The role of social media in politics: on the public argumentation around the debate on guns in the United States

Abstract

The debate on gun control in the United States has been heated recently. In the public space, this debate has an important place in getting everyone involved. The development of social media and other technologies helped the construction of specific argumentative strategies related to what we call “digital communication”. The debate around gun control can be divided into two different aspects which also are the two research questions of this article: a) Which argumentative strategies are used and why they specifically fit in this new communicational environment that is the web? b) How do these strategies compare with the more “classic” aspect of the legislative debate around gun control (the interpretation of the second amendment). The quick analysis of “communicational elements” such as banners and pictures used in social media shows that strategies of digital communication are often weaker and more “populist” than in the place of a classic political debate centered around legislative aspects. The relative instability of social media partly explains this.