District Partisan Homogeneity, Communications, and the Electoral Motive: An Analysis of the Facebook Posts of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives  

作　　者：Scot Schraufnagel Quan Li Adam Schuster 

机构地区：[1]Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA [2]College of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China [3]Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA

出　　处：《Social Networking》2017年第2期148-163,共16页社交网络（英文）

摘　　要：The research examines the way in which members of the U.S. House of Representative represent themselves on the social network site Facebook. Each member’s activity is observed on seven different occasions and the frequency and substantive character of posts made during the second half of 2013 are established. The focus is on position-taking posts versus posts which mention the district the member serves in. Our expectation is that members from electorally safe districts will be more likely to advertise their policy positions while members from marginal districts will be more inclined to advertise their district connections. We control for minority party status, gender, and ideological extremism among other concerns and learn electoral safety is a good predictor of both “position-taking” and “district mentions”. Consistent with an electoral motive, we also find members from the minority party less likely to take positions on the issues of the day and more likely to mention the district they serve in.The research examines the way in which members of the U.S. House of Representative represent themselves on the social network site Facebook. Each member’s activity is observed on seven different occasions and the frequency and substantive character of posts made during the second half of 2013 are established. The focus is on position-taking posts versus posts which mention the district the member serves in. Our expectation is that members from electorally safe districts will be more likely to advertise their policy positions while members from marginal districts will be more inclined to advertise their district connections. We control for minority party status, gender, and ideological extremism among other concerns and learn electoral safety is a good predictor of both “position-taking” and “district mentions”. Consistent with an electoral motive, we also find members from the minority party less likely to take positions on the issues of the day and more likely to mention the district they serve in.

关 键 词：U.S. House of Representatives FACEBOOK POSTS Electoral Motives CREDIT Claiming 

分 类 号：R73[医药卫生—肿瘤]