The Impacts of Social Media on Government and Democracy: An Examination of Municipal Usage in Nova Scotia, Canada

Social Media and Local Governments

“…The limited scholarly research undertaken in Canada within the realm of social media usage suggests that (1) many local governments rival their provincial and federal counterparts in terms of social media deployment and usage, particularly for engagement-oriented pursuits; (2) local governments nonetheless remain in a largely exploratory mode in doing so, often viewing social media as an extension of their communications apparatus more so than a novel vehicle for more direct forms of engagement within municipal governance systems either administratively or politically (Roy 2013 ;Riarh and Roy 2014 ). Rather than assess or evaluate early municipal efforts in this regard, the aim of this chapter is twofold: fi rst, to build on these previous works-and related undertakings in like-minded democratic countries, and better understand the patterns of social media usage by local governments in Canada; and secondly, to identify some of the main opportunities and challenges for municipalities in forging innovative, genuine, and ultimately effective mechanisms for online engagement via social media.…”

“Don’t Put Color in Your Hair, Don’t Do This, Don’t Do That”: Canadian Mayors’ Mixed Gender Performance on Social Media

“…Although the literature on Canadian municipal politics has mostly focused on electoral behavior, digital political communication scholars are beginning to take an interest in local politics, particularly because “many local governments rival their provincial and federal counterparts in terms of social media deployment and usage” (Gruzd and Roy 2016, 80; see also Riarh and Roy, 2014; Cutler and Matthews 2005). There are now studies on the role of social networks in the formation of local electoral dynamics during the municipal election in Ottawa in 2010 (Raynauld and Greenberg 2014) and social media’s potential as a tool in the 2010 Niagara elections (Hagar 2014).…”

Does Institutional Setting Affect Legislators’ Use of Twitter?

“…The general consensus among those examining the quality of politicians' online interactions is that politicians usually use Twitter to provide information (Broersma & Graham, 2012;Bruns & Highfield, 2013;Gibson & Ward, 2009;Golbeck et al, 2010;Grant et al, 2010;Highfield, 2013;Lilliker and Koc-Michalska, 2013;Riarh & Roy, 2014;Vergeer, Hermans, & Sams, 2013). MEPs, though, face an acute communications deficit, and they might well seek to use the service to highlight their relevance, openness, and commitment to democratic public service.…”

“…This approach-which compares individuals' Twitter behaviors across different "territorial moments" in their political careers-is new. While researchers have examined subnational (Bernhard & Dohle, 2015;Bruns & Highfield, 2013;Cook, 2016;Grant et al, 2010;Highfield, 2013;Larsson & Moe, 2013;Riarh & Roy, 2014), national, and supranational (Larsson, 2015;Obholzer & Daniel, 2016;Scherpereel, Wohlgemuth, & Schmelzinger, 2017) politicians on Twitter, there have been few attempts to isolate the effects of institutional setting on Twitter use. In examining politicians' day-to-day Twitter behaviors and attending to potential differences across territorial levels, we seek to fill two of the three gaps in the "politicians on Twitter" literature that Larsson and Svensson (2014) have recently identified.…”