The Symbolic Dimension of Twitter Logic and the Potential (D)evolution of Political Discourse

Sammanfattning: This study aims to explore the potential impact of social media platforms in shaping public discourse and political communication. To arrive at such a proposition, I attempt to conceptually problematize the idea of media logic in general and the advent of social network media logic in particular, more specifically the logic of Twitter as a political space. What is more, I argue that, with regard to the current state of political communication and with social media content increasingly contributing to setting the agenda for the public and political dialogue, this field of research may indeed benefit from taking it one step further by studying the even further specialized institutional logics of specific social network media platforms. For, while it is indeed necessary to study a more general social network media logic, it ought to be recognized that each individual platform comes with its own merits and practices for mediating content. Moreover, contemporary research in this area focuses mainly on the material or infrastructural features of media logics. I argue that the symbolic dimension demands equal academic attention. Thus, for the purpose of demonstrating and exemplifying this need for platform-specific media logics and a consideration of their symbolic dimension, this particular study dives into the possible establishment of a symbolic Twitter logic. The practical applicability of said logic is then empirically approached via the specific case of President Donald Trump, who along with a majority of currently active American politicians seem to increasingly rely on Twitter as political space for the purpose of public communication and the dissemination of information, as well as influencing and gauging public opinion.