Twitter, Social Networking and Political Representation and Remediation

Abstract

An increasing preoccupation of contemporary political communication research is on how political actors respond to the challenges of new communication technologies in an environment of networked media abundance. In particular, scholars have been increasingly investigating the potential of the internet in opening up new opportunities for online campaigning and citizen engagement in the political process. However, early research into political parties and politicians’ use of the internet (e.g. party websites, politicians’ blogs) revealed that old habits die hard; i.e. official online campaigning tended to replicate traditional one-way, top-down communication flows, offering few real opportunities for citizen engagement (see e.g. Coleman, 2001; Jackson, 2007). With the recent rise of Web 2.0 and the participatory culture that has followed in its wake, a new wave of research on politicians, parties and political elites’ use of social media has emerged. In this field, especially, Twitter has become one of the most important online spaces for political communication practice and research. Second only to Facebook, it has been successful in connecting ordinary people to the popular, powerful and influential. Not only is it popular, but some scholars have argued that its key features make it a potentially fruitful space for developing a more direct relationship between politicians and citizens (see e.g. Bruns and Burgess, 2011; Graham et al., 2013a). Indeed, politicians across the world are increasingly embracing Twitter, especially during election time, raising important questions of how connections with voters are cultivated, what tweeting practices are particularly prominent, and how differing electoral/ media contexts alter tweeting dynamics. With empirical contributions from the UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Egypt, this panel will reflect on some of the key questions concerning Twitter as a form of political representation and campaign communication tool. Papers will explore: - The dynamics of the political ‘Twitter sphere’, and how its mutations are shaping electoral outcomes. - How Twitter use in Presidential campaigns compares with use of other social networking tools - What relation ‘success’ in online environments such as Twitter has with regard to traditional media coverage. - In what ways electoral candidates are mixing the personal with the political in their tweeting practices. Keywords: Political communication, Twitter, campaigns