Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 8-14-2017 Advancing Democracy One Tweet at a Time Landon T. Hester Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, and the Social Media Commons Recommended Citation Hester, Landon T., "Advancing Democracy One Tweet at a Time" (2017). LSU Master's Theses. 4308. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/4308 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 8-14-2017 Advancing Democracy One Tweet at a Time Landon T. Hester Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's &eses Graduate School 8-14-2017 Advancing Democracy One Tweet at a Time Landon T. Hester Follow this and additional works at: h'p://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses ! ADVANCING!DEMOCRACY!ONE!TWEET!AT!A!TIME! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A!Thesis!! ! !Submitted!to!the!Graduate!Faculty!! of!the!Louisiana!State!University!and!! Agricultural!and!Mechanical!College!! in!partial!fulfillment!of!the!requirements!for!the!degree!of!! Master!of!Mass!Communication!! ! in!! ! The!School!of!Mass!Communication! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! By! Landon!Trace!Hester!! B.A.,!Louisiana!State!University,!2013 ! ! December 2017 ! ! Acknowledgements! To!start,!I!would!like!to!thank!my!committee!chair,!Dr.!Lance!Porter,!for!the! tremendous!amount!of!time!and!effort!he!invested!into!this!project.!I!could!not!have!done! this!without!his!patience,!guidance!and!expertise.!You!set!high!standards!for!my!and!helped! me!produce!my!best!work.!Additionally,!I!would!like!to!thank!the!members!of!my! committee,!Dr.!Jack!Hamilton!and!Dr.!Meghan!Sanders,!for!providing!valuable!insight!and! feedback!throughout!this!process.!! I!would!also!like!to!thank!my!husband,!Anthony!Gambino,!for!his!constant!patience! and!encouragement.!I!could!not!have!completed!this!without!you!by!my!side.!Also,!I!need!to! thank!my!Mom!and!Dad!for!their!continuous!support!and!for!teaching!me!the!value!of! knowledge!from!a!young!age.!Finally,!I!would!like!to!thank!all!of!the!faculty!and!staff!at!the! Manship!School!of!Mass!Communication!who!helped!me!along!the!way.!I!am!proud!to!be!a! twoWtime!alumna!of!this!prestigious!institution.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ii! ! Table!of!Contents! Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................................................................................ii. Abstract.................................................................................................................................................................................................iv. ! Introduction!.................................................................................................................................................................................!1! ! Social!Media!or!Social!Networking!Sites!(SNSs)!...........................................................................................................!3. Facebook!........................................................................................................................................................................!9. Twitter.................................................................................................................................................................................11. Social.Media.&.U.S..Politics.........................................................................................................................................................14. 2000.Election....................................................................................................................................................................15. 2004.Election....................................................................................................................................................................16. 2008.Election....................................................................................................................................................................17. 2012.Election....................................................................................................................................................................19. 2016.Election....................................................................................................................................................................21. What.is.Democracy?......................................................................................................................................................................23. Political.Discussion.........................................................................................................................................................................25. Political.Knowledge.......................................................................................................................................................................32. Political.Participation...................................................................................................................................................................41. Methods...............................................................................................................................................................................................50. Participants.......................................................................................................................................................................51. Constructing.the.Measures.........................................................................................................................................52. ! Results..................................................................................................................................................................................................55. Mobile!&!Second!Screening!................................................................................................................................!56! Political.Discussion........................................................................................................................................................58. Political.Knowledge.......................................................................................................................................................60. Political.Participation..................................................................................................................................................64. Discussion...........................................................................................................................................................................................66. Future.Research.&.Limitations.................................................................................................................................................72. References..........................................................................................................................................................................................75. Appendix.A.........................................................................................................................................................................................85. Appendix.B.........................................................................................................................................................................................86. Vita......................................................................................................................................................................................................107. ! ! iii! ! Abstract! This!thesis!takes!a!broad!look!how!citizens!use!social!media!to!foster!political! discussion,!enhance!political!knowledge!and!engage!in!political!participation!in!the!United! States.!In!this!study,!democracy!is!broken!down!into!three!empirically!measurable! components:!political!discussion,!knowledge!and!participation.!To!begin,!I!provide!an!inW depth!review!of!past!research!examining!the!impact!social!media!has!on!each!element!of! democracy.!In!addition,!I!analyze!data!collected!from!a!novel!social!media!panel!of!3,811! Twitter!users!by!researchers!from!Louisiana!State!University!(Davis!et.!al,!2017).!From!this,! I!measure!the!impact!that!Facebook!and!Twitter!have!had!on!political!discussion,! knowledge!and!participation.!I!found!that!Twitter!users!use!both!Twitter!and!Facebook!in! ways!that!foster!political!discussion!and!enhance!political!knowledge.!The!results!indicates! that!Twitter!users!are!in!fact!using!social!media!to!share!political!news,!further!enhancing! these!platforms’!democratic!potential.! ! ! iv! ! Introduction* ! Social!media!have!transformed!politics!around!the!world,!but!to!what!extent?!