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Selfies and Sensationalism on the Campaign Trail: A Visual Analysis of Snapchat's Political Coverage

Political communication has changed drastically in recent years, and in the 2016 election cycle, the messaging app Snapchat entered the arena. Snapchat is a virtually based messaging service that allows users to send and receive time-sensitive, visual messages called “snaps.” This study offers a visual analysis of news delivered via Snapchat, revealing three main themes: hard news sensationalized, soft news sensationalized, and limitations of the platform for political news. While Snapchat does indeed provide hard news to its users, much of it is sensationalized in a manner consistent with the platform but not with contemporary standards of journalism. Snapchat's value and influence as a news source is discussed in further detail.