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Twitter is not for Everyone

Di Bari, Alba Chiara LU (2015) SKPM08 20151
Department of Strategic Communication
Abstract
Politicians and public relations practitioners need to consciously and strategically communicate on Twitter not only during elections, but also during incumbency. However; previous approaches to PR failed to offer candidates successful long-term strategies. In addition, political PR research underestimated the influence of the characteristics of Twitter on the tone and the rhetoric of political communication. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the PR strategy of the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Twitter to fill these gaps. Tweets posted on his profile during his first year in office have been analysed and their interpretations validated by interviews with public relations practitioners in charge of his... (More)
Politicians and public relations practitioners need to consciously and strategically communicate on Twitter not only during elections, but also during incumbency. However; previous approaches to PR failed to offer candidates successful long-term strategies. In addition, political PR research underestimated the influence of the characteristics of Twitter on the tone and the rhetoric of political communication. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the PR strategy of the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Twitter to fill these gaps. Tweets posted on his profile during his first year in office have been analysed and their interpretations validated by interviews with public relations practitioners in charge of his digital communication. Matteo Renzi's public relations strategy resulted made up of branding, media agentry, communication of delivery and interaction with citizens. The success of Matteo Renzi on Twitter may be related to the extent the characteristics of the platform, such as humour and informal communication, are close to his core brand associations. Therefore, it may be inferred that the characteristics of the main social media channel in a political PR strategy need to match the brand, the identity and the person of the politician. The analysis here reported illustrated that Twitter may be better suitable tool for community-minded, informative and ironic leaders. However, it also opened up further questions about the impact of social media on the personalisation of politics and about the obstacles to effective interaction between politicians and citizens. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Di Bari, Alba Chiara LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Political Public Relations of the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
course
SKPM08 20151
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Twitter, Matteo Renzi, Italy, public relations, political public relations, incumbency, political communication, prime minister, social media, strategic PR
language
English
id
5465097
date added to LUP
2015-08-24 15:13:40
date last changed
2015-08-24 15:13:40
@misc{5465097,
  abstract     = {{Politicians and public relations practitioners need to consciously and strategically communicate on Twitter not only during elections, but also during incumbency. However; previous approaches to PR failed to offer candidates successful long-term strategies. In addition, political PR research underestimated the influence of the characteristics of Twitter on the tone and the rhetoric of political communication. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the PR strategy of the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Twitter to fill these gaps. Tweets posted on his profile during his first year in office have been analysed and their interpretations validated by interviews with public relations practitioners in charge of his digital communication. Matteo Renzi's public relations strategy resulted made up of branding, media agentry, communication of delivery and interaction with citizens. The success of Matteo Renzi on Twitter may be related to the extent the characteristics of the platform, such as humour and informal communication, are close to his core brand associations. Therefore, it may be inferred that the characteristics of the main social media channel in a political PR strategy need to match the brand, the identity and the person of the politician. The analysis here reported illustrated that Twitter may be better suitable tool for community-minded, informative and ironic leaders. However, it also opened up further questions about the impact of social media on the personalisation of politics and about the obstacles to effective interaction between politicians and citizens.}},
  author       = {{Di Bari, Alba Chiara}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Twitter is not for Everyone}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}