Mentor
Sabrina Habib, Ph.D.
Major
Integrated Marketing Communications
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Management and Marketing
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the changes of integrated marketing communications in a political environment and the impact of different tones in a presidential campaign. Using the Twitter correspondence of the Republican and Democratic nominees, a content analysis was used to discover positive tones, negative tones, and themes during the 2016 presidential election. Data was collected from the end of the primary elections to election day in November 2016. This research also builds on previous studies focused on the growing impact of social media in political communications. The findings from this study include: (1) Hillary Clinton tweeted at Donald Trump more frequently then he tweeted at her. (2) Hillary Clinton had mostly neutral twitter correspondence towards Donald Trump, who in return used a more negative tone towards her. (3) The theme of Clinton’s tweets where in reference to the character and qualifications of Donald Trump, while the majority of Trump’s tweets toward Clinton referenced her character. (4) The majority of the candidates’ tweets that reference each other’s character and qualifications were negative.
Recommended Citation
Coleman-Owusu, Eva and Habib, Sabrina
(2018)
"Promoting a President: Tone in Presidential Candidate Correspondence via Twitter,"
The Winthrop McNair Research Bulletin: Vol. 4, Article 7.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/wmrb/vol4/iss1/7
