Anti-intellectual political rhetoric: a grounded theory on twitter echo chambers

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Separating the pursuit of knowledge and scientific endeavors from politics is impossible. Through the advancement of technology, especially social media, it has become easier for politicians to dismiss science and intellectuals through anti-intellectual rhetoric at an unprecedented rate. Critical thinking in analyzing policies is discouraged and dismissed in favor of uncritical common sense. OBJECTIVE: This thesis sets out to explore how political anti-intellectual rhetoric is spread by politicians in the US and UK through social media, specifically Twitter. METHODOLOGY: This study applies a Mixed Methods-Grounded Theory approach to develop an emergent theory on anti-intellectualism in political tweets grounded in data. The data analyzed was taken from ten members of parliament in the United Kingdom and 11 politicians in the United States. A total of approx. 50,000 tweets were included in the raw dataset. The data was analyzed and sorted using CAQDAS as well as manual coding methods. FINDINGS: Through empirical analysis of the data the study found that politicians who tweet anti-intellectual tweets will disengage from the Twitter conversation afterward. However, Twitter’s method of displaying Twitter replies increases the probability of supporters seeing the message and multiplying it through an echo chamber. JUSTIFICATION FOR THEORY: The theory is grounded in the data presented in this thesis. Data was collected until further analysis resulted in theoretical saturation and failing to reject the emergent theory. IMPLICATIONS: As the politician has disengaged from the conversation, he or she can reject responsibility for the conversations that follow their tweet. In this manner a tweet that makes an uncritical claim can be morphed into a fully anti-science narrative through the echo chamber without the politician’s further involvement.