Social Media and the Public Sphere in The Netherlands: A Space for Political Deliberation?

Despite its consequences for democracy, little research has been devoted to the study of how social media relate to the public sphere. This research aims to fill this lacuna by initially determining the properties of the communication network between parliamentarians. Next, it assesses whether the discussions between MPs give rise to a networked public sphere. We use one-year Twitter data (2016) on parliamentarians from The Netherlands, where more than 80% of the parliamentarians and 20% of the population use Twitter. We analyse this data employing a mixed-methods approach – a combination of social network analysis and content analysis methods. Assessing the existence of rational deliberation between MPs will deepen our understanding of political deliberation in the social media age and open new avenues to further investigate how social media are affecting the public sphere.