Documenting the Emergence of Grassroots Politics on Facebook: the Florida Case
Keywords:
Facebook, political engagement, framing analysis, young votersAbstract
This study analyzed the message characteristics of U.S. high school and college students’ Facebook political groups to explore how young voters produce and reproduce political content on social network sites. Grounded in communication frame analysis, a quantitative content analysis revealed that the majority of Facebook wall posts focused on politics as a game frame rather than as an issue frame, paralleling findings in traditional news media research. Additional results show that within the interactivity frame, hyperlinks and a call for offline interactions are prevalent, as well as the emotional manifestation frame. When accounted for the election type and partisanship in the context of 2008 presidential and 2010 midterm elections, Democrats dominated the discussion during presidential elections, but Republicans were more active during congressional elections. The results of this research contribute to our understanding of the use of social networking sites for political purposes. Most importantly, it adds to the scarce body of knowledge on the grassroots-style of political discourse.
References
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Tufte, E. (1975). Determinants of the outcome of midterm congressional elections. The American Political Science Review, 69(3), 812-826.
Villegas, E. B. (2016). Facebook and its disappearing posts: Data collection approaches on fan-pages for social scientists. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 5(1), 160-188.
Williams, A. P., Trammell, K. D., Postelnicu, M., Landreville, K., & Martin, J. (2005). Blogging and hyperlinking: Use of the web to enhance viability during 2004 U.S. campaign. Journalism Studies, 6(2), 177-186.
Wojcieszak, M. E., & Mutz, D. C. (2009). Online groups and political discourse: Do online discussion spaces facilitate exposure to political disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56.
Woolley, J. K., Limperos, A. M., & Oliver, M. B. (2010). The 2008 presidential election, 2.0: A content analysis of user-generated political Facebook groups. Mass Communication & Society, 13(5), 631-652.
Xenos, M., Vromen, A., & Loader, B. D. (2014). The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 151-167.
Bekafigo, M. A., & Pingley, A. C. (2015). Tweeting negative: Determinants of negative campaigning in the 2011 gubernatorial elections. International Journal of E-Politics, 6(1), 30-41.
Brulle, R. J. (2010). From environmental campaigns to advancing the public dialog: Environmental communication for civic engagement. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 4(1), 82-98.
Campbell, A. (1960). Surge and decline: A study of electoral change. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 24 (3), 397-418.
Cappella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (1997). Spiral of cynicism: The press and the public good. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Carlisle, J. E., & Patton, R. C. (2013). Is social media changing how we understand political engagement? An analysis of Facebook and the 2008 presidential election. Political Research Quarterly, 66(4), 883–895.
Carty, V., & Onyett, J. (2006). Protest, cyberactivism and new social movements: The reemergence of the peace movement post 9/11. Social Movement Studies, 5(3), 229-249.
CIRCLE (November 2008). Turnout by education, race and gender and other 2008 youth voting statistics. Retrieved from www.civicyouth.org/?p=324.
Christenson, D., Smidt, C., & Panagopoulos, C. (2014) Deus ex Machina: Candidate Web Presence and the Presidential Nomination Campaign. Political Research Quarterly, 6(1), 108-122.
Dahlgren, P. (2005). The Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation. Political Communication, 22, 147-162.
de Vreese, C. H. (2005). News framing: Theory and typology. Information Design Journal + Document Design, 13(1), 48-59.
Enjolras, B., Steen-Johnsen, K., & Wollebaek, D. (2012). Social media and mobilization to offline demonstrations: Transcending participatory divides? New Media & Society, 15(6), 890-908.
Fernandes, J., Giurcanu, M., Bowers, K. W., & Neely, J. C. (2010). The writing on the wall: A content analysis of college students’ Facebook groups for the 2008 presidential election. Mass Communication & Society, 13(5), 653-675.
Foot, K., Schneider, S. M., Dougherty, M., Xenos, M., & Larsen, E. (2003). Analyzing linking practices: Candidate sites in the 2002 US electoral web sphere. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 8(4), doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2003
Fowler, E. F., & Ridout, T. N. (2010). Advertising trends in 2010. The Forum, 8(4). doi: 10.2202/1540-8884.1411
Gainous, J., & Wagner, K. M. (2011). Rebooting American politics: The internet revolution. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Gerodimos, R., & Justinussen, J. (2014). Obama’s 2012 Facebook campaign: Political communication in the age of the like button. Journal of Information, Technology, & Politics, 12 (2), 113-132.
Groshek, J., & Al-Rawi, A. (2013). Public sentiment and critical framing in social media content during the 2012 US presidential campaign. Social Science Computer Review, 31(5), 563-576.
Iyengar, S., & Hahn, K. S. (2009). Red media, blue media: Evidence of ideological selectivity in media use. Journal of Communication, 59(1), 19-39
Khang, H., Ki, E., & Ye, L. (2012). Social media research in advertising, communication, marketing, and public relations, 1997-2010. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 89, 279-298.
McCarthy-Latimer, C., & Kendrick, Jr., J. R. (2016). How communication technologies function as platforms and pathways to civic and political engagement: An agenda for research and public policy. International Journal of Civic Engagement and Social Change, 3(1), 23.
MacManus, S. A. (2005). Florida: The south’s premier battleground state. American Review of Politics, 26 (Summer), 155-184.
McMillan, S. J. (2002). Exploring models of interactivity from multiple research traditions: Users, documents, and systems. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingston (Eds.), Handbook of New Media (162-182). London: Sage.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Nisbet, M. C. (2009). Framing science: A new paradigm in public engagement. In L. Kahlor & P. Stout (Eds.), New Agendas in Science Communication (40-67). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Padgett, T. (October 8, 2008). Young voters could be the deciding factor in Florida. TIME. Retrieved from www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1848020,00.html
Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, V. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 227-238.
Pew Research Center. (2012). Young voters supported Obama less, but may have mattered more. Retrieved from www.people-press.org/2012/11/26/young-voters-supported-obama-less-but-may-have-mattered-more/
Postelnicu, M., & Cozma, R. (2007). Social network politics: A content analysis of MySpace profiles of political candidates from the 2006 U.S. mid-terms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.
Schuster, J. (2013). Invisible feminists? Social media and young women’s political participation. Political Science, 65(1), 8-24.
Semetko, H. A., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2000). Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news. Journal of Communication, 50(2), 93-109.
Shah, D. V., Kwak, N., & Holbery, R. L. (2001). “Connecting” and “disconnecting” with civic life: Patterns of Internet use and the production of social capital. Political Communication, 18, 141-162.
Shawki, N. (2010). Issue frames and the political outcomes of transnational campaigns: A comparison of the Jubilee 2000 movement and the currency transaction tax campaign. Global Society, 24(2), 203-230.
Strömbäck, J., & Dimitrova, D. V. (2006). Political and media systems matter: A comparison of election news coverage in Sweden and the United States. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 11, 131.
Strömbäck, J., & Kaid, L. L. (2008). The handbook of election news coverage around the world. New York, NY: Routledge.
Strömbäck, J., & van Aelst, P. (2010). Exploring some antecedents of the media’s framing of election news: A comparison of Swedish and Belgian election news. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 15(1), 41-59.
Svensson, J. (2014). Political participation on social media platforms in Sweden today: Connective individualism, expressive issue engagement and disciplined updating. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 10, 347-354.
Sweetser, K. D., & Lariscy, R. W. (2008). Candidates make good friends: An analysis of candidates' uses of Facebook. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 2(3), 175-198.
Tolbert, C., & McNeal, R. (2003). Unraveling the effects of the internet on political participation? Political Research Quarterly, 56(2), 175-185.
Trammell, K., Williams, A. P., Postelnicu, M., & Landreville, K. (2006). Evolution of online campaigning: Increasing interactivity in candidate web sites and blogs through text and technical features. Mass Communication & Society, 9(1), 21-44.
Tufte, E. (1975). Determinants of the outcome of midterm congressional elections. The American Political Science Review, 69(3), 812-826.
Villegas, E. B. (2016). Facebook and its disappearing posts: Data collection approaches on fan-pages for social scientists. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 5(1), 160-188.
Williams, A. P., Trammell, K. D., Postelnicu, M., Landreville, K., & Martin, J. (2005). Blogging and hyperlinking: Use of the web to enhance viability during 2004 U.S. campaign. Journalism Studies, 6(2), 177-186.
Wojcieszak, M. E., & Mutz, D. C. (2009). Online groups and political discourse: Do online discussion spaces facilitate exposure to political disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56.
Woolley, J. K., Limperos, A. M., & Oliver, M. B. (2010). The 2008 presidential election, 2.0: A content analysis of user-generated political Facebook groups. Mass Communication & Society, 13(5), 631-652.
Xenos, M., Vromen, A., & Loader, B. D. (2014). The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 151-167.
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