Vox Populi? Trump’s Twitter Page as Public Forum

Carles Roca-Cuberes and Alyssa Young
Additional contact information
Carles Roca-Cuberes: Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University, Roc Boronat, 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain
Alyssa Young: Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University, Roc Boronat, 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain

Social Sciences, 2020, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: This article investigates Twitter replies to tweets concerning the Russia Investigation, published by the United States President, Donald J. Trump. Using a qualitative content analysis, we examine a sample of 200 tweet replies within the timeframe of the first 16 months of Trump’s presidency to explore the arguments made in favor or not in favor of Trump in the comment replies. The results show more anti-Trump than pro-Trump rhetoric in the Twitter replies; the ratio of comments displaying support for Trump or his innocence does not even reach 10%. This study concludes that Trump’s tweets do not inform his Twitter audience’s opinion on this matter, and that Trump’s repetition of catchphrases on the Russia Investigation did not have a measurable impact on his Twitter audience’s responses.

Keywords: Russia investigation; president Donald Trump; political communication; qualitative content analysis; Twitter as a public forum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/12/226/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/12/226/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:9:y:2020:i:12:p:226-:d:459925

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().