The Role of Social Media in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses

Abstract

Social media have become an indispensable tool in modern political campaigns, yet little is known about their impact, especially at the important primary and caucus stages of US presidential elections. This study investigates the effects of visiting political party and candidate websites as well as following presidential candidates, posting political comments, and liking or sharing political content on social media on participation in the primary stage of the 2016 US election. The results of a pre-caucus survey in Iowa show that active use of social media tends to have positive effects while passive social media use has a negative impact on likelihood of caucus attendance. Implications for the use of social media in future campaigns are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• caucuses
• Iowa voters
• online news media
• political participation
• social media

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the sponsors of the caucus survey, including the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of Political Science, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, and the Office of the Vice President for Research at Iowa State University, and WHO-TV Des Moines, IA.

Notes

¹Percentages are based on combining the “sometimes,” “often,” and “very often” survey categories.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics [Grant Number], Iowa State University [Grant Number College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,Department of Political Science,Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication], and WHO-HD TV [Grant Number]