Publication Date

12-11-2018

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Schraufnagel, Scot D.

Degree Name

B.A. (Bachelor of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Political Science

Abstract

The objective of this research is to examine the role that digital media usage plays in elections, specifically the Illinois State Senate Elections during the 2018 midterms. This research argues that the use of multiple digital mediums can affect election percentages at the end of the campaign. Taking into account the fact that the target base of each campaign varies across Illinois, the greater usage of multiple digital mediums to reach voters will correlate with a positive rise in election percentage regardless of target base. This study examines the possibility that if the communication remains consistent in both messaging and frequency across each digital medium used, then more voters are therefore reached and are swayed into voting for that candidate to which the digital mediums are connected to. Analysis showed that there was no statistical significance between the number of digital mediums used and final election percentages within the Illinois State Senate Elections during the 2018 midterms, but that this is due to non-Democratic Party candidates’ use of Instagram that fuels the strong negative relationship between this particular form of digital media and election percentage.

Extent

30 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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