An Analysis of the 2016 American Presidential Nominees’ Tweets: A Magical Realism Perspective

Trevor Clohessy, Thomas Acton, Colin Callinan, Eoin Whelan, Murray Scott

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Twitter is the latest social networking tool said to be reshaping presidential political campaigns. In order to maximize the influence of their messages to voters, presidential nominees often use various techniques to transmit their campaign messages in the most effective way to the electorate. However, there is little scholarship on the use of Twitter as a strategic tool for presidential political campaigns. Using a nuanced magical realism theoretical perspective, this paper seeks to fill this gap through a content analysis of several of the presidential campaign nominees’ tweets, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein, in the six months leading up to election day on November 8th, 2016. Consequently, this study provides a methodological contribution pertaining to the utilization of magical realism to understand how Twitter is shaping the new political landscape. Furthermore, it provides an illustration of the application of specific techniques which underpin the magical realism concept and how they can be applied by other information system researchers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICIS 2017
Subtitle of host publicationTransforming Society with Digital Innovation
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Print)9780996683159
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event38th International Conference on Information Systems: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation, ICIS 2017 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 10 Dec 201713 Dec 2017

Publication series

NameICIS 2017: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation

Conference

Conference38th International Conference on Information Systems: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation, ICIS 2017
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period10/12/1713/12/17

Keywords

  • Credibility
  • Magical realism
  • Narrative
  • Presidential political campaign
  • Social media
  • Twitter

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