WORDS MATTER Presidents Obama and Trump, Twitter, and U.S. Soft Power
Department
School of Government and International Affairs
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 4-5-2023
Embargo Period
4-6-2023
Abstract
Twitter is regarded today as an essential communication platform of U.S. diplomacy. Of all diplomatic tweets, those published by U.S. presidents carry the greatest weight and hold great potential to influence perceptions of the country. In this study, we conduct cross-presidential comparative analyses on an original dataset of over 2,000 tweets published by the first two presidents of the Twitter era. In particular, we test the commonly held notion that the substance and tone of Barack Obama’s communication reflected positively on America’s image abroad, with the potential to expand soft power—a vital foreign policy asset—while Donald Trump’s communication reflected negatively on America’s image, potentially eroding the nation’s image and its soft power. Findings demonstrate that what and how presidents communicate on Twitter may produce profound and disparate impacts on America’s image abroad and on U.S. soft power.
Journal Title
WORDS MATTER Presidents Obama and Trump, Twitter, and U.S. Soft Power
Volume
Spring 2023
First Page
1
Last Page
42
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/00438200231161631