The Reach of Politics via Twitter—Can That Be Real?

George Robert Boynton, Andrew Bates, Edward Bettis, Matthew Bopes, Richard Brandt, Derek Fohrman, Jeremy Hahn, Tressa Hart, Caleb Headley, Jory Kopish, Robert Maharry, Joseph Matson, Kierstin Mohoff, Rose Mraz, Matthew Palmer, Laura Pena, Brittany Phillips, Anne Rhodes, Hanna Rosman, Clint Sievers, Daniel Tate, Sean Tyrrell, Javin Villarreal, Philip Wiese, Alden Wignall

Department of Political Science, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojps.2013.33013                

Abstract

If the reach of communication via Twitter is as great as it seems to be, that means a remarkable reconstruction of the public domain is in process. Until recently the public domain was the mass media and what they presented to their audiences. Now the audience has voice and is audience only in a new way. The potential consequences for the organization of politics are great. But there is the “if”. The report examines two challenges to the claim that the reach of the new media is as great as it may appear to be. One challenge is the number of individual accounts on Twitter. There seem to be too few to have the reach suggested. The other challenge is fake accounts. If the number of fake accounts is great, then the numbers for reach are a gross exaggeration. Those two challenges are examined and shown to be appropriate, but that the end result is diminishing the numbers about reach much less than would question the reconstruction of the public domain

Keywords

Twitter Followers Reach

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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