The Twitter Gaffes of Donald Trump

Republican candidate Donald Trump is back in the news today after retweeting a photo collage of anti-Jeb Bush imagery including a Nazi swastika and an image of Bush in a sombrero next to a cactus.

“This is a perfect example of a candidate retweeting or sharing a tweet from a supporter that wasn’t fully vetted or reviewed, and now Trump is getting accused of associating Bush with the Nazis,” said Jenny Stromer-Galley, an associate professor at Syracuse University School of Information Studies. “Candidates produce gaffes all the time, but now there are new risks for candidates with social media. Trump may be especially prone to social media gaffes given his shoot-from-the-hip persona and given that he does most of his own social media.”

Jennifer Stromer-Galley

Jenny Stromer-Galley (PhD Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania) is has been studying social media since before it was called social media and has published over 40 journal articles, proceedings, and book chapters. Her award-winning book, Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age (Oxford University Press), provides a history of presidential campaigns as they have adopted and adapted to digital communication technologies.

Dr. Stromer-Galley is available for interviews. Contact J.D. Ross, communications director for the iSchool, at 315.443.3094 or rossjd@syr.edu