Can social network sites bridge the politician-citizen divide: Interaction on SNS during the Danish parliamentary election 2011

Authors

  • Sander Andreas Schwartz

Abstract

Politicians are eager to engage with citizens because the support for political parties is declining in Denmark like many other places in the world increasing a politician-citizen divide. Critics also fear that the Internet might be contributing to a polarization in overall political debate. This study examines whether social media can be part of a solution to this problem and how politicians can successfully encourage interaction and debate. In a unique collaboration with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation this study will analyze interaction between politicians and citizens based on a collection of politicians’ Facebook activity during the Danish National Election 2011 (totaling +100.000 status messages and comments). All this contributes to an understanding of how diverse a public the politicians have been able to engage with during the election, and whether social network sites as Facebook might be a promising platform for bridging the political divide between politicians and citizens.

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Published

2013-10-31

How to Cite

Schwartz, S. A. (2013). Can social network sites bridge the politician-citizen divide: Interaction on SNS during the Danish parliamentary election 2011. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 3. Retrieved from https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/8488

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Section

Papers S