A collection of text and images gathered on an ad hoc basis during the 2016 presidential primary race and concluded shortly after the inauguration. The data includes political cartoons, memes, screenshots, headlines, excerpts, and comments from news sources, blogs, and public figures. It was collected by author Erin Cassese to explore monstrous characterizations of candidates as a mechanism for dehumanization.
Use Cases
- Analyze monstrous metaphors in political discourse based on the described collection of cartoons, memes, and headlines.
- Study the relationship between explicit monster characterizations and quantitative dehumanization measures based on the described research linkage.
- Map qualitative variants of dehumanization (animalistic, mechanistic) onto media artifacts based on the described theoretical framework.
- Investigate the emergence of a 'monster' narrative framework in political campaigns based on the described ad hoc collection.
- Assess the external validity of dehumanization measurement approaches using real-world political discourse based on the described data purpose.
Strengths
- Data collection spans the 2016 presidential primary race through inauguration, providing coverage of a key political event.
- Includes multimodal artifacts such as political cartoons, memes, screenshots, and text excerpts, as described.
- Preliminary observations were published in The Washington Post's Monkey Cage, indicating some external validation.
Limitations
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
Provenance
- Source
- Cassese, Erin
- Collection Method
- Gathered on an ad hoc basis from mainstream news sources, political blogs, television programs, and public comments.
- Time Range
- 2016 presidential primary race through shortly after inauguration.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-04 07:15:31; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- United States