University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Noisy candidates and informative politicians: analyzing changes in tweet behavior using tweet quality assessment framework

Tanupabrungsun, Sikana; Hemsley, Jeff; Semaan, Bryan; Stromer-Galley, Jennifer

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89318

Description

Title
Noisy candidates and informative politicians: analyzing changes in tweet behavior using tweet quality assessment framework
Author(s)
Tanupabrungsun, Sikana; Hemsley, Jeff; Semaan, Bryan; Stromer-Galley, Jennifer
Issue Date
2016-03-15
Keyword(s)
  • Elections
  • Twitter
  • Retweets
  • Politicians
  • Media Richness
Date of Ingest
2016-03-08T22:51:53Z
Abstract
Politicians use Twitter as a strategic tool for campaigning and posting messages once elected. Our work focuses on the ways U.S. state governors’ use Twitter differently when they were campaigning vs. after they have taken office. Our data consists of tweets posted by wining gubernatorial candidates during and six months after the 2014 elections. Using regression analysis, we find that post-election tweet volume is related to factors such as pre-election tweet volume, incumbency status, and if they were a third party candidate. We also develop and utilize a novel Tweet Quality Assessment Framework (TQAF) to show that during elections politicians try to engage topically with their audience more than once elected, but tend to produce higher quality information once in office. Our work contributes to the understanding of politician’s use of Twitter. We also believe our TQAF will be useful for researchers wishing to compare differences in tweet behavior across time or groups.
Publisher
iSchools
Series/Report Name or Number
IConference 2016 Proceedings
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Conference Paper / Presentation
Language
eng
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89318
DOI
https://doi.org/10.9776/16235
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2016 is held by the authors. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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iConference 2016 Papers PRIMARY