The Logic of Political Coverage on Twitter: Temporal Dynamics and Content

Abstract

Social media services have become areas of political communication. Politicians integrate them in their campaigns, journalists use them as sources and topics, and the public uses them for the discussion of politics. In this, political activities on social media are clearly interconnected with the coverage of politics by traditional media. This article analyzes Twitter messages commenting on politics during the campaign for the 2009 federal election in Germany. It will be shown that the temporal dynamics and content of Twitter messages follow a hybrid logic of political coverage, sometimes following the same logic as the coverage of political actors in traditional news media, whereas in other cases following a logic specific to political expression on the Internet.

What do politicians do on Twitter? Functions and communication strategies in the Spanish electoral campaign of 2016

“…In the past several years, the use of social media in election campaigns has been studied (Aragón et al, 2013;Jungherr, 2014). The bibliography initially has identified some of the functions fulfilled by Twitter in the communication strategy of the parties and their candidates (Parmelee;Bichard, 2012).…”

Campanha eleitoral no Twitter: as estratégias dos candidatos na disputa para a Prefeitura de Curitiba em 2016

“…Conforme foi visto, os debates televisionados podem concentrar a audiência dos eleitores, proporcionar notícias e discussões posteriores (BENOIT, 2015a;JUNGHERR, 2014), enquanto o Twitter pode favorecer o aumento do volume de mensagens políticas e servir como um complemento ao debate televisionado (TRILLING, 2015;LARSSON;MOE, 2012). Ainda, as pesquisas podem influenciar a estratégia e a decisão tanto dos candidatos quanto dos eleitores (COX, 1997;BENOIT, 2015a Na figura abaixo, a linha cinza apresenta a distribuição agregada das postagens ao longo da campanha, ou seja, a somatória das postagens efetuadas pelos candidatos agrupadas por dia.…”

The empiricist’s challenge: Asking meaningful questions in political science in the age of big data

“…Although, as Karpf (2017, p. 5) notes, we still tend to think of "the media system" as mainly characterized by the broadcast media institutions that dominated the twentieth century, in the hybrid media system (Chadwick, 2013) the structure, routines, and operations of these same institutions have been reconfigured (if not replaced) in reaction to pressures by new media that play an increasingly powerful role in setting the agenda (Jungherr, 2014). In their search for power, individual and institutional actors (such as candidates, social movements, or political parties), adjust their strategies on the basis of what different platforms afford them.…”

“…For one, we have an evolving segment of research using digital trace data to illustrate online components of political events, such as protests, televised debates, or election campaigns (Jungherr, 2014(Jungherr, , 2015Jungherr & Jürgens, 2014;Lotan et al, 2011;Nulty, Theocharis, Popa, Parnet, & Benoit, 2016;Wells et al, 2016). The trouble with studies largely focusing on simply describing political online phenomena without establishing larger context is that they can only be a first step in increasing our understanding of politics online.…”