Clinton stated, Trump exclaimed!
Gendered language on Twitter during the 2016 presidential debates
This study examines tweets posted by candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the weeks preceding the 2016
presidential debates in an effort to assess the ways in which the candidates’ language use either conformed to or refuted gender
stereotypes. Analysis of 490 tweets (724 sentences) suggests that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton used language in ways that
were gender counterstereotypic. Clinton’s tweets contained a significantly greater number of statements and directives, suggesting
that the candidate adopted a more masculine linguistic style, but also a greater number of cooperative words, which are
stereotypically associated with feminine speech. Trump’s tweets contained a significantly greater number of exclamations, but
fewer statements and directives than Clinton, thus defying masculine linguistic stereotypes. The implications of these findings on
candidates’ political self-presentation are discussed.
Article outline
- 1.Media, politics and gender
- 2.Gendered language on twitter
- 3.Method
- 4.Results
- 5.Discussion
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
-
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Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Aronson, Pamela, Leah Oldham & Emily Lucas
2020.
Gender Self-Presentations in the 2020 U.S. Elections.
Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change 5:1
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