For my final assignment I made two twitter bots that connect the tweets of two presidential candidates running for president of the United States for the 2016 election. The candidates I chose were Ted Cruz, the first republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton, the first democrat nominee. For one Twitter account, which I named Hillary Cruz, takes the first half of Hillary Clinton’s tweets and the second half of Ted Cruz’s tweets and combines them. I also made Ted Clinton which does the vice versa of Hillary Cruz. The aim for these bots was to take the issues being discussed by each candidate and bring them together. Once the tweets are combined they create tweets that make sentences that may or may not make sense depending on how they line up with each other. By doing this it shows the nonsense of politics and constant issues that are always being discussed.
Most of the time democrats are tweeting about very liberal issues while the republicans are normally discussing very conservative issues. They are creating tweets that are half right wing/half left wing creating tweets showing both ends of the political spectrum. Very similar to the types of bots mentioned in Rob Dubbin’s article “The Rise of Twitter Bots,” my bot aims to create something new out of two things already existing, like the exosaurs combing dinosaur names and exoplanets. My bots are combing political issues and events the nominees are talking about and creating tweets that can be comedic in the event they line up perfectly. Being able to manipulate and make adjustments to tweets that already exist and bring new meaning to them was my overall goal. This project allowed me to explore the American politics that exist on twitter, while creating candidates that aren’t too far right or too far left. I’d say they both stand out in the middle and could be perceived as the “perfect candidates.”
You can visit Hillary Cruz here and Ted Clinton here!