The democratic role of social media in political debates: The use of Twitter in the first televised US presidential debate of 2016

Craig T. Robertson; William H. Dutton; Robert Ackland; Tai Quan Peng

doi:10.1080/19331681.2019.1590283

The democratic role of social media in political debates: The use of Twitter in the first televised US presidential debate of 2016

Craig T. Robertson^*, William H. Dutton, Robert Ackland, Tai Quan Peng

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Live social media commentary increasingly accompanies televised political debates. This study examines the democratic role of live Twitter commentary by analyzing a sample of tweets published during the first 2016 presidential debate between Trump and Clinton. The practices of live commenters–including joke-sharing and fact-checking–are assessed in light of six perspectives on the democratic utility of such commentary. Results show that while Twitter commentary was predominantly humorous and driven by negativity towards the candidates, a sizeable proportion of users actively engaged in practices of alternative interpretation, critique, and correction, seeking democratic accountability.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	105-118
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Information Technology and Politics
Volume	16
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1590283
Publication status	Published - 3 Apr 2019

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10.1080/19331681.2019.1590283

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title = "The democratic role of social media in political debates: The use of Twitter in the first televised US presidential debate of 2016",

abstract = "Live social media commentary increasingly accompanies televised political debates. This study examines the democratic role of live Twitter commentary by analyzing a sample of tweets published during the first 2016 presidential debate between Trump and Clinton. The practices of live commenters–including joke-sharing and fact-checking–are assessed in light of six perspectives on the democratic utility of such commentary. Results show that while Twitter commentary was predominantly humorous and driven by negativity towards the candidates, a sizeable proportion of users actively engaged in practices of alternative interpretation, critique, and correction, seeking democratic accountability.",

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The democratic role of social media in political debates: The use of Twitter in the first televised US presidential debate of 2016

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