Constituent connections
Senators’ reputation building in the age of social media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12972139 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Annelise Russell (0000-0002-8417-1709, Multichannel (China), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 180-196 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Information Technology & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1933-169X • E-ISSN: 1933-1681 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19331681.2021.1949658 |
| OpenAlex | W3193646763 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 34 |
Twitter is changing strategic messaging in the U.S. Senate. Senators are using Twitter to frame their political brand for constituents, fostering a new digital dialog with constituents. I propose a constituent-driven theory of strategic messaging where senators curate a reputation on Twitter that matches their perceived expectations of their primary constituency. Representation on social media challenges what we know about senators’ institutionally and politically constrained behavior by analyzing them in a new media climate where individual discretion is high and the costs are low. Using a unique dataset of more than 180,000 hand-coded tweets by senators, I show that senators develop two types of digital constituent relationships – an issue-oriented, national reputation versus traditional outreach to geographic constituents. Senators with issue-based constituencies prioritize policy, conveying an issue-driven style of representation; however, senators with tepid electoral futures pair their policy rhetoric with state-based issues or local concerns. These findings expand the scope of existing theories on congressional communication and link the technological shifts in Congress to information senators use to build relationships with voters
Citizen journalism · Credibility · Dialog box · Outreach · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Representation (politics · Reputation · Rhetoric · Social media · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
Agendas and Instability in American Politics, Second Edition
The Increasingly United States
Tweeting to Power
Asymmetric Politics
The Logic of Connective Action
Trust
Representational Style in Congress
Twitter use by the U.S. Congress
Agendas, alternatives, and public policies
Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking
Echo Chamber or Public Sphere? Predicting Political Orientation and Measuring Political Homophily in Twitter Using Big Data
Personal Influence. The Part Played by the People in the Flow of Mass Communication
The Politics of Prioritization
Intermedia Agenda Setting in the Social Media Age
Thanks for (actually) responding! How citizen demand shapes politicians’ interactive practices on Twitter
Using “New” Media to Get “Old” Media Coverage
Forecasting the pulse
Twitter
Getting closer
Congress, The Electoral Connection
The Influence of Presumed Media Influence in Politics
Partisan Intensity in Congress
A Bayesian Hierarchical Topic Model for Political Texts
The Home Style Homepage
Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study
Senators as Political Entrepreneurs
You Tweet Like a Girl
Twitter Style
Communicating in 140 Characters or Less
Gender and vote revelation strategy in the United States Congress
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |