The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign

385 Pages·2017·3.687 MB·English

by  Jody C. Baumgartner and Terri L. Towner

The Internet and the 2016
Presidential Campaign

The Internet and the 2016
Presidential Campaign
Edited by
Jody C Baumgartner and
Terri L. Towner
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
Copyright © 2017 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
ISBN 978-1-4985-4296-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4985-4297-5 (electronic)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Terri would like to dedicate this book to her Mom and Dad,
Sharron and Russell: Thank you.
The book is also dedicated to Jody’s daughters, Alicia and Anna.

Contents
Tables and Figures ix
Preface xv
Terri L. Towner
Part I: Campaign Organizations and Political Networks
1 Consistent and Cautious: Online Congressional
Campaigning in the Context of the 2016 Presidential Election 3
James N. Druckman, Martin J. Kifer, and Michael Parkin
2 Campaigning in 140 Characters: A Content Analysis of
Twitter Use by 2016 U.S. Congressional Candidates 25
Casey Frechette and Monica Ancu
3 I Beg to Differ: Understanding Political Disagreement
Presented By Candidates in Gubernatorial Primaries 51
Anne-Bennett Smithson and Emily K. Vraga
4 The Twitter Election: Analyzing Candidate Use of Social
Media in the 2016 Presidential Campaign 79
Steven Nawara and Mandi Bates Bailey
5 Gender and Presidential Elections: How the 2016
Candidates Played the “Woman Card” on Twitter 109
Heather K. Evans, Kayla J. Brown and Tiffany Wimberly
6 Digital Ad Expenditures by Outside Groups in the 2016
Presidential Election 127
Christine B. Williams and Girish J. “Jeff” Gulati
Part II: Political Messages: Production, Consumption, and Effects
7 Tipping the Balance of Power in Elections? Voters’
Engagement in the Digital Campaign 151
Diana Owen
vii
viii Contents
8 Campaign Messaging During the 2016 U.S. Presidential
Election: How Twitter Compares to the Traditional Media 179
David S. Morris
9 “Going Public” in the Age of Twitter and Mistrust of the
Media: Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign 199
Peter L. Francia
10 Late Night Talk Moves Online: Political Humor, YouTube,
and the 2016 Presidential Election 219
Jody C Baumgartner
Part III: Political Issues on Twitter and Instagram
11 Issue Emphasis and Agenda Building on Twitter during
the 2016 Presidential Primary Season 241
Bethany A. Conway-Silva, Christine R. Filer, Kate Kenski
and Eric Tsetsi
12 Picture Perfect? The Role of Instagram in Issue Agenda
Setting during the 2016 Presidential Primary Campaign 263
Terri L. Towner and Caroline Lego Muñoz
13 Getting the Picture: Issues and the 2016 Presidential
Campaign on Instagram 285
Mark D. Ludwig
Bibliography 309
Index 345
About the Contributors 353
Tables and Figures
TABLES
Table 1.1. Campaign Website Content Goals (2016) 15
Table 1.2. Going Negative (2016) 16
Table 1.3. Descriptive Statistics on Presidential Candidate
Mentions (2016) 18
Table 1.4. Presidential Candidate Mentions (2016) 19
Table 2.1. Percentage of Candidates Using Twitter in the
2016 Congressional Race 33
Table 3.1. Total Candidate Tweets 58
Table 3.2. Total and Average Tweets by Candidate Type for
Population of Tweets 61
Table 3.3. Characteristics of Disagreement by Party
Affiliation 65
Table 3.4. Characteristics of Disagreement by Race Type 67
Table 4.1. Content Categories 87
Table 4.2. Content of Posts 92
Table 4.3. Candidate Tone on Social Media 94
Table 4.4. Candidate Tone toward the Parties 96
Table 5.1. Most-Discussed “Women’s Issues” by Each
Candidate 119
Table 6.1. Digital Media Expenditures for 25 Most Active
Outside-Groups, 2012 Presidential Election 136
Table 6.2. Digital Media Expenditures for 25 Most Active
Outside-Groups, 2016 Presidential Election 137
Table 6.3. Digital Media Expenditures Ranked by
Proportion of Digital Media Expenditures of Total
Independent Expenditures for 25 Most Active
Outside-Groups, 2012 Presidential Election 139
ix