Twitter as a platform for engaging political dialogue: a dialogic theory content analysis of Donald Trump's general election campaign Twitter feed

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Date
2017
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Publisher
University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

The Internet and social media are tools that possess the ability to make communicating with celebrities, politicians and all types of important figures an actual possibility. This content analysis explores the use of then- presidential candidate Donald Trump’s use of Twitter to communicate with his followers. A random sample of tweets was selected following the time period after the Republican National Convention to a week after the general election. The study relies on Kent and Taylor’s (2001) principle strategies of how to create effective relationship building through dialogue. There is very little research available concerning political candidates and dialogic theory on social media. However, what is found in this study remains consistent with that of similar studies on dialogic theory and celebrities and organizations’ use of social media. Social media as a tool for building effective relationships through the use of dialogic principles is severely under-utilized. Despite the lack of dialogic principles, Trump’s followers remained highly engaged into his tweeting habits, especially with tweets that attacked an individual or the media. The findings prove that these types of tweets were published most often thus lending credence to assert that the aggressive rhetoric was popular amongst his followers.

Description
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Keywords
Communication, Political science
Citation