Communicating in 140 Characters or Less: Congressional Adoption of Twitter in the 111th Congress

Abstract Recently, new electronic technologies have supplemented older mechanisms of communication between members of Congress and their constituents. These technologies have enhanced members' options for communication, both with constituents and other interested parties. This research examines member use of one specific electronic communication medium: Twitter. Using original data to examine patterns of use, two models predict the probability of a member adopting Twitter based on political, personal, and district-level variables.

[1]  L. Sigelman,et al.  When Objectivity is Not Objective: Network Television News Coverage of U.S. Senators and the "Paradox of Objectivity" , 1992, The Journal of Politics.

[2]  J. Golbeck,et al.  Twitter use by the U.S. Congress , 2010 .

[3]  Jennifer Golbeck,et al.  Twitter use by the U.S. Congress , 2010, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[4]  Brian F. Schaffner,et al.  Winning Coverage in the U.S. Senate , 2007 .

[5]  Andrew Rehfeld.  Towards a General Theory of Political Representation , 2006, The Journal of Politics.

[6]  R. Arnold.  The logic of congressional action , 1990 .

[7]  Christine B. Williams,et al.  Congressional Candidates' Use of YouTube in 2008: Its Frequency and Rationale , 2010 .

[8]  Steffen Dalsgaard,et al.  Facework on Facebook: The presentation of self in virtual life and its role in the US elections , 2008 .

[9]  D. Lilleker,et al.  Microblogging, Constituency Service and Impression Management: UK MPs and the Use of Twitter , 2011, The Impact of Legislatures.

[10]  Jason Wittenberg,et al.  Clarify: Software for Interpreting and Presenting Statistical Results , 2003 .

[11]  Brian F. Schaffner,et al.  The Structural Determinants of Local Congressional News Coverage , 2003 .

[12]  Scott P. Robertson,et al.  Off the wall political discourse: Facebook use in the 2008 U.S. presidential election , 2010, Inf. Polity.

[13]  Nigel Jackson.  MPs and their e-Newsletters: Winning Votes by Promoting Constituency Service , 2008 .

[14]  Jacob R. Straus,et al.  Social Networking and Constituent Communications: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Month Period in the 111th Congress , 2010 .

[15]  Brian F. Schaffner,et al.  Reinforcing Stereotypes? Race and Local Television News Coverage of Congress , 2004 .

[16]  Jane J. Mansbridge.  Rethinking Representation , 2003, American Political Science Review.

[17]  H. Pitkin.  The Concept of Representation , 1969 .

[18]  Richard F. Fenno.  Home Style : House Members in Their Districts , 1978 .

[19]  T. Cook,et al.  Making Laws and Making News: Media Strategies in the U.S. House of Representatives , 1989 .

[20]  전진영.  The Difference Women Make , 2010 .

[21]  S. Herbst.  Public Expression Outside the Mainstream , 1996 .

[22]  Jason Wittenberg,et al.  Making the Most Of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation , 2000 .

[23]  C. Williams.  Explaining Facebook Support in the 2008 Congressional Election Cycle , 2009 .

[24]  Amber Davisson.  “I’m In!”: Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Democratic Primary Campaign on You Tube , 2009 .

[25]  Andrew Rehfeld.  Representation Rethought: On Trustees, Delegates, and Gyroscopes in the Study of Political Representation and Democracy , 2009, American Political Science Review.

[26]  David R. Mayhew.  Congress: The Electoral Connection , 1975 .

[27]  C. Williams,et al.  Closing the Gap, Raising the Bar , 2007 .

[28]  M. D’Agostino.  The Difference That Women Make , 2015 .

[29]  Sue Thomas.  The Impact of Women on State Legislative Policies , 1991, The Journal of Politics.

[30]  Miriam A. Locher,et al.  ‘So let's talk. Let's chat. Let's start a dialog’: An analysis of the conversation metaphor employed in Clinton's and Obama's YouTube campaign clips , 2008 .

[31]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Introduction: The Facebook Election , 2010 .

[32]  Philip Norton,et al.  Four Models of Political Representation: British MPs and the Use of ICT , 2007 .