Mentor/s
Marylena Mantas-Kourounis
Participation Type
Paper Talk
Abstract
This thesis investigates the role that social media and celebrity endorsements played in the 2024 presidential election. As social media becomes increasingly incorporated into the everyday lives of American citizens and celebrity endorsements become more common on the campaign trail, understanding their changing impact in the context of a modern landscape has become important. I utilized a mixed methods approach to analyze the social media strategies of both the Harris and Trump campaigns, as well as how each candidate leveraged celebrity endorsements. The findings suggest that both campaigns prioritized similar content on their respective X pages and that the engagement per post is more important than the number of times the candidates posted in a given campaign cycle. Additionally, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements is dependent on how it is utilized by the campaign. These findings highlight that developing effective social media techniques matters while campaigning in American presidential elections.
College and Major available
Political Science
Academic Level
Undergraduate student
Location
Session 6: Digital Commons & Martire 217
Start Day/Time
4-24-2025 2:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-24-2025 3:15 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Star Power: The Impact of Social Media and Celebrity Endorsements on the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Session 6: Digital Commons & Martire 217
This thesis investigates the role that social media and celebrity endorsements played in the 2024 presidential election. As social media becomes increasingly incorporated into the everyday lives of American citizens and celebrity endorsements become more common on the campaign trail, understanding their changing impact in the context of a modern landscape has become important. I utilized a mixed methods approach to analyze the social media strategies of both the Harris and Trump campaigns, as well as how each candidate leveraged celebrity endorsements. The findings suggest that both campaigns prioritized similar content on their respective X pages and that the engagement per post is more important than the number of times the candidates posted in a given campaign cycle. Additionally, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements is dependent on how it is utilized by the campaign. These findings highlight that developing effective social media techniques matters while campaigning in American presidential elections.
Students' Information
Maeve Cahill
Political Science Major
Global Business Management and Human Rights and Social Justice Minors
Thomas Moore Honors Program
Graduation May 2025