Hillary Clinton's political campaign communication in the interactive Facebook world

Abstract

This research uses content analysis to examine the role of social media in modern American political communication. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between different message strategies and level of engagement by focusing on Hillary Clinton's Facebook posts between October 1, 2016, and November 7, 2016, just prior to the campaign election. Agenda-setting theory will be examined in relation to political campaigns' increasing ability to engage voters directly via social media. The number of interactions via Facebook's native buttons will provide a way to measure interactions. It's important to know what message strategies are most effective on Facebook because the more interactions a post receives, the more widely that message has the potential to be distributed via newsfeeds. According to the receive-accept-sample model of information processing, exposure to a message can affect people's opinions and behaviors, so future political campaigns could benefit from the current research by using its findings when determining message strategies.