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Social Media and Parliamentary Infighting: Digital naturals in the Swedish Riksdag?

Gustafsson, Nils LU orcid (2015) p.95-105
Abstract
Research on the use of social network sites by elected politicians has often been narrowed

down to behaviour during election campaigns and using social media as a way of reaching

voters and journalists. This chapter studies the way that members of parliament in the

Swedish Riksdag use social media as a tool for intra-party competition. The analysed data

consist of interviews with 37 parliamentarians from the parliamentary parties in Sweden, a

parliamentary, party-centred democracy. The study shows that rather than simply adoption

or non-adoption of social media based on beliefs about its power to attract voters,

politicians have varying incentives to use and apply social media... (More)
Research on the use of social network sites by elected politicians has often been narrowed

down to behaviour during election campaigns and using social media as a way of reaching

voters and journalists. This chapter studies the way that members of parliament in the

Swedish Riksdag use social media as a tool for intra-party competition. The analysed data

consist of interviews with 37 parliamentarians from the parliamentary parties in Sweden, a

parliamentary, party-centred democracy. The study shows that rather than simply adoption

or non-adoption of social media based on beliefs about its power to attract voters,

politicians have varying incentives to use and apply social media based on election cycles,

different arenas of influence, rank, cultural differences between parties and individual traits

such as age. It also shows that age is a more important factor in determining social media

style than others. It contains one of the first studies of internal use of social media in

parliamentary parties. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
social media, democracy, political parties, political communication
host publication
Strategic Communication, Social Media and Democracy
editor
Coombs, W. Timothy ; Falkheimer, Jesper ; Heide, Mats and Young, Philip
pages
95 - 105
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:84960220615
ISBN
978-1-138-84116-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1a2e96c1-0401-49c9-821e-823a62c5b927 (old id 7852694)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:24:50
date last changed
2022-02-21 06:15:20
@inbook{1a2e96c1-0401-49c9-821e-823a62c5b927,
  abstract     = {{Research on the use of social network sites by elected politicians has often been narrowed<br/><br>
down to behaviour during election campaigns and using social media as a way of reaching<br/><br>
voters and journalists. This chapter studies the way that members of parliament in the<br/><br>
Swedish Riksdag use social media as a tool for intra-party competition. The analysed data<br/><br>
consist of interviews with 37 parliamentarians from the parliamentary parties in Sweden, a<br/><br>
parliamentary, party-centred democracy. The study shows that rather than simply adoption<br/><br>
or non-adoption of social media based on beliefs about its power to attract voters,<br/><br>
politicians have varying incentives to use and apply social media based on election cycles,<br/><br>
different arenas of influence, rank, cultural differences between parties and individual traits<br/><br>
such as age. It also shows that age is a more important factor in determining social media<br/><br>
style than others. It contains one of the first studies of internal use of social media in<br/><br>
parliamentary parties.}},
  author       = {{Gustafsson, Nils}},
  booktitle    = {{Strategic Communication, Social Media and Democracy}},
  editor       = {{Coombs, W. Timothy and Falkheimer, Jesper and Heide, Mats and Young, Philip}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-138-84116-1}},
  keywords     = {{social media; democracy; political parties; political communication}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{95--105}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Social Media and Parliamentary Infighting: Digital naturals in the Swedish Riksdag?}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5999364/7852767.pdf}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}