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

Graham, Todd; Jackson, Daniel; Broersma, Marcel

doi:10.1177/1461444814546728

Cited by 217 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…After a pilot study, a coding manual was developed, based on earlier research by Graham et al (2013Graham et al ( , 2014 on the use of Twitter by politicians. A set of carefully formulated rules guided the coding process that was conducted on four different levels.…”

Section: Coding Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal Branding on Twitter

et al. 2016

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Social media are increasingly embedded into everyday communication. This challenges journalism to anticipate the changes that social media trigger in the use and production of (news) media. In this paper, we focus on personal branding on Twitter. Journalists are increasingly encouraged to develop a personal brand on Twitter. This offers them the opportunity to become news and opinion hubs and to increase their "market value". Erving Goffman's theatre metaphor is used as an analytical framework in which journalists are conceptualized as performers who are acting on a stage in front of an audience. Through a quantitative content analysis of the tweeting behaviour of 40 employed and freelance journalists, we explore the way they use social media to present themselves and which dilemma's they are facing. We analyse tweeting behaviour in terms of the types of tweets, functions of tweets and modes of interaction. The quantitative content analysis is supplemented with in-depth interviews with 12 journalists, in order to analyse the reasoning behind their social media habits. Our findings show that journalists particularly struggle with being factual or opinionated, being personal or professional, how to balance broadcasting their message with engagement and how to promote themselves strategically.

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Section: Coding Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal Branding on Twitter

et al. 2016

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“…As outlined above, there is some debate about the extent to which politicians value and are able to prioritize on-line communication (Gibson and McAllister 2015;Gibson and Cantijoch 2011;Lilleker and Jackson 2013;Marcinowski et al 2014;Nielsen and Vaccari 2013;Vaccari 2014). In part this may be an issue of the skills and experience of the candidates and their campaign teams and their personal campaign priorities, as has been highlighted by McGregor at the national level (2012) and also by Graham et al (2014) in relation to politicians' use of Twitter. The age of the politicians may also be a factor, given the well-established differences in the use of the Internet by age (Ofcom 2014); however, we were not able to capture this in our analysis and so it is clearly an area for further research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing representation interface: democracy and direct contact with politicians

Southern

Purdam

2016

Journal of Civil Society

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The interface between politicians and the electorate is a vital component of the infrastructure of democracy and politicians now have many more tools available to communicate and engage with the electorate. Direct contact between politicians and the electorate is associated with increased levels of civic engagement. In this article we examine the responsiveness of politicians in the United Kingdom by conducting: (i) an innovative test of responses to an undecided voter's email and (ii) follow-up interviews with electoral candidates. We found that a majority of electoral candidates had an identifiable email address and more than half responded to our undecided voter's email. However, there were considerable differences in the content relevance of the responses. There were also very few follow-up emails or further contact from the electoral candidates, suggesting only limited evidence of an integrated communication strategy. Electoral candidates also expressed concerns about communicating in a way that was 'on record'. The findings provide a unique insight into the dynamics of communication between politicians and the electorate and the changing nature of the representation interface. Whilst the Internet has the scope for more personalized and two-way communication and for electors to hold politicians to account, it seems that politicians are more focused on campaign advantage rather than renewing the representation interface. KEYWORDSAccountability, democracy, engagement, representation, responsiveness, political party, transparency, vote 1.IntroductionThe responsiveness of politicians in terms of being contactable and accountable to the electorate is as a key aspect of effective representation (Pitkin 1967). It is important that politicians engage with the electorate and explain policy positions in order to inform voter choice and also to gain an understanding of citizens' concerns. Communication and dialogue is thought to be one of the ways to address the declining levels of civic engagement, in part because of its link with giving citizens a sense of efficacy and building trust (Blank and Dutton 2012; Hansard Society 2014;Margetts 2011;Pattie et al. 2004;Stromer-Galley and Foot 2002).In this context the Internet and on-line communication present both opportunities and challenges for how politicians communicate with the electorate (Coleman and Blumler 2009; Coleman and Shane 2011; Dahlberg 2011; Davis 2010;Enli and Skogerbø 2013;Gibson 2013;Hermans and Vergeer 2013;Jackson 2004;Karpf 2012;Larsson 2014;Lee 2014;Lilleker 2014;Lilleker and Jackson 2010;Lilleker et al. 2011;Lilleker et al. 2015;Strandberg 2013;Vergeer 2013;Vergeer et al. 2013aVergeer et al. , 2013bWard et al. 2008). Tools such as email, blogs, on-line deliberation, forums, party selection tools and Twitter have the potential to bring politicians and the electorate into direct contact, and provide new opportunities for engagement and accountability. Politicians can communicate using the Internet in a personalized way, which goes beyond the...

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“…It is worth noting that social media adoption rate not only impacts on citizens' online political practices, but also influences the extent to which political parties use these platforms. For instance, in a study comparing how British and Dutch Parliamentary candidates used Twitter during the 2010 general elections, Graham et al (2016) establish that Dutch politicians were far more active on Twitter than their British counterparts, and link this finding to the longer history and higher popularity of social media in the Netherlands.…”

Section: Research Questions (Rq)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediating the contributions of Facebook to political participation in Italy and the UK: the role of media and political landscapes

Casteltrione

Pieczka

2018

Palgrave Commun

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Over the last decade, an increasing number of academic studies have examined how digital technologies can contribute to political participation, with numerous publications focusing on social networking websites. This article adds to this strand of research by tackling the scarcity of cross-national comparative studies in the field. Drawing from an original dataset acquired by combining a cross-national comparative approach and a mixedmethods methodology, this paper explores how media and political landscapes mediate the contributions of Facebook to citizens' political participation in Italy and the United Kingdom. A participatory gap between Italian and British participants, with Italians displaying higher levels of political participation through Facebook, is found and explained with reference to three contextual factors: the greater diffusion and relevance of other online platforms such as Twitter in the UK; Italian participants' more negative perception of traditional media linked to the high level of political parallelism typical of the Italian media system; and the presence in Italy of a political party such as the Five Stars Movement making full use of the communicative and organizational affordances of Facebook. The findings indicate that the contributions of Facebook, and digital technologies in general, to political participation must be analysed in context, within the larger patterns they fit into, and cannot be examined in isolation. Such contributions are better understood if considered within the hybrid media system in which different digital platforms interact, merge and compete. Similarly, the political scenarios in which citizens and political parties operate need to be accounted for when looking at the links between the Internet and politics.

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

Cited by 217 publications

References 41 publications

Personal Branding on Twitter

Personal Branding on Twitter

The changing representation interface: democracy and direct contact with politicians

Mediating the contributions of Facebook to political participation in Italy and the UK: the role of media and political landscapes

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