How do party leaders present themselves on social media? The race for premiership in Western Canadian elections 2011 - 2017

Abstract

Voters have partisan and gendered expectations of candidates, and literature suggests that candidates will shape their campaigns to have wide appeal. It’s reasonable to expect that these decisions will extend beyond the “traditional” campaign to their social media presence, but we really do not know. I ask if candidates conform to traditional gendered stereotypes and how their self-presentation on social media is influenced by party label, sex, and electoral timeframe. I assess Twitter feeds of party leaders seeking the premiership in western Canadian elections. I analyze the use of gendered language in tweets to determine how, and in what ways, stereotypical norms impact a leaders’ self-presentation. My findings reveal that sex, party and time have an impact on tweets to varying degrees; with party label and time having the strongest overall effect. This analysis breaks down some complexities of self-presentation, furthering the dialogue around gender presentation in the political arena.