Reading is Fundamental: A Comparative Analysis of the Readability of Presidential Rhetoric and Social Media Messages

• In Event: The President in the Public Arena

Brief Overview

This paper compares the readability via Flesch scores of presidential rhetoric from George W. Bush to Donald Trump and across traditional and social media platforms. We argue this provides strategic motivations for presidential use of social media.

Authors

• Sam A Fontaine, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Daniel Gomez, University of California-Santa Barbara