Addressing Women and Minorities on Social Media by the 2016 U.S. Presidential Candidates

Donald Trump’s bombastic statements regarding women and minorities were a constant theme in the 2016 presidential election and attracted attention from both the mainstream media and his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Given the increasing use of social networking sites among political actors and the publ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial science computer review Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 489 - 509
Main Authors Bailey, Mandi Bates, Nawara, Steven P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Bisexuality
Candidates
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Content analysis
Crime
Digital media
Elections
Immigration policy
Lesbianism
Mass media
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority groups
Police
Political parties
Presidential candidates
Presidential elections
Presidents
Race
Social media
Social networks
Transgender persons
Women
Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton
content analysis
presidential election
social media
LGBT
Hispanics
women
African American
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Summary:Donald Trump’s bombastic statements regarding women and minorities were a constant theme in the 2016 presidential election and attracted attention from both the mainstream media and his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Given the increasing use of social networking sites among political actors and the public, as well as the focus given to women and minorities in the 2016 election, we utilize a content analysis of presidential candidates’ social media activity in the months preceding the election in order to better understand how the candidates addressed women and minorities. We ultimately find that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton out-posted Trump in both positive and negative content in the categories of women’s issues; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues; race; and immigration. However, this is not the case with issues involving crime and police, which was a lens through which Trump was more likely to approach race-related issues. In many instances, the candidates also appeared to strategically target content-specific posts to the social media platforms where they would be most likely to be seen by women or the minority group most closely related to the post’s content.
ISSN:0894-4393
1552-8286
DOI:10.1177/0894439318779342