The 2008 Presidential Election, 2.0: A Content Analysis of User-Generated Political Facebook Groups

Abstract

Although Facebook is primarily known for building and maintaining relationships, the 2008 presidential election highlighted this social networking website as a viable tool for political communication. In fact, during primary season until Election Day in 2008, Facebook users created more than 1,000 Facebook group pages that focused on Barack Obama and John McCain. Using quantitative content analysis, the primary purpose of this study was to assess how both John McCain and Barack Obama were portrayed across these Facebook groups. Results indicated that group membership and activity levels were higher for Barack Obama than for John McCain. Overall, Barack Obama was portrayed more positively across Facebook groups than John McCain. In addition, profanity, racial, religious, and age-related language were also coded for and varied with regard to how each candidate was portrayed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Dr. Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Dr. David Perlmutter, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

Note. Because many of these variables were severely non-normal, Mann–Whitney U tests were employed to examine differences by group focus.

*p < .05; ***p < .001.

Note. Because these data were severely nonnormal and involved unbalanced responses, nonparametric procedures for related samples were employed, using two-tailed exact tests in the calculation of all significance levels (Mehta & Patel, 1996). Numbers in parentheses are standard deviations.

^a N = 272.

^b N = 40.

^c Significance tests were not conducted due to cells with zero frequencies.

^d N = 42.

^e N = 34.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia K. Woolley

Julia K. Woolley (B.A., Wellesley College, 2005) is a Doctoral Candidate in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include media effects, entertainment psychology, and communication and new media.

Anthony M. Limperos

Anthony M. Limperos (M.A., Kent State University, 2006) is a Doctoral Candidate in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include media uses and effects and new communication technology.

Mary Beth Oliver

Mary Beth Oliver (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991) is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Film/Video & Media Studies and is Co-Director of the Media Effects Research Lab in communications at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include media effects, with a focus on media and emotion, and media and social cognition.