The Digital Architectures of Social Media

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Digital Architectures of Social Media

AU - Bossetta, Michael

PY - 2018/6/1

Y1 - 2018/6/1

N2 - The present study argues that political communication on social media is mediated by a platform’s digital architecture – the technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space. A framework for understanding digital architectures is introduced, and four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) are compared along the typology. Using the 2016 U.S. elections as a case, interviews with three Republican digital strategists are complimented with social media data to qualify the study’s theoretical claim that a platform’s network structure, functionality, algorithmic filtering, and datafication model affect political campaign strategy on social media.

AB - The present study argues that political communication on social media is mediated by a platform’s digital architecture – the technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space. A framework for understanding digital architectures is introduced, and four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) are compared along the typology. Using the 2016 U.S. elections as a case, interviews with three Republican digital strategists are complimented with social media data to qualify the study’s theoretical claim that a platform’s network structure, functionality, algorithmic filtering, and datafication model affect political campaign strategy on social media.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - political communication

KW - affordances

KW - primaries

KW - digital marketing

U2 - 10.1177/1077699018763307

DO - 10.1177/1077699018763307

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1077-6990

VL - 95

SP - 471

EP - 496

JO - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

JF - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

IS - 2

ER -