Party competition on social media: Evidence from politicians' tweets

TY - JOUR

T1 - Party competition on social media

T2 - Evidence from politicians' tweets

AU - Eriksen, Daniel Møller

PY - 2024/9

Y1 - 2024/9

N2 - A blooming research agenda has begun examining the influence of party competition dynamics on politician social media behaviour. Most studies focus on the US context, generally finding little evidence that party competition dynamics influence which policy issues politicians attend to on these platforms. Instead, I turn to the Danish context and show how party competition dynamics exert a substantial influence on politicians' attention to issues in their tweets. First, I map the level of politician issue attention on Twitter across several years outside election campaigns. Second, I show that party issue ownership and the status of a party as a government or opposition party strongly influence politicians' attention to issues on the platform. Third, I provide novel insights into how the interplay between party issue ownership and internal party organisation influences politician issue attention on Twitter. The findings indicate that the tweets posted by politicians are an integral aspect of contemporary party competition.

AB - A blooming research agenda has begun examining the influence of party competition dynamics on politician social media behaviour. Most studies focus on the US context, generally finding little evidence that party competition dynamics influence which policy issues politicians attend to on these platforms. Instead, I turn to the Danish context and show how party competition dynamics exert a substantial influence on politicians' attention to issues in their tweets. First, I map the level of politician issue attention on Twitter across several years outside election campaigns. Second, I show that party issue ownership and the status of a party as a government or opposition party strongly influence politicians' attention to issues on the platform. Third, I provide novel insights into how the interplay between party issue ownership and internal party organisation influences politician issue attention on Twitter. The findings indicate that the tweets posted by politicians are an integral aspect of contemporary party competition.

KW - automated content-coding

KW - issue competition

KW - party competition

KW - self-personalisation

KW - social media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192799291&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1467-9477.12276

DO - 10.1111/1467-9477.12276

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85192799291

SN - 0080-6757

VL - 47

SP - 334

EP - 457

JO - Scandinavian Political Studies

JF - Scandinavian Political Studies

IS - 3

ER -