Research Article

On the Same Page? A Content Analysis of President Trump’s 2018 Tweets Regarding Issues Most Relevant to the American People

Yolanda Denise Campbell 1 *
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1 Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 9(4), October 2019, e201923, https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/5901
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ABSTRACT

Through a content analysis of President Donald Trump’s 2018 tweets, results revealed that his most prominent tweets were about the Mueller probe/Russia investigation, a topic which polled as one of the least important issues to the American people in a 2018 poll given by NBC News/Wall Street Journal. Although the results reveal that what the President deemed as most important didn’t match rank wise with the American people, everything he tweeted about was issues included in the 2018 poll—a strong indication of agenda-setting occurring between Trump’s tweets and the minds of the American people. In addition to frequency of tweets, Trump’s stance/tone regarding the poll topics were examined. Those findings showed that during natural disasters and mass shootings, the President offered some moments of consoling to the nation, but they were not absent of malice. Additionally, Trump’s tweets heavily criticized and questioned the validity of the Mueller investigation, bolstered his way of handling the economy, immigration, and trade and criticized any and all whose words and/or actions were in opposition to him and/or his administration.
Keywords: President Donald Trump, Twitter, content analysis, agenda-setting theory, political communication, Russia investigation

CITATION (APA)

Campbell, Y. D. (2019). On the Same Page? A Content Analysis of President Trump’s 2018 Tweets Regarding Issues Most Relevant to the American People. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 9(4), e201923. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/5901

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