Ballard, Hillygus, and Konitzer (2016) also found evidence of group
targeting online, with 30 percent of the Obama campaign’s ads directed at
a speciﬁc group, such as women or African Americans,
though only
10 percent of Romney’s ads were similarly targeted. Their research found
some evidence of issue ownership, that is, Obama focusing on issues that
people believed the Democratic Party was better at handling and Romney
focusing on issues that people believed the Republican Party was better at
handling. Yet issue convergence – competing candidates talking about the
same issues – was relatively low and much lower than found in campaigns’
television advertisements.
Social_Media_and_Democracy