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This volume provides a critical view of the nature and quality of political and civic communication on Twitter. The introduction lays out the current state of research, showing the continuum of views, from the more optimistic to more pessimistic, regarding the platform's potential to facilitate civic conversations. The eleven empirical case studies in the book provide new insights, addressing a variety of topics through a diverse array of methodological approaches. Together, the chapters provide a counter position to recent studies that offer more celebratory assessments of Twitter's potential. The book draws attention to the chaotic, insular, uncivil, and emotionally charged nature of debate and communication on Twitter.
List of contents
1. Communication in the age of Twitter: The nature of online deliberation.- 2. Going "rogue": discourses of American identity and resistance on Twitter.- 3. Political candidates' discussions on Twitter during election season: A network approach.- 4. #PeoplesVoteMarch or #LosersVoteMarch? Tracing the collective identity of a post-Brexit referendum movement on Twitter.- 5. Civic debate and self-care: Black women's community care online.- 6. The voices of Twitter: A critical discourse analysis of racial discourses on Twitter following the Alt-right march on Charlottesville, Virginia.- 7. Covert hate speech: White Nationalists and dog whistle communication on Twitter.- 8. Patterns of emotional tweets: The case of Brexit after the referendum results.- 9. An exploratory mixed-method analysis of interpersonal argument on Twitter.- 10. Bros before Donald Trump: Resistance and replication in the #BROTUS memes after the 2016 election.-11. #FamilyTravelHacks: Humor and political commentary in hashtag hijacking.- 12. Women in horror, social activism and Twitter: Asia Argento, Anna Biller, and the Soska Sisters.- 13. Afterword: Twitter and the democratization of politics.
About the author
Gwen Bouvier is Professor in the Department of English, School of International Studies at Zhejiang University, China.
Judith E. Rosenbaum is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, USA.
