Digital Dialogue? Australian Politicians' use of the Social Network Tool Twitter

Abstract

The recent emergence of online social media has had a significant effect on the contemporary political landscape, yet our understanding of this remains less than complete. This article adds to current understanding of the online engagement between politicians and the public by presenting the first quantitative analysis of the utilisation of the social network tool Twitter by Australian politicians. The analysis suggests that politicians are attempting to use Twitter for political engagement, though some are more successful in this than others. Politicians are noisier than Australians in general on Twitter, though this is due more to broadcasting than conversing. Those who use Twitter to converse appear to gain more political benefit from the platform than others. Though politicians cluster by party, a relatively 'small world' network is evident in the Australian political discussion on Twitter.Much has been made of the impact of social media on the modern political landscape. For enthusiasts, social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and blogging and video platforms offer powerful new ways to connect, influence and engage fellow citizens -perhaps ushering in a radical transformation in the way citizens connect with and influence their government and politicians connect with the public. Within this, politicians throughout the democratic world have begun to embrace such tools as a new way to connect with their constituents, shortcutting the heavily mediated connections offered by traditional media (Keane 2009a;Posetti 2010;Westling 2007). As Queensland Premier Anna Bligh recently observed, Engaging with the community online is a great way for me, as Premier, to get feedback on the decisions and actions of my government . . . Twitter in

Un potencial comunicativo desaprovechado. Twitter como mecanismo generador de diálogo en campaña electoral

“…Pese a que hay estudios que demuestran que utilizar Twitter desde una lógica interactiva proporciona mayores beneficios políticos (Grant, Moon y Grant, 2010), la interacción con otros usuarios es muy poco frecuente (Rodríguez Andrés y Uceda Ureña, 2011). Existen muy pocas evidencias de que los políticos dialoguen en Twitter con gente que no forme parte de su ámbito o de los medios.…”

Social media and political communication in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament

“…Although no previous study has asked the question why incumbents are more active than non-incumbents, we speculate that it is probably a combination of having previously used Twitter successfully and having established some sort of presence already along with budgetary availability. Unsurprisingly given previous research (Grant et al, 2010), the highest amount of tweets sent by candidates are actually retweets, while replies (which obviously denote interactivity) are consistently fewer. A spike in replies is observed towards the end of the election, presumably because politicians respond to congratulatory messages, and in a matter of a week the whole Twitter activity effectively dies out.…”

New platform, old habits? Candidates’ use of Twitter during the 2010 British and Dutch general election campaigns

“…Fourth, most national studies found that politicians mainly interacted with other politicians, journalists and activists (Bruns and Highfield, 2013;Burgess and Bruns, 2012;Grant et al, 2010;Moe, 2011, 2013;Verweij, 2012). Recent network analysis research suggests, however, that the Twittersphere is not just an echo chamber of political elites, but a conversation that can be joined by outsiders (Ausserhofer and Maireder, 2013).…”