Television experience and political discussion on Twitter: Exploring online conversations during the 2014 Brazilian presidential elections

Abstract

This empirical study aims to investigate the characteristics of the conversation and political discussion on Twitter during the last televised presidential debate in the first round of the Brazilian general elections in 2014, aired by Globo TV. Television experience, political participation, and Twitter dynamics were considered for the examination of different kinds of engagement in 100,000 messages collected during the debate. The aim was to identify peaks of user engagement, linking these moments to the events occurred during the debate, evaluating how the characteristics of the communicative environment may affect the discourses built around the debate.

Keywords

• Twitter
• television experience
• Brazilian presidential election
• political discussion