Advantages of Using Twitter?

Gross, J. H., & Johnson, K. T. (2016). Twitter taunts and tirades: Negative campaigning in the age of Trump. PS: Political Science & Politics, 49(4), 748-754.

According to Gross and Johnson, some of the advantages for using Twitter are that it's a free platform, so there are no resource limitations for those using the platform. The study tries to answer the question “What drives candidates to “go negative” and against which opponents?” the researcher collected data from 17 Republican presidential candidates in 2016 party primaries. The collected data were tweets made by each candidate on their respective Twitter accounts to identify the predictors of negative online affect. The popularity and free access of twitter makes it ideal for use especially in campaign messaging. The character limit on twitter allows users to carefully frame their message to be shared within the platform’s requirements. It was also noted that most candidates would launch attacks to those opponents above them.  The authors say that Twitter has become a wellspring for information about campaign communication style. Tweets have become a source of news for both citizens and news media, meaning that tweets have become news. Another observation made by the authors is that negative tweets and the rate of tweeting increases during political campaigns. Findings indicated that as the campaign progresses, tweet negativity and the overall tweeting rate increases. Further, it was evident that Trump, who was the front runner received and send the highest number of negative tweets than his opponents. He is the most likely candidate to strike out against those opponents who are polling poorly. The authors state that politicians are willing to be partisan and negative on Twitter due to the platforms structure that allows users to share concise, sound-bite worthy posts that are more likely to make news.  

‍