Masking Concern: Congressional Social Media Images and Concern About COVID-19

• In Event: Cues That Matter

Abstract

The messages and cues that elites send influence public opinion, shaping both issue preferences and behavior. Cues represented in images can be particularly impactful, as they remain in people's minds even when attention is divided. Times of crisis can be particularly illuminating about the cues that elites consider important. We use public communication by Members of Congress (MoCs) during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess how the characteristics of elites shape their use of visual cues. Specifically, what visual cues did members of Congress send about COVID in 2020? What role did partisanship, COVID-19 infection rates, and electoral concerns play in shaping these visual cues? And how do cues diffuse across partisan, gender, and geographic networks in Congress? To answer these questions, we extract posted images from all Congressional social media accounts (including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) across 2020. For all images posted, we employ supervised machine learning algorithms to identify `selfies' --- and any image of the representative themselves --- and then detect whether a MoC is wearing a mask in a given image. Our paper speaks to the importance of images in political communication, the role of partisanship in shaping the behavior of elites, and how connections between representations can shape their communication.

Authors

• Mirya R. Holman, Tulane University

• Constantine Boussalis, Trinity College Dublin

• Travis Coan