Bachelor's Essays

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The Use of Family Strategy and Social Media in the 2012 Presidential Election
(2013-11-05) White, Emily Claire; Ruth-McSwain, Amanda; Lee, Michael$; Moscowitz, Leigh$
The present study examines the 2012 presidential candidates Barack Obama (D) and Mitt Romney (R) use of social media to incorporate their families into their campaign strategy. Throughout the study, reference to “family” or “family values” signifies the candidates’ personal families rather than family ideology. Content analysis was used to examine both candidates use of social media from November 2011 to November 2012 and 469 items from different social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Tumblr, were analyzed. It was found that Obama had more frequency in posts the included his family, as well as more frequency in framing policy and issue-based messages through the use of his family. Overall, this gave Obama a more personalized campaign because he seemed more relatable to viewers. The introduction explains the purpose of the study in more detail, the literature review provides empirical evidence that supports the findings of this study, the methodology chapter gives an in-depth explanation of the methods used in this study, the results chapter examines and analyzes the results, and finally, the discussion chapter reveals the importance of the findings of this study.