Abstract
No matter how much presidents may want social media to act as a mirror, with people reflecting the positions on issues that the political elite distribute, social media does not function as such. In social media, and Twitter more specifically, anyone can join and speak their mind with little to no barrier to entry. Because of this freedom inherent in the format of this information technology, analysis of public sentiment on Twitter opens a window into public opinion regarding various topics, including nationalism. In this project, I analyze tweets from people and presidents in Bolivia, Mexico, and Venezuela from 2012-2023. I utilize both hand coding and the software program LIWC-22 to answer the research question of how social media changes nationalism. The methodology includes both Morris’s dimensions of nationalism and my own observed and expected dimensions. My hypotheses were that banal nationalism also exists in the medium of social media and in states where social media is used at a higher percentage of the population, there will be more variation between nationalist rhetoric of regular people and presidents. Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of my findings, it is apparent that nationalism is discussed surrounding highly political moments, but also during regular conversation. People and presidents tweet about national identity, national interest, and national politics in ways that contrast the elite’s claimed unified and homogenous national consciousness. My second hypothesis, however, was not supported by my findings, illuminating how repression may play a role in the public opinion expressed over Twitter. I argue that social media, though a tool that can be manipulated by the political elite, also gives people new power to influence each other’s view of the nation and nationalism.