Framing in Social Media: How the US Congress Uses Twitter Hashtags to Frame Political Issues

Abstract

Social media offers politicians an opportunity to bypass traditional media and directly influence their audience's opinions and behavior through framing. Using data from Twitter about how members of the U.S. Congress use hashtags, we examine to what extent politicians participate in framing, which issues received the most framing efforts, and which politicians exhibited the highest rates of framing. We find that politicians actively use social media to frame issues by choosing both topics to discuss and specific hashtags within topics, and that recognizably divisive issues receive the most framing efforts. Finally, we find that voting patterns generally align with tweeting patterns; however, several notable exceptions suggest our methodology can provide a more nuanced picture of Congress than voting records alone.

Keywords: media effects, framing, social media, political communication, Twitter, politicians