Start Date
10-12-2017 12:00 AM
Description
Twitter is the latest social networking tool said to be reshaping presidential political campaigns. In order to maximize the influence of their messages to voters, presidential nominees often use various techniques to transmit their campaign messages in the most effective way to the electorate. However, there is little scholarship on the use of Twitter as a strategic tool for presidential political campaigns. Using a nuanced magical realism theoretical perspective, this paper seeks to fill this gap through a content analysis of several of the presidential campaign nominees' tweets, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein, in the six months leading up to election day on November 8th, 2016. Consequently,this study provides a methodological contribution pertaining to the utilization of magical realism to understand how Twitter is shaping the new political landscape. Furthermore, it provides an illustration of the application of specific techniques which underpin the magical realism concept.
Recommended Citation
Clohessy, Trevor; Callinan, Colin; Acton, Tom; Whelan, Eoin; and Scott, Murray, "An Analysis of the 2016 American Presidential Nominees’ Tweets: A Magical Realism Perspective" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 1.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/ResearchMethods/Presentations/1
An Analysis of the 2016 American Presidential Nominees’ Tweets: A Magical Realism Perspective
Twitter is the latest social networking tool said to be reshaping presidential political campaigns. In order to maximize the influence of their messages to voters, presidential nominees often use various techniques to transmit their campaign messages in the most effective way to the electorate. However, there is little scholarship on the use of Twitter as a strategic tool for presidential political campaigns. Using a nuanced magical realism theoretical perspective, this paper seeks to fill this gap through a content analysis of several of the presidential campaign nominees' tweets, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein, in the six months leading up to election day on November 8th, 2016. Consequently,this study provides a methodological contribution pertaining to the utilization of magical realism to understand how Twitter is shaping the new political landscape. Furthermore, it provides an illustration of the application of specific techniques which underpin the magical realism concept.