Abstract
Political candidates, media organizations, and citizens increasingly use the social media site Twitter. Given this trend, as well as the tendency of television news programs to present “meta-coverage” of candidates’ publicity efforts, one might expect television news coverage of election campaigns to include coverage of Twitter. Such coverage, in turn, may shape public opinion. The present study draws on two content analyses to show that television news programs covered Twitter in the context of recent election campaign cycles (2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014) and that much of this coverage focused on candidates’ publicity efforts through Twitter. Building on these results, the study then uses data from an experiment to show that exposure to television news coverage of Hillary Clinton’s publicity efforts through Twitter influenced participants’ opinions about how likable and funny she was but not overall opinions about her. The findings carry potential implications for both candidates and news organizations.
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