Donald Trump, twitter and the 2016 presidential elections in USA

Abstract

In the XXI century, the media has been developed beyond the traditional means of communication – television and radio –, changing the way the public opinion is politically understood and mobilized. This reality brought unprecedented challenges to the contemporary democracies. In this context, this article aims to map how Donald Trump has used social media to communicate directly with his voters. The question that guides the research is: Donald Trump’s Twitter was an instrument on the creation of the media agenda during the presidential elections of the United States of 2016? The main hypothesis is that Trump’s Twitter assisted in the agenda building, including the traditional media, during the electoral run. To do so, we aim to map Trump’s Twitter and its relationship with the American television networks. We understand that this element is crucial to the comprehension of Trump’s victory in the electoral run of 2016