, and Weslesy Zuidema, and John Wilkerson. "What Was the Problem in Parkland? Using Social Media to Measure the Effectiveness of Issue Frames." Policy Studies Journal. (August 28, 2020) First View: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/psj.124

54 Pages Posted: 31 May 2019 Last revised: 31 Aug 2020

See all articles by Kevin Aslett

Kevin Aslett

NYU - Center for Social Media and Politics

Nora Webb Williams

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Andreu Casas

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Communication Science

Wesley Zuidema

affiliation not provided to SSRN

John Wilkerson

University of Washington - Department of Political Science

Date Written: April 28, 2020

Abstract

Agenda setting and issue framing research investigates how frames impact public attention, policy decisions, and political outcomes. Social media sites, such as Twitter, provide opportunities to study framing dynamics in an important area of political discourse. We present a method for identifying frames in tweets and measuring their effectiveness. We use topic modeling combined with manual validation to identify recurrent problem frames and topics in thousands of tweets by gun rights and gun control groups following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, shooting. We find that each side used Twitter to advance policy narratives about the problem in Parkland. Gun rights groups’ narratives implied that more gun restrictions were not the solution. Their most effective frame focused on officials’ failures to enforce existing laws. In contrast, gun control groups portrayed easy access to guns as the problem and emphasized the importance of mobilizing politically to force change.

Keywords: Framing, Social Media, Mass Shootings, Parkland, Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Suggested Citation

Aslett, Kevin and Webb Williams, Nora and Casas, Andreu and Zuidema, Wesley and Wilkerson, John, What Was the Problem in Parkland? Using Social Media to Measure the Effectiveness of Issue Frames (April 28, 2020). Aslett, Kevin, Nora Webb Williams, Andreu Casas, and Weslesy Zuidema, and John Wilkerson. "What Was the Problem in Parkland? Using Social Media to Measure the Effectiveness of Issue Frames." Policy Studies Journal. (August 28, 2020) First View: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/psj.124, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3383797 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3383797

Kevin Aslett

NYU - Center for Social Media and Politics ( email )

Bobst Library, E-resource Acquisitions
20 Cooper Square 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10003-711
United States

Nora Webb Williams (Contact Author)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ( email )

702 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
United States

Andreu Casas

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Communication Science ( email )

De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam, 1081HV
Netherlands

Wesley Zuidema

affiliation not provided to SSRN

John Wilkerson

University of Washington - Department of Political Science ( email )

101 Gowen Hall
Box 353530
Seattle, WA 98195
United States

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