Candidate Tweet Usage by Journalists in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Item Type text; Electronic Thesis

Authors Sylvester, Shannon Palor

Publisher The University of Arizona.

Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Download date 27/09/2021 19:48:28

Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625187

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS IN THE 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION By SHANNON PALOR SYLVESTER

------

A thesis submitted to the Honors College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelor of Arts degree With Honors in

Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA MAY 2017

Approved by:

______Kate Kenski Department of Communication

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 2

Abstract This paper sets out to determine the impact that has in political journalistic reporting of television broadcasts. It specifically focuses on the 2016 U.S. presidential election from Labor

Day (September 4, 2016) to Election Day (November 8, 2016). Transcripts from the following major news agencies were pulled to extract Twitter mentions within the story: CBS, CNN, FOX,

MSNBC, and NBC. Pulling from 900 transcripts, about 40% (350 transcripts) of the transcripts used tweets from candidates and as evidence in their stories. Of the transcripts that referenced tweets from the candidates directly, about 24% of them centered around Trump, whereas only 5% centered around Clinton. Not only did this research show that news agencies are comfortable incorporating Twitter as evidence for stories, but also that they are presenting tweets in an unfair fashion, favoring the tweets of one candidate (Trump) over the other (Clinton). The tweets that were used in stories about Trump specifically also placed Trump in a negative light, whereas the tweets about Clinton had a more positive nature. This study ultimately showed that when implementing Twitter into news stories, it took on more of an entertainment than political value.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 3

Introduction

Following the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, this study set out to answer questions about how Twitter was being integrated, not just by the candidates themselves, but by the media as well. Was Twitter being used as a source of evidence in journalist's’ stories? Or was

Twitter being used more as an attention grabber for stories? To probe for the answers to these questions, this study includes a literature review that focuses on typical journalistic reporting strategies, especially those during times of election. Literature was also produced on how journalists were typically using Twitter to engage and interact with their audience, either by creating their own pages, or integrating the tweets into their stories. Previous studies show how tweets were being used in their stories, what kind of impact they had; if the were tweets being used as evidence or strictly story fillers.

This research study examined transcripts from major news agencies to determine whether

Twitter was being mentioned, and if it was, how it was being implemented. This study comes at a time when social media are a prevalent source of information and communication in our lives.

Pew Research Center found that as of January 2016, 44% of U.S. adults reported learning about the 2016 presidential election that week alone from social media (Pew Research Center, 2016).

As more and more people are turning to social media sites such as Twitter for sources of news and information, it is important to study the impact these sites are having on journalists’ newsgathering techniques. With the public turning to Twitter, journalists must uncover the credibility of tweets, as well as tweets that are considered newsworthy. By expanding their sources of evidence to include Twitter, journalists will have more information to work with.

Technology will only continue to grow and the public, as well as journalists, can either jump on board, or expect to fall behind.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 4

Literature Review

Gans (2010) introduces what he calls a “bulwark theory” in which practicing American journalists typically find themselves most in favor of, when describing the role they play in

American democracy (p. 8). Under this theory, journalists are enablers, presenting the most relevant information to citizens in order to make them more informed and better democratic citizens. Journalists are as such, presented as democratic saviors, actively participating in society to keep things running smoothly by making sure the citizenry is properly informed.

Alburquerque (2013) presents another theory in which journalists are the guardians of democracy with the Libertarian theory. Under this theory, the press work with the people in order to find the truth and bring it to light in the public eye. Both of these theories tend to have merit, as the media today typically present news to the public before consulting the President or other government officials. Media are free to report on any issue they deem important because the

Constitution allows for freedom of the press under the First Amendment. Because of this freedom, the media often yield immense power of influence. Farnsworth and Lichter (2010) define the media as the fourth branch of government. The media significantly impact how informed the daily person is, so it is easy to see why Farnsworth and Lichter rank its importance as part of the elite authority that guide our country. Without journalists, it is difficult to imagine where we would get our news from, or more importantly who we could trust to give us information. Gans has a compelling point, that without journalists, democracy would not be as functional. Without realizing it, Americans rely on journalists to keep them “in the know” and stay informed, just citizens.

Moon and Hadley (2014) state that “from a normative viewpoint, democracy functions with an informed citizenry and news media should provide fair and balanced information that

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 5 represents voices of diverse groups” (p. 290). Journalists often have to sort through immense amounts of information in order to bring the best and most relevant information to light. Many people have often described journalists as gatekeepers in this sense, by being able to sift through all the information while keeping personal bias out of the story (Moon & Hadley, 2014). After all of the sorting and verifying of sources, a story is created that will captivate its audiences and provide them with new information. Since journalists are allowed to present stories and information on whatever they want due to freedom of the press, it can sometimes make for a difficult job.

When it comes to politics, it is especially important for the people to be informed to be sure they know enough about the candidates in order to make an intelligent, informed decision.

One of the difficulties of productive journalism is trying to write and present unbiased stories.

One of the ways personal bias occurs is through political parallelism, in which certain ideas and goals are shared between newspapers and political parties (Alburquerque, 2013). This is seen today with newspapers endorsing certain political candidates, and magazines having a conservative or liberal leaning view. Television news broadcasts even seem to have a political lean, as found by Farnsworth and Lichter (2010). They (2010) polled audience members tuned in during the broadcast of past elections and consistently showed Republican voters feeling that their party is being unfairly represented by media (p. 6). A November 1996 Harris survey presented by Farnsworth and Lichter (2010) showed Republicans thought there was a 45% media bias and in 2008 only 22% of Republicans believed McCain was fairly treated by reporters (p. 6).

Republican voters definitely seem to believe that media have a liberal lean, with a ten year span showing that throughout the campaigning season, their candidates are time and time again being unfairly represented. Besides people tending to think that the news is biased, people also tend to

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 6 think that media are too involved in politics. “A November 2008 post election survey by the

Pew Center (2008c) found that 46 percent felt the news media had too much influence on the political process,” (Farnsworth and Lichter, p. 5). If news media are being questioned for being biased and for having a hand in politics, they are making it more difficult for the public to trust them. Besides losing trust, television news companies seem to be losing audiences as well.

Farnsworth and Lichter cite Nielsen (2010) saying “Sean Hannity, who hosts one of the leading cable news programs on the Fox News Channel, was bringing in just under seven million viewers a night, and Bill O’Reilly was drawing just over five million viewers” (p. 17). The accessibility of the Internet led to a decline in network and cable shows. Farnsworth and Lichter show that the Internet tends to lead news sources by a two-to-one margin. Journalists have to accommodate to the needs of the people by being electronically available and keeping personal bias to themselves. It is a difficult job to say the least; one that does not seem to be getting any easier with social media sites.

The rise of social media has also made the role of gatekeeping more difficult for journalists. In the current digital news age, people are able to get news on their own with everyday citizens reporting up-to-date happenings on sites such as Twitter and other micro- blogging capacities. Being a gatekeeper and sorting through sources to bring citizens the best of the news is not as easy a task when citizens are finding their own news. Knowing this, journalists are becoming worried for the future of news gathering when citizens are finding their own information (Gans, 2010). The concern is that citizens will not be as informed as they were when journalists were presenting the best of the news to them, and as a result democracy will not flourish the same. Social media present itself as appealing to its users, as it allows for instantaneous connection to the news, something citizens cannot get by relying on television

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 7 media to report at scheduled, often inconvenient times throughout the day. Much of this online news takes the place in the form of microblogging, essentially opinion writing, meaning citizens are not getting the most factual information. Instead of shying away from the emerging form of online news, many journalists have jumped in head first, tackling social media sites to start encompassing the news showing up on those sites into their own stories.

The Problem of Credibility and Twitter

Journalists work to gain the public trust, and to do that, they get caught up in constant fact-checking and source evaluating to make sure the public can put their faith in journalism. In order for journalists to be able to keep the public interest they have to have built up a sort of credibility. This means that they are providing fast, accurate information to the public. Jahng and

Littau (2016) have gone so far as to say that journalism depends on credibility. They cite methods of credibility from Johnson and Kaye (2002) and Kiousis (2001) saying “The method used to determine credibility examines how medium, message, and source are assessed along such dimensions as accuracy, bias, fairness, or completeness or source believability” (2016, p.

41). Journalists have to keep up with working standards of bringing authentic material to the public view by making sure their work is credible. Jahng and Littau state that “one of the reasons people turn to journalists for information is because the profession sells its product based on the notion of independence and verification” (2016, p. 38). Factors such as reputation of the news organization and how the news message is structured go into determining how credible a journalist is (2016). Since the news cannot be checked before it is sent out, it is difficult to determine if the tweet has been fact-checked or not. When anyone can report on Twitter, it is not always the most trustworthy source. This is where journalists can come in to try and provide a sense of reliability to news stories being presented on Twitter.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 8

Hermida (2012) states that when journalists verify sources, they are providing set facts, truths, and realities of news events, which gives them status as trustworthy sources that relay unbiased, objective information. He explains why journalists are often hesitant to use Twitter as a source to provide credibility. With their own reputations on the line, journalists cannot always rely on Twitter to have factual, or unbiased information. Hermida’s (2012) study found the following:

A survey of 500 journalists in 15 countries found that almost half the respondents used

Twitter to source angles for a news story (Oriella PR Network, 2011). But only a third

said they used social media to verify a story or check a fact. Most relied on traditional

sources such as PR agencies and corporate spokespeople. (p. 664)

Twitter had been in the public view for nearly six years by the time Hermida’s research came out. Journalists were not willing to accept Twitter as a source or to use it for evidential purposes at the time. But because of Twitter’s constant stream of news information, it has forced journalists to pull tweets to use as evidence in their stories. Social media often times have journalists playing catch-up, as the public as more information and is able to reach an audience before the press has time to respond. This leaves less time for journalists to fact-check their sources and information when the public is already reaching their own conclusions about a story based on what has been presented through some other account on Twitter. Hermida suggests that in order for journalists to get around the criticism surrounding the credibility problem for information on Twitter, a sort of collaborative approach should be employed. Through this approach, journalists would verify tweets posted by person x through a tweet posted by person y.

By looking at multiple different sources on Twitter (government agencies, politicians, citizens) journalists can get a better idea of if the story is credible.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 9

Twitter was created in March 2006 (Twitter, 2017). It has been dubbed as a microblogging platform, one in which users have 140 characters to tell their “followers” what is going on in their lives. Twitter uses hashtags (#) to allow for easy searches of trending topics.

In 2016, the top three Twitter trends included: #Rio2016, #Election2016, and #PokemonGo

(Kharpal, 2016). Their website contains information on its active users and statistics about the up and coming company. For example, as of June 2016, there are currently 313 million active monthly users, a number that continues to rise (Twitter, 2017). Their mission statement reads:

“To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers,” (Twitter, 2017). Twitter as a social network allows people to interact with each other in more intimate ways than other social networks. Common forms of interaction on Twitter take place in the form of retweets, likes, replies, and direct messaging. Users on Twitter can recognize celebrities, athletes, and politicians based on a blue checkmark that appears next to their username, stating they are a “verified user.” “The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic,” (Twitter, 2017). This can help journalists when they use Twitter to report, by knowing their information is coming straight from the source. Some journalists can even earn themselves a verification badge, showing the public they are a reliable source for news information. Twitter supplies an almost constant flow of information, updating automatically to present its users with the newest stories and breakthroughs. Twitter has made a name for itself in the 2016 presidential election, with the tweets of candidates being integrated as sources and evidence in journalist’s stories.

Twitter has been specifically changing the news game by bringing in more people to participate in the news. Ordinary citizens could be the first source of news, and people could interact with each other asking questions in real time about the news source online. Colleoni,

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 10

Rozza, and Arvidsson (2014) explain that Twitter allows for real-time discussions that users all over the world can interact and engage with. The public is able to participate on Twitter in a way that echoes Gans’ (2010) earlier claim that the public should be involved in the news to make democracy work. Colleoni, Rozza, and Arvidsson found that Democrats were more open to discussing their ideas on Twitter, but less likely to follow Democrat accounts with the opposite being true for Republicans. In general, their research showed that, at least on Twitter, people seem to keep with their own views and do not necessarily participate as much as would be preferred (2014). In terms of politics, people have their own opinions, but they might actually be using Twitter in some cases to stay more informed, rather than present their own views and ideas.

Feezel (2016) comments on the abundance of news online. It has become a necessity for journalists to work online and use selective online sources. Feezel’s research looks at Internet users and their online participation. Younger people seemed to be more present on the Internet, but did not discuss their views as much (Feezel, 2016). Women also are more likely to be engaged online, but not participants. Education seemed to be the biggest indicator for people to involve in participation on the Internet. One of the main conclusions that Feezel reached through her research was that those actively participating in political discourse online tended to be extreme ideological, educated men. If political conversation is happening on such a small scale, maybe participation doesn’t matter as much as being informed. If the public can use Twitter to follow the news, maybe this will have an effect on their ability to be good democratic, informed citizens. Twitter is the new newspaper, and most people are using it to become informed.

Journalists still have a role in making sure citizens are informed by relaying the information to them on Twitter.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 11

Benefits of Twitter in Journalism

The political sphere in general has been broadened by Twitter. Political candidates can interact with potential voters, mobilize their supporters, and as seen in the past 2016 election, interact with each other (e.g., Hillary Clinton telling Donald Trump to delete his Twitter).

Strictly in terms of U.S. presidential elections, Twitter played an active role for both the candidates and the public starting with the 2008 Obama-McCain campaign cycle. With the emergence of Twitter in 2006, the 2008 election set the stage for Twitter to become an active player in politics. Twitter has since become an integral part of campaign strategies, with campaign social media advisors put in in place to take advantage of its wide sphere of influence.

Journalists took to Twitter to remain updated on developing stories, following prominent political figures, as well as promoting their own work (Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton 2012). In terms of how exactly journalists are using Twitter, it varies. Using Twitter has become a balancing act between determining what is the most accurate information versus what is the way to get the information to the public the quickest. Journalists work to bring about facts, truth, and reality in a way that the public can accept and get behind (2012). Journalists who use Twitter to find stories and sources typically try to keep up with the times by posting their own stories to the public. In these cases, Twitter helps journalists to get their stories out quicker, rather than posting them in a newspaper or magazine, because they are able to just bypass a section editor (2012). While

Twitter may not be the first tool journalists turn to when reporting a story, it certainly comes in handy for time-sensitive cases, such as breaking news, since they are able to reach a wider base in a faster amount of time.

Another instance of journalists using Twitter with politics is to track what the candidates are saying by keeping tabs on their Twitter pages and reporting back to the people. Lawrence,

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 12

Molyneux, Coddington and Holton (2014) explain that while typical political reporting tends to track the “horse race” of politics, with which candidate seems to be pulling ahead in the polls,

Twitter allows reporters to have direct access to quotations from the candidates themselves.

However, with both media and politicians taking active roles on Twitter, the battle between gaining control of the message takes place (2014). With candidates having their own Twitter profiles, they are able to reach more people in the same way that journalists try to reach a larger audience for their stories on Twitter. Vergeer (2015) explains that the emergence of social media sites such as Twitter help do away with the middleman (journalists) allowing political candidates to directly interact with their supporters (Twitter followers). This leaves journalists looking for ways to incorporate political news to people that are already hearing it straight from the source of the candidates themselves. Because journalists are fighting for attention on Twitter, this makes staying objective inherently important in matters of political affairs. Typically, journalists are able to use Twitter to fact-check candidates, particularly in terms of policy (2014). In these cases, journalists are able to use the tweets from candidates to help add support to their stories.

Research Question 1: How often are journalists using the tweets from candidates to supplement their stories?

There is also evidence of journalists using Twitter to help form their stories, and keep the public interest. Abdenour (2016) mentions a study by Gulyas (2013) which showed the positive effects Twitter had on journalistic research:

In a 2011 survey of 667 British journalists, 70 percent indicated that they used Twitter to

help them report (Cision 2011a, 2011b) and almost half said they used Twitter to obtain

story sources. (p. 474)

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 13

In these cases, Twitter has been an integral part of journalistic work, by helping in the formation of stories being presented to the public. Twitter can be, and often is, a tool for journalists. Twitter can help journalists to reach a broader audience. The work by Abdenour (2016) also concluded that 87 percent of respondents of investigative reporters used social media for feedback and interactive purposes. By live-tweeting, posting questions, and responding to those who tweet at them, journalists are able to engage in better interactions with their audience. They can find out what the audience wants to hear, what news is important to them, and then provide the public with the information they care about the most. In effect, Twitter can potentially increase the efficiency and effectiveness of journalism with increased sources and greater access to information and ideas (2016). Twitter can play a positive role in the lives of journalists, as long as they know how to properly engage with it.

Journalists started to see the benefits of engaging in Twitter, from source-gathering, to story-forming, Twitter was definitely a hub of information. Ahmad (2010) reported that:

Twitter is now used as a collaborative research tool by editors and journalists working on

stories and blogs, both for ideas and to provide evidence for all branches of news -

breaking, foreign, entertainment and others. (p. 151)

Journalists are in most cases being helped by the rise of Twitter. By learning how it works and interacting with its programming instead of fearing it, journalists can find success in reaching an audience by alluding to Twitter. Ahmad mentions that while journalists originally feared the existence of Twitter as a source that would take over from traditional forms of journalism, they soon realized it could supplement their work (2010). Journalists could use Twitter to check sources for newsworthy stories and breaking news type information, supplementing that evidence with their own investigative work of outside sources to confirm the information they

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 14 received on Twitter before they themselves tweet out a story. Journalists became fact-finders on

Twitter, sorting through all the raw information being presented to them. Ahmad (2010) talks about how Twitter is shaping politics too, and not just in campaign season, in his study:

Twitter has rapidly developed a cozy relationship with the American government: Obama

is reported to have asked it to stay up-and-running just as it was considering shutting

down for maintenance so that Iranian micro-bloggers could continue to tell the world

what was happening on the ground. (pp. 153-154)

If journalists are not on Twitter, it seems safe to assume they are falling behind. With politicians, the White House, and other government agencies all holding Twitter accounts, journalists can just use Twitter as another source in their daily news reporting. By posting their own stories on

Twitter, they create a larger audience to share with, and as Ahmad says, they end up being a pretty useful source of marketing for Twitter.

While Twitter was originally marketed as a microblogging platform, it has since been turned into a professional market for journalists. Paulussen (2014) explains that a majority of contemporary journalists use Twitter for professional purposes. Journalists still play a major role in getting information to the public, through “different stages of information gathering, selection, verification, presentation and dissemination of the news” (2014, p. 543). When it comes to the verification of tweets, there is a sort of hierarchy of credibility. Someone with a verified checkmark next to their name would typically have more weight than just an average citizen. In the political realm, with a hierarchy of credibility, it likely that a presidential candidate as a news source is more credible than some ordinary citizen tweeting. Paulussen also discusses another use for Twitter, which is that it allows us to look into the typically private life of others. With people constantly sharing their information with each other online, journalists can discern what

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 15 an inside look in the life of political candidates is really like. Broersma and Graham (2013) conducted a study presented by Paulussen (2014) of Dutch and UK newspapers using Twitter as a source:

They found that in past years Twitter has become a regularly used source for newspaper

journalists in both countries, especially to “tap into the private sphere of well-known or

newsworthy people, ranging from celebrities to politicians”, but also to “flavour news

stories with quotes that express the opinions or experiences of a range of sources.” (p.

544)

Besides being used professionally for sources only, Twitter is also used for entertaining purposes. Tweets can add to a story and make it more interesting. Journalists know that social media culture is important to society, and will tend to focus their stories on ideas that circulate around those topics. “Famous sports people (13 per cent) and politicians (15 per cent) also have a greater chance to see their social media activity reflected in newspaper stories” (Paulussen, 2014, p. 549). Besides journalists just posting from Twitter on Twitter, journalists are seen actively using Twitter in print stories. This shows that Twitter is making its way through online media and into other mainstream media sources such as newspapers, television broadcasts, etc. It is not as though social media is engulfing news and sources, but it is a useful tool for sharing sources.

“If social media are used by newspaper journalists as a source, the stories mostly include references to other sources as well” (Paulussen, 2014, p. 546). This shows that social media sites such as Twitter are not being typically used as stand-alone sources, but are helping to enrich or add to a story. As journalists begin trusting Twitter credibility more, we might start to see

Twitter being the only reference source used in media.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 16

Research Question 2: Are tweets from candidates being used to supplement political knowledge of the candidate (such as policy issues) or to supplement political image/character

(such as being trustworthy or rash)?

Solnik (2016) found how media during the 2016 election seemed to focus in on Trump’s responses to the way the election was going from his comments on debates to his suggestion that everything – the media, the election, was rigged. “The [Trump’s] comments seemed to overwhelm other coverage and become the key content, as reporters vigilantly monitored Twitter and other accounts, focusing on the latest quote of the day,” (Solnik, 2016, p. 1). The Obama-

McCain campaigns in 2008, and the Obama-Romney campaigns in 2012 both used Twitter to rally users on platform topics and attempt to get people to go out and vote. While both Clinton and Trump used Twitter in their campaigns, Trump seemed to take more advantage of the outlet, using Twitter as a place for his ideas to flow free, without check from an advisor, stirring up controversy in his wake. He was a celebrity on Twitter before he announced his run for president, and already had a slew of followers from his famed appearances on television and as a businessman. His strategy on Twitter seemed to follow that of a celebrity trying to make television, which is exactly what he did. Solnik explains how one media critic even went so far as to describe the media as Trump’s “best friend,” implying that their heavy coverage of Trump helped him through the election as he was seen on practically every television and mentioned in almost every major newspaper (2016). Solnik also mentioned Tim Scheld, the director of news programming at WCBS 880 weighed in saying that the aim of the media is to pick a moment of interest from the chaos during campaigning, and make that moment matter (2016). Scheld also spoke about the equality factor in covering candidates, which he does not regard as important as covering newsworthy comments made by the candidates, “Balance doesn't mean devoting equal

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 17 time to each candidate, but rather covering comments that are seen as news,” (Solnik, 2016, p.

1). Trump’s Twitter comments definitely seemed newsworthy, as he continuously made front pages for his unorthodox political strategy. Journalists had a field day picking and choosing from Trump’s comments, waiting to see what he would say and do next. He definitely seemed to be a strong story creator for journalists, who focused in on his tweets during the 2016 election.

Methods

The study began by using the following search terms on the University of Arizona

Summon Search Library webiste, searching for transcripts only under content type

(http://arizona.summon.serialssolutions.com/advanced#!/advanced) : (((President) OR

(President's)) AND ((Election) OR (Campaign)) AND ((Trump) OR (Clinton)) AND ((CBS) OR

(CNN) OR (FOX) OR (MSNBC) OR (NBC))). The publication date range was from September

4, 2016 to November 8, 2016. That search pulled 2720 results. After cutting out transcripts from

NPR, Wire News, and certain television specials (such as CBS Event Special) there were 1841 results. From there, 900 transcripts were randomly selected to be used as the census run in the study.

The 900 transcripts were then taken individually to search for the terms “Twitter” and

“tweet.” If the transcript had the terms, they were kept in a separate pile, and if they did not, they were deleted. Once all of the transcripts were checked to see if they mentioned Twitter, the next step was to go back through to figure out in what kind of context they were being used. The transcripts had to specifically mention Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton to count them as applying to the study. Some tweets that were mentioned were written by either someone related to the campaign, or in some cases, even celebrities, and the context was about the election. For

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 18 example CNN Newsroom, during an October broadcast, talked about the “nasty woman” phenomenon taking over Twitter after Donald Trump referred to Hillary Clinton as such:

Comedian Michele Wolf tweeted quote "nasty woman is probably the coolest thing

Hillary has ever been called."

Actress Lena Dunham writes quote "retweet if you are a nasty woman and it's made your

life a freaking pleasure."

Team Vogue using Trump's jab as a call to action for young female voters. Well, retweet

if you are a nasty woman who is headed to the polls to vote for your rights. (2016)

In this case, CNN was using the tweets of celebrities and magazines to talk about the campaign.

Twitter was being used in stories mainly to show what other people were commenting on or reacting to. Most of the tweeting stories matriculated after debates, or after certain comments were made.

The transcripts mentioning Twitter were split into six separate categories. The first category was any transcript that specifically used a tweet written by Trump. The second category contained transcripts with tweets specifically written by Clinton. The third category was transcripts that contained tweets written by both Trump and Clinton. The fourth category was transcripts that mentioned Trump and Twitter, but did not specifically pull tweets from Trump to use in their story. The fifth category was transcripts that mentioned Clinton and Twitter without specifically citing tweets from Clinton. And the sixth category was transcripts that mentioned

Trump, Clinton, and Twitter, without pulling any of their actual tweets into their stories. The rest of the transcripts that mentioned Twitter but did not have Trump or Clinton were in a separate pile. These transcripts mainly included reporters trying to gain followers, by saying at the end of their broadcast something along the lines of “Make sure to follow us on Twitter @______(news

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 19 program) and tweet us your thoughts!” Since it was of interest of how journalists were using

Twitter specifically during the campaign season of September 4 - November 8, the transcripts that mentioned Twitter in non-election ways were not counted. It was decided to collectively group tweets together, rather than break them up by news agency. This way, there was a definitive view of how the media was using tweets in general, versus one specific news company.

Results

It was found that 357 of the 900 (~40%) transcripts mentioned Twitter in some way, whether that be political, Trump, Clinton, or other entertainment purposes. After breaking up the tweets into the six categories as mentioned above in the methods section, it was calculated how often each candidate was appearing in transcripts via Twitter. The data are outlined in Table 1.1.

The categories contain “quoted tweet,” which is the amount each candidate was explicitly mentioned through a tweet of their own in a transcript, “mentioned with Twitter,” which is the amount each candidate was mentioned through someone else’s tweet, or their Twitter usage was talked about without explicitly quoting a tweet from the candidate, and then categories showing when both candidates had tweets quoted or mentioned in the transcripts. All of the data comes from the 357 transcripts that specifically mentioned Twitter. In terms of actual quoted tweets,

Donald Trump had significantly more than did Hillary Clinton. The same goes for Twitter mentions. By adding up the total percentage of Twitter mentions of candidates in transcripts, the results are visually depicted in Graph 1.2. Here, it is even clearer that Donald Trump surpassed

Hillary Clinton in Twitter usage by journalists.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 20

Quoted tweet Mentioned Both Quoted Both w/ Twitter Mentioned

Hillary Clinton 5% (17) 8% (27) 1% (4) 10% (35)

Donald Trump 24% (87) 52% (187) 1% (4) 10% (35) Table 1.1

Graph1.2

The data show that although both candidates were being used in connection with Twitter, Trump got substantially more attention with his tweets than Clinton did. This is not all that surprising, since most people found Trump’s tweets as something to talk about in relation to the campaign, with most reporters, talking about Trump’s Twitter rants about always speaking his mind and

3AM tweets. Here is an example from October 11th FOX O’Reilly Factor broadcast:

So, joining us now from Dallas is Donald Trump. All right. First of all, you

tweeted today, it is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me. And I can

now fight for America the way I want to. What exactly does that mean? (2016)

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 21

This seems to show that journalists are tending to look to Twitter mainly in terms of entertainment value. The tweets they pulled tended to focus on “controversies” of the campaign, such as Trump’s decision to tweet at 3AM, meaning he was rash and not fit to be President, or his comment to Hillary Clinton calling her a “nasty woman,” as well as knocking Republicans and the media for not standing behind him (fake news). The tweets journalists used supplemented his image as a man that speaks his mind, and they were not being used to talk about his policy ideas.

Clinton’s tweets that were pulled also surrounded on the news of Trump. Her tweets were used in context as a response to what Trump had been saying. A CNN Newsroom broadcast from

September 30th shows Clinton’s side below:

Her [Clinton’s] campaign has already launched its counteroffensive against Trump on

Twitter, sending out even more tweets than Trump defending the former Miss Universe,

Clinton's tweets calling Trump -- quote -- "unhinged."

Another says that -- quote -- "Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to

Trump's attacks and he has the gall to blame her and say he helped?"

And this Clinton tweet: "When something gets under Donald's thin skin, he lashes out

and can't let go. This is dangerous for a president. (2016)

Trump is the source of the story, and Clinton provides the evidence. Rarely were the tweets being used in terms of policy or fact-checking. They were mostly being used for attention- grabbing stories. The stories making headlines were not “Trump’s new plan for x” or “Clinton wants y to change.” They focused on the character; on the way the candidates interacted with each other and with the world via an online platform.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 22

There were obvious periods of time when Twitter was used more frequently by a majority of news agencies. These times were recorded to fall around when Trump had said something controversial, or Clinton had tweeted at Trump. This suggests that reporters were only using

Twitter to provide truth to an entertainment story. Twitter was not being used as supportive evidence in terms of policy talk, but more so focused on the candidates’ character traits in using

Twitter being indicative of how they would behave in the Presidency.

Discussion Since Twitter is still a relatively new form of social media, I expected it to only be used about one-third of the time in transcripts. I also expected Trump’s tweets to be the bulk of tweets being used by the media, since Trump had much more controversy surrounding his campaign than Clinton did. The main tweets being used that were against Clinton were e-mail related, in terms of the FBI controversy about finding out how wrong Clinton was in sending emails of top security from her personal phone. Trump’s tweets involved a range of issues from sex scandals, such as beauty pageant queens and news reporters coming out that Trump sexually assaulted them, as well as video evidence of Trump’s “locker room” talk in which he exclaims about treating women inappropriately to proclaiming that the media was presenting “fake news” and that the polls and election were “rigged.”

Based on the amount of tweets that were found, another way of organizing the data could have been by correlating the date of the transcript with the controversy the tweets related to. The categories could have gone something like this:

Clinton: E-mails Clinton: Public Shaming Clinton: Bill’s past Clinton: Trump attacks Trump: 3AM tweets

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 23

Trump: Sex scandals Trump: Party shaming Trump: Rigged tweets Trump: Clinton attacks With an “other” category for all of the tweets that fit into none of the categories. When going through the transcripts, these seemed to be the most mentioned tweeting topics. Even through listing these topics, it can be seen that the tweets getting the most attention do not relate to policy suggestions or other political claims, but tend to focus on “fluff” news, news that is not really pertinent to the ideas of the candidate but makes for a good story. This being said, voters might still have found the information being presented to them via mention of tweets as influential in their decision-making, as it did showcase character traits of the candidates. As social media continue to rise in what can be assumed to be of importance, political candidates as well as journalists might get more use out of sites such as Twitter if they use it to campaign for themselves.

Conclusion

This paper showed how Twitter is being implemented by journalists in relation to the

2016 presidential election. From a collection of 900 transcripts, about 40% of them mentioned

Twitter in some fashion. When examining the context of how Twitter was being used in the transcripts, it was found that tweets from presidential candidate Donald Trump and tweets about

Donald Trump took up a bulk of the news. Journalists are using the tweets of candidates in their stories, but often times, the tweets are more about surprising comments the candidates were making versus actual political news. Regardless of whether or not it was positive coverage,

Donald Trump did receive more attention for his tweets than opposing candidate, Hillary

Clinton. Since journalists are actively incorporating tweets into their news coverage, it seems

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 24 that the candidates are just getting talked about in terms of coverage more than anything. While

Twitter is still a semi-new platform candidates are attempting to take advantage of, by the next presidential election in 2020, it will be interesting to see if journalists cover the tweets of candidates in the same sort of fashion they did for 2016.

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 25

Appendix

Transcripts of Tweets used in this paper

Clinton Pursues Millennial Votes; Trump Deposition Video Released; Crisis in Syria.

Aired 3-3:30p ET. (2016, September 30). CNN Newsroom. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/ps/i.do?p=STND&sw

=w&u=uarizona_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA465134554&sid=summo

n&asid=fc8107207da3eaf0a2641aef6b14b60b

Exclusive Interview with Donald Trump; Split Between Religions Americans over Trump;

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Criticizes Anthem. (2016, October 12). O'Reilly Factor

[FOX News]. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/ps/i.do?p=STND&sw=w&u=

uarizona_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA466331987&sid=summon&asid=7

0daa9699008e24725838f240aa262b6

Philippines' president announced separation from the United States; Donald Trump's

debate performance fired up his base; Hillary. (2016, October 20). CNN

Newsroom. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/ps/i.do?p=STND&sw=w&u=

uarizona_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA467239337&sid=summon&asid=5

1c2d8519c0cbeeb2c76b18411b45e89

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 26

References

Abdenour, J. (2016). Digital gumshoes. Digital Journalism, 5:4, 472-492. DOI:

10.1080/21670811.2016.117531

Ahmad, A. N. (2010). Is Twitter a useful tool for journalists? Journal of media

practice, 11:2, 145-155.

Albuquerque, A. de (2013). Media/politics connections: beyond political parallelism. Media,

Culture & Society, 35:6, 742-758. DOI: 10.1177/0163443713491302

Colleoni, E., Rozza, A., & Arvidsson, A. (2014). Echo chamber or public sphere?

Predicting political orientation and measuring political homophily in twitter

using big data. Journal of Communication, 64:2, 317-332.

Farnsworth, S. J., & Lichter, R. S. (2010). Nightly news nightmare. Rowman & Littlefield

Publishers, Chapter 1, 1-21.

Feezell, J. T. (2016). Predicting online political participation. Political Research

Quarterly, 69:3, 495-509. Retrieved from

http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy4.library.arizona.edu/doi/full/10.1177/106591291665

2503

Gans, H. J. (2010). News & the news media in the digital age: implications for

democracy. Dædalus, Spring, 8-17. Retrieved from:

http://www.amacad.org/publications/daedalus/fall2009/gans.pdf

Hermida, A. (2012). Tweets and truth. Journalism practice, 6:5-6, 659-668.

DOI:10.1080/17512786.2012.667269

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 27

Jahng, M. R., & Littau, J. (2016). Interacting is believing: Interactivity, social cue, and

perceptions of journalistic credibility on twitter. Journalism and Mass

Communication Quarterly, 93(1), 38-58.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077699015606680

Kharpal, A. (2016, Dec. 6). Rio 2016, US election and ‘Pokemon Go’: Twitter’s

top trends in 2016. CNBC. Retrieved from

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/rio-olympics-2016-us-election-pokemon-go-twitt

er-top-trends-in-2016.html

Lasorsa, D. L., Lewis, S. C., & Holton, A. E. (2012). Normalizing Twitter.

Journalism Studies, 13:1, 19-36. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2011.571825

Lawrence, Regina G., Molyneux, L. & Coddington, M. (2014). Tweeting conventions.

Journalism Studies, 15:6, 789-806. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2013.836378

Moon, Soo J., & Hadley, P. (2014) Routinizing a new technology in the newsroom:

Twitter as a news source in mainstream media. Journal of Broadcasting &

Electronic Media, 58:2, 289-305. DOI: 10.1080/08838151.2014.906435

Pan, Z., & Kosicki, G. M. (1993) Framing analysis: An approach to news

discourse. Political Communication, 10:1, 55-75

Pew Research Center (2016, July 18) Election 2016: Campaigns as a direct source of news.

Journalism and Media. Retrieved from:

http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/18/candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-

connect-with-the-public/

CANDIDATE TWEET USAGE BY JOURNALISTS 28

Paulussen, S. (2014). Social media references in newspapers. Journalism

Practice, 8:5, 542-551. DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2014.894327

Solnik, C. (2016). Media weighs in on role in election. Long Island Business News,

Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy4.l

ibrary.arizona.edu/docview/1838656546?accountid=8360

Vergeer, M. (2015). Twitter and political campaigning. Sociology Compass, 9:9,

745-760.