Women politicians are more engaging

Male versus female politicians’ ability to generate users’ engagement on social media during an election campaign

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20508893
AutoresMoran Yarchi (0000-0002-8044-2145, The Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel, autor de correspondencia), Tal Samuel-Azran (0000-0002-9501-2949, The Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel)
Año2018
Volumen21
Número7
Páginas978-995
Fecha de publicación2018-07-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInformation Communication & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-118X • E-ISSN: 1468-4462
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369118x.2018.1439985
OpenAlexW2793424853
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas41
Referencias citadas47

In light of past studies’ findings that male politicians usually receive more salient coverage in the traditional media, this study examines whether social media provide a more equal opportunity platform for female politicians to generate users’ engagement and mobilize their supporters. Our study focuses on male versus female politicians’ ability to engage social media users during an election campaign, using the Israeli 2015 campaign as our case study. Female politicians’ posts generated significantly more user engagement in terms of the number of Likes and Shares in comparison to male politicians, while generating the same number of participants in their discussions. The results remained significant in a multilevel analysis, while controlling for other factors such as the politician’s age, party, ranking, and number of posts published by the politician. In terms of the posts’ content, an examination of their rhetoric did not reveal gender differences in their usage of authoritative voice, facts, and the use of emotions in their messages; however, analysis of the topics did suggest differences in the issues raised by male versus female politicians. The evidence strongly indicates that social media provides greater opportunities for female politicians to promote themselves and improve their status in the political power play

Content analysis · Media coverage · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology