Self-reference by politicians on Twitter: Strategies to adapt to 140 characters

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 116; pp. 37 - 50
• Main Authors: Coesemans, Roel, De Cock, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adaptability strategies; Catalan language; Computer mediated communication; Dutch language; European elections; Ideology; Language usage; Linguistics; Metapragmatic awareness; Noun phrases; Political campaigns; Political communication; Politicians; Politics; Pragmatics; Reflexivity; Self-reference; Social media; Social networks; Spanish language; Syntactic structures; Twitter; Twitter; European elections; Metapragmatic awareness; Political communication; Self-reference; Adaptability strategies

•Spanish and Belgian European election candidates tweet mainly for self-promotion.•Via conciseness strategies politicians adapt to technological constraints of Twitter.•These conciseness strategies depend on language-specific features.•Personal branding is also achieved by exploiting Twitter handles...