Heather K Evans
Biographic Data
| ID | 388000 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Heather K Evans |
| GIVEN NAMES | Heather K |
| FAMILY NAME | Evans |
| SIGNATURE | EVANS H K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Sam Houston State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0696-026X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 171 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Issue Framing After Dobbs: Examining How Abortion Was Addressed in Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections
This article explores how abortion was framed on Twitter as an issue during the 2022 midterm elections directly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. By leveraging a dataset of all tweets sent by US House of Representatives candidates for two months prior to the midterm elections, this study examines how both gender and partisanship impacted the discussion of abortion and shows that partisanship drove the rhetoric surrounding this issue during th…
Not All Women: Partisanship’s Impact on Congressional Campaign Communication on Twitter
A Tale of Two Elections: Changes in Candidates’ Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections in Virginia
Previous research has shown that in congressional campaigns, incumbents behave very differently than their challengers, especially on social media. The research that currently exists regarding how candidates use social media during their elections, however, is limited by examining only general election tweets. In this manuscript, we update this work by examining the Twitter behavior of candidates throughout both their primary and general election…
Not ready to make nice: Congressional candidates’ emotional appeals on Twitter
Objective Congressional candidates use digital platforms to bolster and define their political reputation, and political stalemates over inflation, reproductive rights, and the lasting impact of Trump politics are fueling candidates’ emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter, especially for women. Against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's presidency and the #MeToo movement, previous research has shown that women running for Congress are lead…
Gender and attention to and framing of Covid‐19 in congressional tweets
Background Previous research demonstrates that congressional communication on Twitter is gendered. Congresswomen are more likely to tweet about issues than Congressmen during elections, and they are also more likely to tweet about “women's issues” (healthcare, education, reproductive rights, welfare) than their male counterparts. Objectives Given the partisan and gendered coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic effects researchers have documented…
Good and pissed: Gendered emotional appeals on Twitter
Persistent gender stereotypes portray women as pleasant and polite, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement and polarized politics, female candidates are turning to Twitter and they aren’t hiding their frustration. Congressional candidates use Twitter to connect with voters, but political stalemates over health care, reproductive rights, and pay equity are the fodder for female candidates’ emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter. Women are running…
Marketing Female Candidates as “Women”: Gender and Partisanship’s Influence on Issue Discussion on Twitter in 2020
Previous work in the area of gender and social media has shown that women campaign and market themselves online very differently than men. While female candidates are more likely to discuss certain types of issues (like education and healthcare) in their campaigns, some research has shown that as more women are added to a congressional race, less attention is paid to those “women’s issues.” Given the steady increase in the number of women running…
They Were Laughing: Congressional Framing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Sexual Assault Allegations on Twitter
Allegations of sexual assault and violence engulfed the confirmation hearings surrounding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee (and now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. Our work examines congressmembers’ communication concerning sexual assault and #MeToo during this critical time of the Kavanaugh hearing and how this relates to perceptions of gender and partisanship today. While previous research demonstrated a strong role of gender in influencing wh…
Media-centric and Politics-centric Views of Media and Democracy: A Longitudinal Analysis ofPolitical Communicationand theInternational Journal of Press/Politics
Political communication is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that has grown in stature and reach in recent decades, becoming more international in scope and orientation while gaining respect in political science as a legitimate area of inquiry. In the evolving and participatory media-politics landscape, it becomes important to ask how the cross-disciplinary project of political communication research is keeping pace with changing conditions that…
The “Perfect” Call: Congressional Representation by Tweet in the Midst of the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal
In this article we examine every tweet congresspersons sent from the time the media broke the news of President Trump’s fateful July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky up to a week after House Speaker Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry. Our aim is to understand the type of rhetoric Members of Congress (MCs) engaged in with respect to what we call the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal (UWS). It is evident from our analysis th…
Let’s Talk about Sex: Examining the Factors Influencing Congressional Response to #MeToo on Twitter
This article examines the factors that influence whether members of Congress tweet about the #MeToo movement. Whereas social-identity theory suggests that congresswomen would be more likely to tweet about #MeToo, congressional research argues that increased polarization has resulted in congresswomen bucking gender stereotypes and embracing more partisan behavior than might otherwise be expected (Pearson and Dancey 2011). We examine how gender, pa…
Tweeting for Hearts and Minds? Measuring Candidates’ Use of Anxiety in Tweets During the 2018 Midterm Elections
This article considers whether candidates strategically use emotional rhetoric in social media messages similar to the way that fear appeals are used strategically in televised campaign advertisements. We use a dataset of tweets issued by the campaign accounts of candidates for the US House of Representatives during the last two months of the 2018 midterm elections to determine whether candidate vulnerability predicts the presence of certain emot…
Awkward Independents: What Are Third-Party Candidates Doing on Twitter
Previous literature on partisan campaign behavior shows that third-party candidates do not have the same presence online as major-party candidates, and these differences have been linked regularly to campaign finance. Twitter, however, has changed the online campaigning game. Because Twitter essentially is free, third-party candidates can even the playing field with major-party candidates who have more financial resources. The question asked in t…
Delete Your Account”: The 2016 Presidential Race on Twitter
While there has been a growth in the number of published studies about how candidates for the U.S. House and Senate use Twitter, candidates for president have been largely ignored. In this article, we examine the way the two 2016 presidential candidates communicated on Twitter. Using a content analysis of all tweets sent from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s accounts from July 1 to Election Day, we explore whether the two candidates used this s…
Mudslinging on Twitter During the 2014 Election
Following the work of Evans, Cordova, and Sipole, we examine the way that candidates for congressional seats in 2014 used Twitter during the last 2 months of their campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet sent by all candidates for both the US House and Senate, we show that particular individual-level and campaign-specific characteristics are related to whether and how often candidates go negative on Twitter. In particular, we show that …
You Tweet Like a Girl: How Female Candidates Campaign on Twitter
We investigate the Twitter activity of all congressional candidates leading up to the 2012 U.S. House elections to assess whether there are significant differences in the tone and content of the tweets from male and female candidates. We argue that the electoral environment will have a significant effect over whether candidates engage in negative tweeting, address political issues, and discuss so-called “women’s issues” on Twitter. We find that g…
Pour que les autorités sanitaires influencent davantage l’aménagement du territoire et la planification des transports: Leçons du projet Bâtir un Canada en santé de l’initiative Coalition en Colombie-…
An Experimental Investigation of Videotaped Lectures in Online Courses
Twitter Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in Their 2012 Campaigns
This article examines how House candidates used Twitter during the 2012 campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet from each candidate for the House in the final two months before the 2012 election, this study provides a snapshot of House candidates’ “Twitter style.” In particular, this article shows that incumbents, Democrats, women, and those in competitive races tweet differently than challengers, Republicans, minor party candidates, me…
The lasting effect of competitive elections on congressional approval: Evidence from the 2010 and 2011 Cooperative Congressional Election Study
Social Butterflies and Politics: Exploring the Link between Sociability and Political Engagement, Online and Off
This article explores the relationship between individual-level sociability and political engagement. While some evidence exists that individual-level sociability may be related to political engagement and interest, little is known about the ways in which sociability affects participation in different forms of political activity, particularly newer forms of online political engagement. Using data from the 2009 Cooperative Congressional Election S…
Reflecting on a Decade of Women's Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals
Publication in scholarly journals is a key to scholarly success. However, previous studies have shown that across many disciplines, including political science, women publish significantly less than men and prefer to use qualitative methodology. In this article, we explore the accuracy of these trends by examining a decade's worth (2000–09) of women's publications in four top political science journals (the American Political Science Review, the …
The Representation of Women in Publication: An Analysis of Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics
Scholarly publication in peer-reviewed journals is widely regarded as the road to scholarly success. However, in a diversity of fields such as sociology, economics, and political science, it has been shown that the rate of publication is much lower for women than for men. The question of whether a systematic relationship exists between gender and research methods has also frequently been debated. In this paper, we explore patterns of authorship a…
You Tweet Like a Girl: How Female Candidates Campaign on Twitter
We investigate the Twitter activity of all congressional candidates leading up to the 2012 U.S. House elections to assess whether there are significant differences in the tone and content of the tweets from male and female candidates. We argue that the electoral environment will have a significant effect over whether candidates engage in negative tweeting, address political issues, and discuss so-called “women’s issues” on Twitter. We find that g…
Twitter Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in Their 2012 Campaigns
This article examines how House candidates used Twitter during the 2012 campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet from each candidate for the House in the final two months before the 2012 election, this study provides a snapshot of House candidates’ “Twitter style.” In particular, this article shows that incumbents, Democrats, women, and those in competitive races tweet differently than challengers, Republicans, minor party candidates, me…
They Were Laughing: Congressional Framing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Sexual Assault Allegations on Twitter
Allegations of sexual assault and violence engulfed the confirmation hearings surrounding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee (and now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. Our work examines congressmembers’ communication concerning sexual assault and #MeToo during this critical time of the Kavanaugh hearing and how this relates to perceptions of gender and partisanship today. While previous research demonstrated a strong role of gender in influencing wh…
Delete Your Account”: The 2016 Presidential Race on Twitter
While there has been a growth in the number of published studies about how candidates for the U.S. House and Senate use Twitter, candidates for president have been largely ignored. In this article, we examine the way the two 2016 presidential candidates communicated on Twitter. Using a content analysis of all tweets sent from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s accounts from July 1 to Election Day, we explore whether the two candidates used this s…
Mudslinging on Twitter During the 2014 Election
Following the work of Evans, Cordova, and Sipole, we examine the way that candidates for congressional seats in 2014 used Twitter during the last 2 months of their campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet sent by all candidates for both the US House and Senate, we show that particular individual-level and campaign-specific characteristics are related to whether and how often candidates go negative on Twitter. In particular, we show that …
Let’s Talk about Sex: Examining the Factors Influencing Congressional Response to #MeToo on Twitter
This article examines the factors that influence whether members of Congress tweet about the #MeToo movement. Whereas social-identity theory suggests that congresswomen would be more likely to tweet about #MeToo, congressional research argues that increased polarization has resulted in congresswomen bucking gender stereotypes and embracing more partisan behavior than might otherwise be expected (Pearson and Dancey 2011). We examine how gender, pa…
The Representation of Women in Publication: An Analysis of Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics
Scholarly publication in peer-reviewed journals is widely regarded as the road to scholarly success. However, in a diversity of fields such as sociology, economics, and political science, it has been shown that the rate of publication is much lower for women than for men. The question of whether a systematic relationship exists between gender and research methods has also frequently been debated. In this paper, we explore patterns of authorship a…
The “Perfect” Call: Congressional Representation by Tweet in the Midst of the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal
In this article we examine every tweet congresspersons sent from the time the media broke the news of President Trump’s fateful July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky up to a week after House Speaker Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry. Our aim is to understand the type of rhetoric Members of Congress (MCs) engaged in with respect to what we call the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal (UWS). It is evident from our analysis th…
Good and pissed: Gendered emotional appeals on Twitter
Persistent gender stereotypes portray women as pleasant and polite, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement and polarized politics, female candidates are turning to Twitter and they aren’t hiding their frustration. Congressional candidates use Twitter to connect with voters, but political stalemates over health care, reproductive rights, and pay equity are the fodder for female candidates’ emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter. Women are running…
Pour que les autorités sanitaires influencent davantage l’aménagement du territoire et la planification des transports: Leçons du projet Bâtir un Canada en santé de l’initiative Coalition en Colombie-…
Reflecting on a Decade of Women's Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals
Publication in scholarly journals is a key to scholarly success. However, previous studies have shown that across many disciplines, including political science, women publish significantly less than men and prefer to use qualitative methodology. In this article, we explore the accuracy of these trends by examining a decade's worth (2000–09) of women's publications in four top political science journals (the American Political Science Review, the …
Gender and attention to and framing of Covid‐19 in congressional tweets
Background Previous research demonstrates that congressional communication on Twitter is gendered. Congresswomen are more likely to tweet about issues than Congressmen during elections, and they are also more likely to tweet about “women's issues” (healthcare, education, reproductive rights, welfare) than their male counterparts. Objectives Given the partisan and gendered coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic effects researchers have documented…
Tweeting for Hearts and Minds? Measuring Candidates’ Use of Anxiety in Tweets During the 2018 Midterm Elections
This article considers whether candidates strategically use emotional rhetoric in social media messages similar to the way that fear appeals are used strategically in televised campaign advertisements. We use a dataset of tweets issued by the campaign accounts of candidates for the US House of Representatives during the last two months of the 2018 midterm elections to determine whether candidate vulnerability predicts the presence of certain emot…
Awkward Independents: What Are Third-Party Candidates Doing on Twitter
Previous literature on partisan campaign behavior shows that third-party candidates do not have the same presence online as major-party candidates, and these differences have been linked regularly to campaign finance. Twitter, however, has changed the online campaigning game. Because Twitter essentially is free, third-party candidates can even the playing field with major-party candidates who have more financial resources. The question asked in t…
A Tale of Two Elections: Changes in Candidates’ Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections in Virginia
Previous research has shown that in congressional campaigns, incumbents behave very differently than their challengers, especially on social media. The research that currently exists regarding how candidates use social media during their elections, however, is limited by examining only general election tweets. In this manuscript, we update this work by examining the Twitter behavior of candidates throughout both their primary and general election…
Media-centric and Politics-centric Views of Media and Democracy: A Longitudinal Analysis ofPolitical Communicationand theInternational Journal of Press/Politics
Political communication is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that has grown in stature and reach in recent decades, becoming more international in scope and orientation while gaining respect in political science as a legitimate area of inquiry. In the evolving and participatory media-politics landscape, it becomes important to ask how the cross-disciplinary project of political communication research is keeping pace with changing conditions that…
An Experimental Investigation of Videotaped Lectures in Online Courses
Social Butterflies and Politics: Exploring the Link between Sociability and Political Engagement, Online and Off
This article explores the relationship between individual-level sociability and political engagement. While some evidence exists that individual-level sociability may be related to political engagement and interest, little is known about the ways in which sociability affects participation in different forms of political activity, particularly newer forms of online political engagement. Using data from the 2009 Cooperative Congressional Election S…
The Representation of Women in Publication: An Analysis of Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics
Scholarly publication in peer-reviewed journals is widely regarded as the road to scholarly success. However, in a diversity of fields such as sociology, economics, and political science, it has been shown that the rate of publication is much lower for women than for men. The question of whether a systematic relationship exists between gender and research methods has also frequently been debated. In this paper, we explore patterns of authorship a…
Reflecting on a Decade of Women's Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals
Publication in scholarly journals is a key to scholarly success. However, previous studies have shown that across many disciplines, including political science, women publish significantly less than men and prefer to use qualitative methodology. In this article, we explore the accuracy of these trends by examining a decade's worth (2000–09) of women's publications in four top political science journals (the American Political Science Review, the …
Social Butterflies and Politics: Exploring the Link between Sociability and Political Engagement, Online and Off
This article explores the relationship between individual-level sociability and political engagement. While some evidence exists that individual-level sociability may be related to political engagement and interest, little is known about the ways in which sociability affects participation in different forms of political activity, particularly newer forms of online political engagement. Using data from the 2009 Cooperative Congressional Election S…
The lasting effect of competitive elections on congressional approval: Evidence from the 2010 and 2011 Cooperative Congressional Election Study
An Experimental Investigation of Videotaped Lectures in Online Courses
Twitter Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in Their 2012 Campaigns
This article examines how House candidates used Twitter during the 2012 campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet from each candidate for the House in the final two months before the 2012 election, this study provides a snapshot of House candidates’ “Twitter style.” In particular, this article shows that incumbents, Democrats, women, and those in competitive races tweet differently than challengers, Republicans, minor party candidates, me…
Pour que les autorités sanitaires influencent davantage l’aménagement du territoire et la planification des transports: Leçons du projet Bâtir un Canada en santé de l’initiative Coalition en Colombie-…
You Tweet Like a Girl: How Female Candidates Campaign on Twitter
We investigate the Twitter activity of all congressional candidates leading up to the 2012 U.S. House elections to assess whether there are significant differences in the tone and content of the tweets from male and female candidates. We argue that the electoral environment will have a significant effect over whether candidates engage in negative tweeting, address political issues, and discuss so-called “women’s issues” on Twitter. We find that g…
Delete Your Account”: The 2016 Presidential Race on Twitter
While there has been a growth in the number of published studies about how candidates for the U.S. House and Senate use Twitter, candidates for president have been largely ignored. In this article, we examine the way the two 2016 presidential candidates communicated on Twitter. Using a content analysis of all tweets sent from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s accounts from July 1 to Election Day, we explore whether the two candidates used this s…
Mudslinging on Twitter During the 2014 Election
Following the work of Evans, Cordova, and Sipole, we examine the way that candidates for congressional seats in 2014 used Twitter during the last 2 months of their campaign. Using a content analysis of every tweet sent by all candidates for both the US House and Senate, we show that particular individual-level and campaign-specific characteristics are related to whether and how often candidates go negative on Twitter. In particular, we show that …
Awkward Independents: What Are Third-Party Candidates Doing on Twitter
Previous literature on partisan campaign behavior shows that third-party candidates do not have the same presence online as major-party candidates, and these differences have been linked regularly to campaign finance. Twitter, however, has changed the online campaigning game. Because Twitter essentially is free, third-party candidates can even the playing field with major-party candidates who have more financial resources. The question asked in t…
Let’s Talk about Sex: Examining the Factors Influencing Congressional Response to #MeToo on Twitter
This article examines the factors that influence whether members of Congress tweet about the #MeToo movement. Whereas social-identity theory suggests that congresswomen would be more likely to tweet about #MeToo, congressional research argues that increased polarization has resulted in congresswomen bucking gender stereotypes and embracing more partisan behavior than might otherwise be expected (Pearson and Dancey 2011). We examine how gender, pa…
Tweeting for Hearts and Minds? Measuring Candidates’ Use of Anxiety in Tweets During the 2018 Midterm Elections
This article considers whether candidates strategically use emotional rhetoric in social media messages similar to the way that fear appeals are used strategically in televised campaign advertisements. We use a dataset of tweets issued by the campaign accounts of candidates for the US House of Representatives during the last two months of the 2018 midterm elections to determine whether candidate vulnerability predicts the presence of certain emot…
Good and pissed: Gendered emotional appeals on Twitter
Persistent gender stereotypes portray women as pleasant and polite, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement and polarized politics, female candidates are turning to Twitter and they aren’t hiding their frustration. Congressional candidates use Twitter to connect with voters, but political stalemates over health care, reproductive rights, and pay equity are the fodder for female candidates’ emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter. Women are running…
Marketing Female Candidates as “Women”: Gender and Partisanship’s Influence on Issue Discussion on Twitter in 2020
Previous work in the area of gender and social media has shown that women campaign and market themselves online very differently than men. While female candidates are more likely to discuss certain types of issues (like education and healthcare) in their campaigns, some research has shown that as more women are added to a congressional race, less attention is paid to those “women’s issues.” Given the steady increase in the number of women running…
They Were Laughing: Congressional Framing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s Sexual Assault Allegations on Twitter
Allegations of sexual assault and violence engulfed the confirmation hearings surrounding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee (and now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. Our work examines congressmembers’ communication concerning sexual assault and #MeToo during this critical time of the Kavanaugh hearing and how this relates to perceptions of gender and partisanship today. While previous research demonstrated a strong role of gender in influencing wh…
Media-centric and Politics-centric Views of Media and Democracy: A Longitudinal Analysis ofPolitical Communicationand theInternational Journal of Press/Politics
Political communication is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that has grown in stature and reach in recent decades, becoming more international in scope and orientation while gaining respect in political science as a legitimate area of inquiry. In the evolving and participatory media-politics landscape, it becomes important to ask how the cross-disciplinary project of political communication research is keeping pace with changing conditions that…
The “Perfect” Call: Congressional Representation by Tweet in the Midst of the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal
In this article we examine every tweet congresspersons sent from the time the media broke the news of President Trump’s fateful July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky up to a week after House Speaker Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry. Our aim is to understand the type of rhetoric Members of Congress (MCs) engaged in with respect to what we call the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal (UWS). It is evident from our analysis th…
Gender and attention to and framing of Covid‐19 in congressional tweets
Background Previous research demonstrates that congressional communication on Twitter is gendered. Congresswomen are more likely to tweet about issues than Congressmen during elections, and they are also more likely to tweet about “women's issues” (healthcare, education, reproductive rights, welfare) than their male counterparts. Objectives Given the partisan and gendered coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic effects researchers have documented…
A Tale of Two Elections: Changes in Candidates’ Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections in Virginia
Previous research has shown that in congressional campaigns, incumbents behave very differently than their challengers, especially on social media. The research that currently exists regarding how candidates use social media during their elections, however, is limited by examining only general election tweets. In this manuscript, we update this work by examining the Twitter behavior of candidates throughout both their primary and general election…
Not ready to make nice: Congressional candidates’ emotional appeals on Twitter
Objective Congressional candidates use digital platforms to bolster and define their political reputation, and political stalemates over inflation, reproductive rights, and the lasting impact of Trump politics are fueling candidates’ emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter, especially for women. Against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's presidency and the #MeToo movement, previous research has shown that women running for Congress are lead…
Not All Women: Partisanship’s Impact on Congressional Campaign Communication on Twitter
Issue Framing After Dobbs: Examining How Abortion Was Addressed in Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections
This article explores how abortion was framed on Twitter as an issue during the 2022 midterm elections directly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. By leveraging a dataset of all tweets sent by US House of Representatives candidates for two months prior to the midterm elections, this study examines how both gender and partisanship impacted the discussion of abortion and shows that partisanship drove the rhetoric surrounding this issue during th…
Political science (21 works) · Law (17 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Social Media and Politics (13 works) · Politics (12 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (11 works) · Social media (11 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works)