TY - JOUR
T1 - Becoming a Presidential Candidate
T2 - Social Media Following and Politician Identification
AU - McLaughlin, Bryan
AU - Macafee, Timothy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Political candidates increasingly use social media to tell their stories, share their thoughts and feelings and chronicle an unfolding election. We argue that the concept of identification—the process through which an audience member cognitively assumes the perspective of a media personality—can help illuminate how online campaigns can increase citizen support. This study employed a two-wave survey with a U.S. national sample conducted prior to the 2016 presidential election. Results of our analysis support our expectations that following Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on social media leads to increased identification with that candidate, which then affects candidate support.
AB - Political candidates increasingly use social media to tell their stories, share their thoughts and feelings and chronicle an unfolding election. We argue that the concept of identification—the process through which an audience member cognitively assumes the perspective of a media personality—can help illuminate how online campaigns can increase citizen support. This study employed a two-wave survey with a U.S. national sample conducted prior to the 2016 presidential election. Results of our analysis support our expectations that following Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on social media leads to increased identification with that candidate, which then affects candidate support.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067004709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15205436.2019.1614196
DO - 10.1080/15205436.2019.1614196
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067004709
VL - 22
SP - 584
EP - 603
JO - Mass Communication and Society
JF - Mass Communication and Society
SN - 1520-5436
IS - 5
ER -