It’s not breaking news that President Trump likes to tweet. In 2018, he used that social media platform to dole out a rapid-fire of endorsements of congressional candidates running in the midterm elections. During that campaign, he gave out 134 endorsements to 45 congressional candidates on Twitter, and endorsed another 35 congressional candidates at 47…
Tag: Twitter
Ph.D. Spotlight: Methods to Improve Existing Heat Wave Surveillance Systems
Elevated and prolonged exposure to extreme heat is an important cause of excess summertimemortality and morbidity. To protect people from health threats, some governments are currentlyoperating syndromic surveillance systems. However, a lack of resources to support time- andlabor- intensive diagnostic and reporting processes make it difficult establishing region-specificsurveillance systems. Big data created by social media…
Disinformation about School Shootings on Twitter: Why Does It Happen? What Kind of Information is Shared? Does it Matter?
All of this has implications for democracy. While disinformation and polemics may stimulate a broader public conversation about social concerns such as gun violence, the relative incivility of these narratives which included polemics and insults are unlikely to increase users’ tolerance to individuals’ championing opposing perspectives—which is an important precursor to consensus-building . Conversely, fact-based narratives, particularly those discussing May’s mental health, could assist in consensus-building regarding health care in America. Even the personal narratives shared by students may help those holding opposing points of view regarding issues such as gun control better understand one another insofar as these stories can help individuals find areas of unanticipated agreement. Disinformation, in short, is bad for political conversation, political debate and deliberative processes.
Trump’s Tweets: What Do They Mean for Civil Conversations?
Arguably, Trump will go down in history for his catch phrases and unconventional political use of Twitter. It is not clear, however, whether historians will be kind to him – or us – when they look back at our political discourse. The good news is that we can control how we engage in tough conversations, and that through this process of engagement we will learn more about ourselves.