How are tweets used to represent female politicians in social media discourse?: A case study of gender bias on Twitter comparing Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten

This thesis aims to answer the question how are tweets used to represent female politicians in social media discourse? I will utilise the critical discourse analyses (CDA) method to analyse language used in context of tweets. Gender bias is the behaviour that shows a favouritism towards one gender over the other. I will firstly present the literature that has been published previously, before moving on to the theoretical framework, looking at the theory of gender bias and women’s empowerment. This thesis will focus on the Netherlands as a case study, with Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten providing the qualitative sample. The Netherlands was chosen as research is lacking on European countries, while the Netherlands has one of the highest rates of women legislators. Choosing two politicians who both have prominent positions in the political party D66, with different genders will allow the research to ascertain if there is a difference in tweets that mention Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten. In...Show moreThis thesis aims to answer the question how are tweets used to represent female politicians in social media discourse? I will utilise the critical discourse analyses (CDA) method to analyse language used in context of tweets. Gender bias is the behaviour that shows a favouritism towards one gender over the other. I will firstly present the literature that has been published previously, before moving on to the theoretical framework, looking at the theory of gender bias and women’s empowerment. This thesis will focus on the Netherlands as a case study, with Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten providing the qualitative sample. The Netherlands was chosen as research is lacking on European countries, while the Netherlands has one of the highest rates of women legislators. Choosing two politicians who both have prominent positions in the political party D66, with different genders will allow the research to ascertain if there is a difference in tweets that mention Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten. In conclusion, the thesis shows that language used in tweets constitute a gender bias towards the female politician Kaag.Show less

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How are tweets used to represent female politicians in social media discourse? A case study of gender bias on Twitter comparing Sigrid Kaag and Rob Jetten