scholarly journals Politicians and political parties’ use of social media in-between elections

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Graham ◽  
Julia Schwanholz

Digital transformation changes the relationship between citizens and politics. The observation of this nexus is highly relevant for representative democracy. After the successful 2008 Obama campaign, a vast body of research that explores how and why politicians use social media has emerged. However, we still know very little about how social media are being adopted and used in-between elections, and still less yet about what this means for political representation. Therefore, this special issue brings together innovative research that focuses on how the use of social media is impacting upon the relationship between politicians and political parties, and citizens. First, we discuss some pros and cons of this transformation in the context of the relevant literature and, especially, in relation to Stephen Coleman’s concept of ‘direct representation’. Finally, we discuss the findings and merits of the contributions and what the issue adds to our understanding of the phenomenon to the state of research.

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Conti ◽  
Swen Hutter ◽  
Kyriaki Nanou

The aim of the special issue is to investigate through a comparative lens the impact of the recent economic crisis and consequent austerity measures on party competition and political representation in Europe. All six contributions focus on the substance of political conflict and provide new insights about the impact of the crisis on (a) the policy agendas of political parties, (b) the relationship between government and opposition parties, and (c) how citizens’ preferences are represented by political parties. Theoretically, the contributions link the literatures on party competition, responsiveness, agenda-setting, and social movements. Empirically, they provide new empirical material, in particular on the countries in Southern Europe which were hard hit by the crisis. The introduction presents the rationale of the special issue and summarizes the focus and findings of the six contributions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee Yun Lee ◽  
Yan Luo ◽  
Cho Rong Won ◽  
Jiyoung Lee ◽  
Jeongwon Baik

BACKGROUND The use of social media or social networking sites (SNS) is increasing across all age groups, and one of the primary motives of using SNS is to seek health-related information. Although previous research examining the effect of SNS use on depression exist, studies regarding the effect of SNS use for health purpose on depression is limited. OBJECTIVE Our study aims to explore the relationship between SNS use for health purpose and depression across the four age groups (18-34 years old, 35-49 years old, 50-64 years old, and above 65 years old). METHODS A sample of 6,789 adults aged 18 and older was extracted from a 2017 and 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Univariate and bivariate analyses to examine the association between each variable and four age groups were conducted. Multiple linear regression analyses to predict depression level among participants with use of SNS for health purpose were conducted. RESULTS SNS use for health purpose and depression were positively associated for three age groups but not for those 65 years or older (=0.13, P<0.05; =0.08, P<0.05; =0.09, P<0.05). Income and self-reported health status indicated an inverse relationship for all age groups. The relationship with marital status differed based on age group with 18 and 34 years old showing an inverse relationship (=-0.13, P<0.01) while 65 years or older showing a positive relationship (=0.06, P<0.05). Gender was positively associated among those in the 35-49 years old (=0.09, P<0.05) and 65 years or older (=0.07, P<0.05). Being Non-Hispanic White was positively associated with depression among 50-64 years old (=0.07, P<0.001) and 65 years or older (=0.08, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Age-tailored education on determining accurate and reliable information shared via SNS is needed to reduce depressive symptoms.


Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 985-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion ◽  
Daniel Jackson

This introduction unpacks the eight articles that make up this Journalism special issue about election reporting. Taken together, the articles ask: How has election reporting evolved over the last century across different media? Has the relationship between journalists and candidates changed in the digital age of campaigning? How do contemporary news values influence campaign coverage? Which voices – politicians, say or journalists – are most prominent? How far do citizens inform election coverage? How is public opinion articulated in the age of social media? Are sites such as Twitter developing new and distinctive election agendas? In what ways does social media interact with legacy media? How well have scholars researched and theorised election reporting cross-nationally? How can research agendas be enhanced? Overall, we argue this Special Issue demonstrates the continued strength of news media during election campaigns. This is in spite of social media platforms increasingly disrupting and recasting the agenda setting power of legacy media, not least by political parties and candidates who are relying more heavily on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to campaign. But while debates in recent years have centred on the technological advances in political communication and the associated role of social media platforms during election campaigns (e.g. microtargeting voters, spreading disinformation/misinformation and allowing candidates to bypass media to campaign), our collection of studies signal the enduring influence professional journalists play in selecting and framing of news. Put more simply, how elections are reported still profoundly matters in spite of political parties’ and candidates’ more sophisticated use of digital campaigning.


Author(s):  
Yogesh K. Dwivedi ◽  
Elvira Ismagilova ◽  
Nripendra P. Rana ◽  
Ramakrishnan Raman

AbstractSocial media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) companies. The current study focuses on the number of aspects of social media such as the effect of social media, social media tools, social media use, adoption of social media use and its barriers, social media strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of use of social media. This research provides a valuable synthesis of the relevant literature on social media in B2B context by analysing, performing weight analysis and discussing the key findings from existing research on social media. The findings of this study can be used as an informative framework on social media for both, academic and practitioners.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932098756
Author(s):  
Marc Esteve Del Valle ◽  
Marcel Broersma ◽  
Arnout Ponsioen

A growing body of research has examined the uptake of social media by politicians, the formation of communication ties in online political networks, and the interplay between social media and political polarization. However, few studies have analyzed how social media are affecting communication in parliamentary networks. This is especially relevant in highly fragmented political systems in which collaboration between political parties is crucial to win support in parliament. Does MPs’ use of social media foster communications among parliamentarians who think differently, or does it result in like-minded clusters polarized along party lines, confining MPs to those who think alike? This study analyzes the formation of communication ties and the degree of homophily in the Dutch MPs’ @mention Twitter network. We employed exponential random graph models on a 1-year sample of all tweets in which Dutch MPs mentioned each other ( N = 7,356) to discover the network parameters (reciprocity, popularity, and brokerage) and individual attributes (seniority, participation in the parliamentary commissions, age, gender, and geographical area) that facilitate communication ties among parliamentarians. Also, we measured party polarization by calculating the external–internal index of the mentions. Dutch MPs’ communication ties arise from network dynamics (reciprocity, brokerage, and popularity) and from MPs’ participation in the parliamentary commissions, age, gender, and geographical area. Furthermore, there is a high degree of cross-party interactions in the Dutch MPs’ mentions Twitter network. Our results refute the existence of “echo chambers” in the Dutch MPs’ mentions Twitter network and support the hypothesis that social media can open up spaces for discussion among political parties. This is particularly important in fragmented consensus democracies where negotiation and coordination between parties to form coalitions is key.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110329
Author(s):  
Paul Dodemaide ◽  
Mark Merolli ◽  
Nicole Hill ◽  
Lynette Joubert

There is a growing body of literature exploring the general population’s use of social media for assistance in dealing with stigmatized health issues. This study presents novel research examining the relationship between social media use and young adults. It utilizes a therapeutic affordance (TA) framework. Quantitative results from this study are complemented by qualitative data. The relationships between distinct social media and their TA (a–b) are presented to highlight their potential to impact positively on social and emotional well-being outcomes. Evidence includes broad support for “connection,” “narration,” and “collaboration” TAs in this context and the relationship between the use of distinct social media and perceived quality of life (QOL) outcomes (a–c). TA provides an appropriate and valuable theoretical framework which is useful for the development of an evidence-base from the analysis of young adult’s social media usage. An analysis of the association between social media and their QOL outcomes is presented according to the TA relationship pathway (a–c–b). The adoption of a TA framework enables a nuanced analysis of significant associations between specific social media, TA, and improved QOL outcomes. This study demonstrates the significant association between social media and perceived QOL outcomes in young adults.


2019 ◽  
pp. 135406881986362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergiu Gherghina ◽  
Adam Fagan

Much of the literature on fringe political parties in post-communist Europe focused on the relationship with mainstream parties. Little is known about what happens at the fringes, what are the features of politics at the fringes and when this type of politics becomes mainstream. This special issue moves beyond the notion of the fringe versus mainstream dichotomy: it is more ‘granular’ in its approach and seeks to differentiate between different forms of ‘fringe’ parties. The contributions aim to explore how and whether the fringe in post-communist countries changes in an age of populism and illiberalism. They represent an important attempt to take the fringe as a feature of politics that is not necessarily transient or a manifestation of the ‘growing pains’ of post-communism.


2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Chen Lin

This paper examines the relationship between political candidates' use of Facebook and their election outcomes (vote share and election success). The use of social media in political marketing campaigns has grown dramatically over the past few years. It is also expected to become even more critical to future political campaigns, as it creates two-way communication and engagement that stimulates and fosters candidates' relationships with their supporters. Online Facebook data were acquired for all 84 candidates running in a municipal election in Taiwan. Results suggest that a candidate's Facebook presence, the type of account they use, the authentication of the account, and the number of online fans they have are related to their election outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnan Dong ◽  
Dickson K.W. Chiu ◽  
Po-Sen Huang ◽  
Kevin K.W. Ho ◽  
Mavis Man-wai Lung ◽  
...  

Purpose Existing studies reflect that traditional teaching–learning relationships between supervisors and graduate students have become disjointed with actuality seriously. In particular, there are practical difficulties in handling many students from coursework-based postgraduate degrees under current university curricula. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between research supervisors and graduate students on social media, which is popular among students. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed 109 graduate students from two majors (population around 100 each) of a university in Hong Kong to explore their information usage for research on social media, related attitudes and their perceived supervisor relationships. The differences between the two majors were also compared. Findings The authors’ findings indicated that graduate students were active on social media, and social media has successfully provided effective alternate ways for students to communicate with their research supervisors. Social media could improve relationships between supervisors and research students and among fellow students. Besides education purposes, students also discussed their personal affairs on social media with supervisors, demonstrating enhanced trusted relationships. Graduate students also showed confidence in the further application of social media in higher education. Some differences between respondents from the two programs were also found in terms of communication contents, strengths, personal preferences and purposes for using social media. Originality/value Scant studies focus on the relationship between supervisors and graduate students under the current social media environment, especially for students from coursework-based postgraduate degrees. At a deeper level, for the widespread use of social media in the information age, this study explores the specific changes brought about by social media. Therefore, this study is of great theoretical and practical value to graduate education under the current social media environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Eko Hadi Prayitno ◽  
Nurul Giswi Karomah ◽  
Badriyah Badriyah

<p><em>This study aims to determine the Z generation digital native of Instagram social media account owners with public features that have a tendency to develop integrated account owners, through the use of multimedia broadcasts and the potential to promote visual works in the creative industry. The data collection period was observed by observing the posting of the respondent's portfolio on the feed from May - September 2020. The research design was correlational quantitative research between the Characteristics of Generation Z (X1), Social Media Broadcast (X2) and Creative Industry Integrated Development Multimedia (Y) variables. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the ability of Generation Z Characteristics in processing learning outcomes with the use of social media. Broadcast is integrated into a part of promoting portfolios in Creative Industry Integrated Development. Research data from a population of 180, of which there are 91 generation Z, and 20 accounts with Digital Native characteristics with public settings, taken as the research sample. The results obtained 1) Generation Z tends to have Digital Native Characteristics obtained as much as 84%, 2) Generation Z tends to have digital native characteristics that carry out the activity of Social Media Broadcast as much as 84%, 3) There is a native digital indicator of Generation Z doing Integrated Creative Industry Development for 88%. 4) Producing an accredited national publication research journal indexed.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>:             Sosial Media broadcast, Multimedia, Creative Industry, Digital Native, Z Generation</em></p>


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