First Name:
Amelia
Last Name:
Adams
Major Department:
Communication
Thesis Director:
Tina McCorkindale
Date of Thesis:
May 2012
Due to the highly successful use of social media by Barack Obama, the 2008 Presidential Election was known as “The Facebook Election.” Because of this, most research about social media use in elections focuses on Facebook. The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the Twitter pages of the 2012 presidential candidates to determine how they were using Twitter, if they were engaging in meaningful dialogue with their followers, and if they were being transparent. Tweets from February 1, 2012 through February 29, 2012 were coded. Overall, the candidates tweeted most about the economy, events, and specific primaries but failed to created meaningful dialogue with their followers. Some candidates were more transparent than others in regards to who was responsible for tweeting. This paper also contains suggestions for future research.