Coherent campaigns? Campaign broadcast and social messaging
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2015-0348 |
| Pages | 580-594 |
| Date | 12 September 2016 |
| Published date | 12 September 2016 |
| Author | Leticia Bode,David S. Lassen,Young Mie Kim,Dhavan V. Shah,Erika Franklin Fowler,Travis Ridout,Michael Franz |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Coherent campaigns? Campaign
broadcast and social messaging
Leticia Bode
Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
David S. Lassen
Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin, USA
Young Mie Kim and Dhavan V. Shah
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Erika Franklin Fowler
Department of Government, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA
Travis Ridout
School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Washington State University,
Pullman, Washington, USA, and
Michael Franz
Department of Government and Legal Studies, Bowdoin College,
Brunswick, Maine, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Despite the growing use of social media by politicians, especially during election
campaigns, research on the integration of these media into broader campaign communication
strategies remains rare. The purpose of this paper is to ask what the consequences of the transition to
social media may be, specifically considering how Senate candidates’use of a popular social network,
Twitter, is related to their messaging via broadcast media in the form of campaign advertising, in
terms of content and tone.
Design/methodology/approach –To address this research question, a unique data set combining
every tweet (10,303) and every television ad aired (576,933 ad airings) by candidate campaigns for the
US Senate during the 2010 campaign is created. Using these data, tweets and ads are analyzed for their
references to issues as well as their overall tone.
Findings –Findings demonstrate that social messaging often resembles broadcast advertising, but
that Twitter nonetheless occupies a unique place in modern campaigns in that its tone tends to be quite
different than that of advertisements.
Research limitations/implications –This sheds light on a larger debate about whether online
campaigning has produced a fundamental change in election practices or whether new media simply
extend “campaigning as usual.”
Originality/value –This study uses a novel data set, encompassing the complete universe of ads and
tweets distributed by candidates for Senate in 2010.
Keywords Twitter, Social media, Campaign advertising, US elections, US Senate
Paper type Research paper
Although political pundits espouse the game-changing nature of social media for
politics, research on how campaigns are integrating these media into their broader
communication strategies and how they compare with more traditional media outreach
is rare. Nonetheless, candidates’increasing adoption of social media suggests they see
Online Information Review
Vol. 40 No. 5, 2016
pp. 580-594
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-11-2015-0348
Received 1 November 2015
Revised 27 January 2016
Accepted 4 February 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
580
OIR
40,5
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