Storm the Capitol: Linking Offline Political Speech and Online Twitter Extra-Representational Participation on QAnon and the January 6 Insurrection

Frontiers in Sociology

卷:7

Jisun An¹  Haewoon Kwak¹  Claire Seungeun Lee²  John D. Colautti²  Juan Merizalde² 

[1] School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore;

[2] School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, United States;

关键词: political participation;    online political participation;    U.S. Capitol attack;    insurrection;    Twitter;    speech;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fsoc.2022.876070

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The transfer of power stemming from the 2020 presidential election occurred during an unprecedented period in United States history. Uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing societal tensions, and a fragile economy increased societal polarization, exacerbated by the outgoing president's offline rhetoric. As a result, online groups such as QAnon engaged in extra political participation beyond the traditional platforms. This research explores the link between offline political speech and online extra-representational participation by examining Twitter within the context of the January 6 insurrection. Using a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative thematic analyses, the study combines offline speech information with Twitter data during key speech addresses leading up to the date of the insurrection; exploring the link between Trump's offline speeches and QAnon's hashtags across a 3-day timeframe. We find that links between online extra-representational participation and offline political speech exist. This research illuminates this phenomenon and offers policy implications for the role of online messaging as a tool of political mobilization.

【 授权许可】

Unknown