Heather K. Evans

“You Tweet Like a Girl!”: How Female Candidates Campaign on Twitter

We investigate the Twitter activity of all congressional candidates leading up to the 2012 U.S. House elections to assess whether there are significant differences in the tone and content of the tweets from male and female candidates. We argue that the electoral environment will have a significant effect over whether candidates engage in negative tweeting, address political issues, and discuss so-called “women’s issues” on Twitter. We find that gender has both a direct and contextual effect on candidates’ communication style on Twitter. Female candidates tweet significantly more “attack-style” messages than their male counterparts, discuss policy issues at a significantly higher rate, and women representatives focus more on “women’s issues.” We also find strong contextual effects in races with more female candidates: There is significantly more tweeting about political issues as well as significantly more negative attack-style tweets. However, with more female candidates, the number of tweets about “women’s issues” declines.

Reflecting on a Decade of Women's Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals

Publication in scholarly journals is one of the keys to scholarly success. However, in many disciplines, including political science, it has been shown that women publish significantly less than men and tend to prefer qualitative methodology. In this paper, we examine whether these trends are accurate by examining a decade’s worth (2000-2009) of women’s publications in four of the top political science journals (the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and PS: Political Science and Politics). Using a systematic content analysis, we determined the gender ratio of the authors, funding sources, methods, and the ratio of qualitative and quantitative studies. We find that while women publish less than men in each of these venues, their publication rates resemble their representation in the field in certain journals.

Making Politics “Click”: The Costs and Benefits of Using Clickers in an Introductory Political Science Course

In this article, the author addresses both the costs and benefits of implementing clickers into an introductory political science course. Comparing student responses to a mid-semester survey in both a clicker and non-clicker course, the results show that students have higher satisfaction of the course and instructor, higher exam scores, and feel more comfortable participating in class when using clickers. The author finds that the benefits of using clickers in a large introductory course greatly outweigh the costs and encourages others to try the technology.

The Representation of Women in Publication: An Analysis of Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics

Scholarly publication in peer-reviewed journals is widely regarded as the road to scholarly success. However, in a diversity of fields such as sociology, economics, and political science, it has been shown that the rate of publication is much lower for women than for men. The question of whether a systematic relationship exists between gender and research methods has also frequently been debated. In this paper, we explore patterns of authorship and scholarship in two influential interdisciplinary journals, Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics , over the last decade. A systematic content analysis was conducted to determine the gender ratio of authors, the methods and theories employed, and the ratio of quantitative to qualitative research studies. In addition, we tracked the use of primary or secondary data sources and the prevalence of research funding by gender. Overall, we find that while women are publishing less than men, their rate of publication is somewhat higher than their representation in the field.

“Delete Your Account”: The 2016 Presidential Race on Twitter

While there has been a growth in the number of published studies about how candidates for the U.S. House and Senate use Twitter, candidates for president have been largely ignored. In this article, we examine the way the two 2016 presidential candidates communicated on Twitter. Using a content analysis of all tweets sent from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s accounts from July 1 to Election Day, we explore whether the two candidates used this social network in the same ways, stressed similar policy issues, and were equally likely to “go negative” online.

Social Butterflies and Politics: Exploring the Link between Sociability and Political Engagement, Online and Off

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between individual-level sociability and political engagement. While some evidence exists that individual-level sociability may be related to political engagement and interest, little is known about the ways in which sociability affects participation in different forms of political activity, particularly newer forms of online political engagement. Using data from the 2009 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we explore the ways in which individual-level sociability affects political engagement in a range of activities, including online political discussions. We find sociability levels affected some activities more than others. Sociability has no impact on more socially isolated political activities such as voter registration and voting, but greatly impacts engagement in political activities involving a higher degree of social interaction, such as attending a meeting where a member of Congress was present and discussing politics with others, both in person and online. These findings help explain longstanding questions about the factors that motivate participation in traditional political activities as well as newer online forms of political engagement.

Lecture Videos in Online Courses: A Follow-Up

In a recent study regarding online lecture videos, Evans (2014) shows that lecture videos are not superior to still slides. Using two Introduction to American Government courses, taught in a 4-week summer session, she shows that students in a non-video course had higher satisfaction with the course and instructor and performed better on exams than those in a course with lecture videos. In this follow-up study, we examine whether the same findings hold over a longer, more traditional semester with more students. Like Evans (2014), we find that in a longer semester, students in a non-video course reported higher satisfaction, but, unlike Evans (2014), students in the video section did better on exams. The implications of these findings for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are explored.

Service-learning and political engagement, efficacy, and apathy: A case study at Sam Houston State University:

Given the decline in political engagement among the electorate, especially among youth, there has been an effort to increase engagement through service-learning courses at both the high school and college levels. The research that exists regarding the effects of these courses on students is mixed. Some studies show that students become more civically engaged and increase their political efficacy, but these effects are found in courses tied specifically to politics. Other studies involving courses from other disciplines show no effect. Using a longitudinal study gathered at two points in time (when students enter their college career and are graduating), I show that students who take a service-learning course are more likely to engage politically (especially online) and report significantly higher levels of political efficacy. These results hold for students overall regardless of the subject of the course.