Updates to Congressional Speech Acts on Twitter

Abstract

Over the last several years, research on our elected officials’ use of social media as a political communication platform has greatly increased. While the bulk of social media-related research focuses on elections, social media-traditional media connections, or the effect of politicians’ social media communications on people’s attitudes and opinions, the present study shows how members of the U.S. Congress use Twitter to engage in a range of speech-based actions. Examples of these speech-based actions include narration about one’s day or recent events, providing information in the form of online or offline information, and positioning for/against policies and other politicians. In terms of outcomes, this paper provides updates regarding gender, chamber, and party-based differences. Second, based on the assumption that speech acts now occur in hybrid form, this paper examines how polarizing political communications are couched in more subdued formats. Third, a set of recommendations is provided to help journalists and citizens identify these hybrid speech-based actions before making a potentially misinformed retweet or comment. In this way, the function of Twitter use by elected officials is further explained and our understanding of Twitter’s role in U.S. political communication is further deepened.