PUBLIC REACTION TO THE US RESTRICTIVE MIGRATION POLICY IN TWITTER: THE ANALYSIS OF INTERTEXTUALITY

Authors

Keywords:

political communication, electronic communication, migration policy, Twitter, in-tertextuality, hashtag

Abstract

The topicality of the research is explained by the growing popularity of social networking sites as a channel of political communication. Modern elements of intertextuality, such as hashtags, retweets, @ sign, ensure participation of a large number of users in discussing certain political topics. They give the possibility to quickly track public's reaction to political events. Employing the methods of computer linguistics, the paper analyzes the elements of intertextuality in reactions of English-speaking users of Twitter to the introduction of Executive Order 13769, known in the media space as the ‘travel ban’. The study found that the hashtag is the most popular element of intertextuality actively used to popularize the opinion and to involve a wide range of people into discussions. In addition, thematic grouping of hashtags allowed us to identify the opposite reactions of users and to assume that it is possible to control the route of the debate with the help of hashtags. To attract attention of the maximum number of users, hashtags must also be single-component and act as subjects, marking the topic of the message. DOI: 10.17072/2218-1067-2019-1-47-58

Author Biographies

Юлия Балакина / Julia Balakina, National Research University Higher School of Economics

PhD, associate Professor, Department of literature and intercultural communication

Антонина Жуковская / Antonina Jucovscaia, National Research University Higher School of Economics

undergraduate

References

Сергеева, Д.С. (2017) ‘Форми-рование имиджа политика в современном информацион-ном пространстве (на матери-але данных соцсети «Твит-тер»)’, Вестник Северного (Арктического) федерального университета. Сер. Гумани-тарные и социальные науки, 4, сс. 124‒131, DOI: 10.17238/issn2227-6564.2017.4.124. [Sergeeva, D.S. (2017) ‘A politician’s im-age making in modern infor-mation space (exemplified by Twitter)’ [Formirovanie im-idzha politika v sovremennom informatsionnom prostranstve (na materiale dannykh sotsseti «Tvitter»)], Vestnik of Northern (Arctic) Federal University. Se-ries “Humanitarian and Social Sciences”, 4, pp. 124‒131, DOI: 10.17238/issn2227-6564.2017.4.124. (In Russ.)].

Филиппова, В.А. (2014) ‘Твиттер как инструмент формирования политической повестки дня в России 2010‒2013 гг.: зарож-дение интернет-элиты’, Вест-ник Санкт-Петербургского Университета. Язык и лите-ратура, 9 (4), сс. 182‒195. [Filippova, V.A. (2014) ‘Twit-ter in the political agenda-setting in Russia in 2010-2013: the birth of the Internet elite’ [Tvitter kak instrument formi-rovaniya politicheskoi povestki dnya v Rossii 2010-2013 godov: zarozhdenie internet-elity], Vestnik of Saint Peters-burg University. Language and Literature, 9 (4), pp. 182‒195. (In Russ.)].

Филиппова, В.А. (2016) ‘Инстру-ментальные возможности Твиттера в исследованиях по-вестки дня’, Гуманитарные, социально-экономические и общественные науки, 6‒7, сс. 117‒119. [Filippova, V.A. (2016) ‘Twitter as an instru-ment in agenda setting research’ [Instrumental'nye vozmozhnosti Tvittera v issledovaniyakh povestki dnya], Humanities, Social-Economic and Social Sciences, 6‒7, pp. 117‒119. (In Russ.)].

Чижик, А.В. (2015) ‘Политический дискурс в русскоязычном Twitter и образ политика че-рез призму интернет-дискурса’, Новые информаци-онные технологии в автома-тизированных системах, 18, сс. 523‒532. [Chizhik, A.V. (2015) ‘Political discourse in Russian-language Twitter and the image of politician through the prism of Internet discourse’ [Politicheskii diskurs v russko-yazychnom Twitter i obraz politika cherez prizmu internet-diskursa], Novye informatsionnye

tekhnologii v avtomatizirovannykh sistemakh, 18, pp. 523‒532. (In Russ.)].

Adams, A., McCorkindale, T. (2013) ‘Dialogue and Transparency: a Content Analysis of How the 2012 Presidential Candidates Used Twit-ter’, Public Relations Review, 39(4), pp. 357‒359.

Allen, G. (2011) Intertexuality: The new critical idiom. New York: Routledge.

Burnap, P., Gibson, R., Sloan, L., Southern, R. and Williams, M. (2016) ‘140 characters to victory?: Using twitter to predict the UK 2015 general election’, Electoral Studies, 41 (3), pp. 230‒233.

Gayo-Avello, D. (2013) ‘A Meta-analysis of State-of-the-art Elec-toral Prediction from Twitter Da-ta’, Social Science Computer Re-view, 31(6) [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439313493979 (Accessed: 20 March 2018).

Graham, T., Jackson, D., Broersma, M. (2016) ‘New platform, old habits? Candidates’ use of Twitter during the 2010 British and Dutch general election campaigns’, New Media & Society, 18 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814546728 (Accessed: 16 March 2018).

Jungherr, A. (2015) Analyzing Political Communication with Digital Trace Data. The Role of Twitter Messag-es in Social Science Research. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Kristeva, J. (1986) ‘Word, dialogue and novel’ in The Kristeva Reader. Ox-ford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 34–61.

Page, R. (2012) ‘The Linguistics of Self-Branding and Micro-Celebrity in Twitter: The Role of Hashtags’, Discourse & Communication, 6, pp. 181‒201, DOI:10.1177/1750481312437441.

Zappavigna, M. (2011) ‘Ambient Affilia-tion: A Linguistic Perspective on Twitter’, SAGE. New Media & So-ciety, 13(5), pp. 788‒806, DOI: 10.1177/1461444810385097.

Zappavigna, M. (2012) Discourse of Twitter and social media: How we use language to create affiliation on the Web. New York: Continuum.

Zappavigna, M. (2014) ‘Coffee tweets: Bonding around the Bean on Twit-ter’ in Seargeant, P., Tagg, C. (eds.) The Language of Social Me-dia: Communication and Commu-nity on the Internet, pp. 139‒160.

Zappavigna, M. (2015) ‘Searchable talk: the linguistic functions of hashtags’, Social Semiotics, 25(3), pp. 274‒291, DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2014.996948.

Published

2019-04-29

How to Cite

Julia Balakina Ю. Б. /, & Antonina Jucovscaia А. Ж. /. (2019). PUBLIC REACTION TO THE US RESTRICTIVE MIGRATION POLICY IN TWITTER: THE ANALYSIS OF INTERTEXTUALITY. Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, 13(1), 47–58. Retrieved from http://press.psu.ru/index.php/polit/article/view/2278

Issue

Section

Статьи