Journal article
When presidential candidates voice party issues, does Twitter listen?
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties: Donald Trump's Challenge to the Study of Elections, Vol.28(2), pp.208-224
04/03/2018
DOI: 10.1080/17457289.2018.1441847
Abstract
Presidential candidates often speak to their party's issues because parties are thought to have "greater competence on handling" some issues versus others [Petrocik 1996, "Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study." American Journal of Political Science 40 (3): 825-850, 825]. The present study considers whether Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tend to use different vocal inflections when talking about their party's issues. Using the audio from the three 2016 presidential debates, we not only find Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seem to be more emotionally invested in their party's issues, but they use distinct vocal patterns which suggest they "own" some issues more than others. To assess whether viewers responded more positively to these different vocal inflections, we used the valence of 428,185 live-tweets. Ultimately, we found Twitter was net-positive when the candidates raised their vocal pitch while talking about their party's issues. This suggests nonverbal cues are an important component of issue ownership.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- When presidential candidates voice party issues, does Twitter listen?
- Creators
- Bryce Jensen Dietrich - Department of Political Science, University of IowaCourtney L Juelich - Department of Political Science, University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties: Donald Trump's Challenge to the Study of Elections, Vol.28(2), pp.208-224
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.1080/17457289.2018.1441847
- ISSN
- 1745-7289
- eISSN
- 1745-7297
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/03/2018
- Academic Unit
- Political Science
- Record Identifier
- 9983982715202771
Metrics
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