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This exploratory study examined Twitter content addressing the controversial social advocacy movement, American Descendants of Slavery. We collected 1.7 million tweets using the hashtag #ADOS. A sample of these were qualitatively placed into categories: galvanizing support for ADOS, divisive support for ADOS, attack ADOS, or unrelated. Tweets were also categorized as nativist or not nativist. Findings showed that more than half of tweets using #ADOS had a divisive character and nearly ten percent were overtly nativist. No difference was found in user engagement with tweets related to either divisiveness or nativist content, suggesting the character of these tweets is not devised simply for greater amplification of their message. Implications and future directions for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document methods employed by Russia's Internet Research Agency to influence the political agenda of the United States from September 9, 2009 to June 21, 2018. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyze Twitter accounts with known IRA affiliation to better understand the form and function of Russian efforts. We identified five handle categories: Right Troll, Left Troll, News Feed, Hashtag Gamer, and Fearmonger. Within each type, accounts were used consistently, but the behavior across types was different, both in terms of "normal" daily behavior and in how they responded to external events. In this sense, the Internet Research Agency's agenda-building effort was "industrial" – mass produced from a system of interchangeable parts, where each class of part fulfilled a specialized function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed tweets from handles associated with the Russian Internet Research Agency in an effort to better understand the tactics employed by that organization on the social media platform Twitter in their attempt to influence U.S. political discourse and the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. We sampled tweets from the month preceding the election and analyzed to understand the qualitative nature of these tweets as well as quantitative differences between how types of IRA Twitter accounts communicated. Seven categories of tweet behavior were identified: attack left, support right, attack right, support left, attack media, attack civil institutions, and camouflage. While camouflage was the most common type of tweet (52.6%), descriptive analyses showed it was followed by attack left (12%) and support right (7%). A variety of quantitative differences were shown between how account types behaved. • We sampled Russian Internet Research Agency tweets from the month preceding the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. • We analyzed tweets to understand IRA messaging as well as differences between how types of IRA accounts communicated. • Seven distinct categories of behavior were identified and categories were employed differently by account type. • We discuss implications for what findings mean relative to prevailing and competing narratives surrounding IRA activity. • Findings suggest the IRA was both sowing division while also supporting candidate Trump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this content analysis, we explored how students address instructor ideology in the university classroom through the social media platform Twitter. We employed Boolean search operators through Salesforce Marketing Cloud Radian6 software to gather tweets and identified English language tweets by how students referenced their instructor's ideology. Tweets originated in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Australia. Using qualitative coding procedures, we identified seven themes in the data that described how students wrote about instructor ideology on Twitter:venting regarding instructor's ideology,sharing classroom anecdote,affirming instructor's beliefs/actions,expressing grade concern,articulating an opposing view,reporting conflict, andindicating confusion. Across categories, Twitter was employed primarily as a back-stage means to communicate expressive dissent regarding instructor ideology and also to demonstrate students’ identity. We identified differences between categories based on the perceived ideology of the students’ instructors as well as differences in the number of tweets per capita originating in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This study explored how colleges and universities are employing Twitter, a popular micro-blogging tool. Using Kent and Taylor''s principles of dialogic communication, a content analysis was performed on individual tweets (n =1130) from 113 colleges and universities. Tweets were coded for whether or not they met each principle of dialogical communication and why. It was found that institutions are not employing Twitter in a dialogic way and they are, instead, employing it primarily as an institutional news feed to a general audience. The implications of this finding are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]