The political Twitter user: a peculiar specimen

In recent literature, social media has been shown to offer informational and democratic potential, as much by its accessible communication channels and its capacity to diminish geographic barriers. Hence, many researchers have analysed the use of social media, mostly focusing on the trends and habits of its users, as well as the generated content of social platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. The former’s ubiquitous nature attracts both citizens and reporters seeking accessible information. This research project, unlike most literature on the subject, seeks to answer what could be considered a fundamental question in political communication: Who are the Twitter users? Who uses Twitter for political means? Using data from the Making Electoral Democracy Work project I analysed the socio-demographic profile, the values and political attitudes of users in three contemporary democracies, namely in Canada, France and Spain, during eight electoral campaigns. Three hypotheses are empirically tested and the results suggest that Twitter users during an electoral campaign are mostly partisan young men who are interested in politics and tend to be Right-Wing on economic and social issues. Nonetheless, Twitter users are not entirely different from the rest of the population on questions of education, intention to vote and political information.