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What happens when a politician responds through social media to critical humor, as in the case of Donald Trump’s hostile reactions toward Alec Baldwin’s appearances on Saturday Night Live (SNL)? Analysis of experimental data collected in December 2016 (N = 325) shows that viewing Trump’s Twitter response accusing SNL of media bias inoculates viewers against Baldwin’s anti-Trump satire that is present in the original skit. Moreover, viewing the SNL skit and an article detailing Trump’s continued Twitter engagement with the show over the course of the fall 2016 season encourages viewers to connect the anti-Trump SNL humor with Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, resulting in significantly lower favorability ratings for the Democratic opposition. The implications of the findings and their influence on strategic political communication are discussed.
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Amy B. Becker (2017) studied this question.
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