Politicians and the Policy Agenda: Does Use of Twitter by the U.S. Congress DirectNew York TimesContent?

Abstract

The conventional understanding of how elected officials affect the policy agenda is based on the argument that they use symbols and rhetoric to propagate a policy problem, primarily through the traditional media. The arguments presented in this article are largely consistent with this claim but account for the function of social media. More specifically, and framed by indexing theory, we argue that social media enhances opportunities for policy agenda builders in the U.S. Congress to share information with journalists. Across the key policy issues of 2013, tests for congruence between politicians' Twitter posts and New York Times articles confirm a connection, particularly for the policy issue areas of the economy, immigration, health care, and marginalized groups. Simultaneous discussion and debate between Democrats and Republicans about a particular policy issue area, however, negatively impact how the New York Times indexes a particular issue.

И Не Друг, И Не Враг: Дональд Трамп В Российских СМИ

“…Like literature (Belt et al 2012;Lee 2007;Shapiro and Hemphill 2017;Wallsten 2007), we showed that discussions in different types of media are very similar. It is noteworthy that this similarity persist even when mass media are not free from censorship (Fredheim 2017;Gehlbach 20 2010).…”

“…Consequently, it is too early to announce the death of traditional media.An increased role of the Internet and the hypothesis of multiple agendas opens up the opportunities of comparative study of the influence of media agenda and web on public opinion(Althaus and Tewksbury 2000). A number of studies demonstrate considerable similarities among the agendas of traditional media (television, press, radio), online news and blogosphere in the United States(Belt, Just, and Crigler 2012;Lee 2007;Shapiro and Hemphill 2017;Wallsten…”

Who is Influencing the #GDPR Discussion on Twitter: Implications for Public Relations

“…Citizens use features offered by these sites to communicate their messages to politicians, raise complaints and express their opinion about politics or new regulations [59]. Subsequently, governments and politicians have increased their presence on social Page 2620 media to raise public awareness about various regulations and policies [4], enhance public diplomacy [14], set policy agenda [53], address citizens' concern [27], and engage voters during elections [63]. Social media has also become a crucial tool for governments to reach the public during a crisis [51].…”

Why Do Politicians Tweet? Extremists, Underdogs, and Opposing Parties as Political Tweeters

“…This perspective assumes that social media and traditional media channels are substitutes to politicians (i.e., one may replace the other in use). However, these two channels may sometimes function as complements as well (e.g., Shapiro & Hemphill ). Although we acknowledge that the relationship between these two channels may be multidimensional, we demonstrate that our data set supports the hypotheses formulated based on the assumption that they are substitutes.…”