The Digital Architectures of Social Media

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Michael Bossetta
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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume95
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)471-496
Number of pages24
ISSN1077-6990
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018

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