The perceived role of Twitter in young adults' political participation during the 2018 midterm elections
Abstract
This study explores the relationship between young adults' use of Twitter and their political participation during the 2018 midterm elections. While contributing to previous literature, this study aims to extend research done at the intersection of social media use and political participation. This study looks at the perceptions of young adults' engagement during the 2018 midterm elections. Qualitative research methods were used to gain insight into how young adults engaged on Twitter during the 2018 midterm elections. Twitter was found to be a platform for voter mobilization among young adults. A variety of factors contribute to this perspective such as the consumption of news content and political messaging that encouraged users to go out and vote. Young adults were also found to have a personal connection to their engagement. Retweets, political beliefs, and candidate messaging are all types of content that reflect this personal connection. Young adults want to consume content that they find relatable, and that is an important part of the Twitter experience for them. While there are questions in the literature surrounding this topic, these findings illustrate that social media may both enable and restrict it's role in promoting democracy. Young adults' perceptions of their use of Twitter use goes beyond social media, but how it can be applied in a larger sense to political messaging in the utilization of Twitter.
Degree
M.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.