Immigration, Framing and Twitter:What Makes a Persuasive Tweet?

Jeff Shaw

Thesis Defense Nov. 25, 2013

* Based on the TAS scores, participants that read the thematic tweets were approximately 130 percent more likely to say they would take action than their counterparts in the other groups.

* Scores were higher in all four categories used to measure action for the groups that viewed the thematic tweets. Both of the thematic groups were markedly more likely to re-tweet or favorite the tweets, considerably more likely to seek more information on the issue, and more likely to sign a petition than the episodic groups were.

Action Scores

Action Scores

Action Scores

Persuasion

Credibility

Gender

* Groups reading the thematic tweets had a majority female composition – 23 out of 40 – while the episodic tweet groups were majority male by a 24-16 margin. This is significant because women tended to rate the tweets higher than men did.

* Members of the GT and IE groups produced results that showed clear gender lines. However, in the GE and IT groups, virtually no identifiable gender differences came though. Men's scores were even slightly higher in terms of Total Action Scores, and for some of the other aggregate metrics as well.

Gender

* The data show a fairly strong across-the-board preference for tweets with thematic frames. This supports Iyengar's findings on issues other than immigration in media other than Twitter.

* Gender may play a role: women tended to rate all of the tweets higher than men did. But while gender seems to have an effect, it is inconsistent, while preference for thematic frames seems consistent.

* Episodic messages did not generally turn people off: they were just rated less strongly.

Major Conclusions

1. Repeat these results with more data and a much larger sample size

2. Group vs. Individual on Twitter: do readers always have trouble making distinctions? If so, what are the implications?

3. Gender as a primary research topic: are women more generally predisposed to pro-immigrant messages? Is this true across race and age lines?

Future Research

Thank You. Questions?