Abstract
More technical opportunities and also more communicative and participatory options online could lead to more political interest in general, and to closer interrelations between citizens and politicians. From the point of view of democratic theory, it is highly relevant whether citizens are vividly participating in politics or not. In light of recent political events it seems even more important to evaluate the positive and negative potential of online communication and its implications for democracy. For political purposes, Twitter is especially frequently used by professionals in election campaigns; to report, comment on, and discuss political events; or to stimulate political online protest. The chapter analyses social media activities of the Bundestag’s new Digital Agenda Committee. We argue that by using social media (and in particular Twitter) to report on its activities, the DAC can increase transparency and interactivity between representatives and citizens. This could increase and strengthen citizens’, journalists’, and other actors’ interest in parliamentary business. We collected Twitter data in 2015 to determine quantitatively for each member of the DAC their number of followers, the number of tweets they posted or retweeted, and how many retweets and @mentions they received themselves. Qualitatively, we further explored what information MPs tweeted about the DAC’s work, and how they informed the public about parliamentary business and their individual activities. For the purposes of this chapter, we focus our attention on the top-down direction of communication (from politicians to citizens), rather than on bottom-up responses (from citizens to politicians).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Borra E, Rieder B (2014) Programmed method: developing a toolset for capturing and analyzing tweets. Aslib J Inf Manag 66(3):262–278. doi:10.1108/AJIM-09-2013-0094
Bruns A, Moe H (2014) Structural layers of communication on Twitter. In: Weller K, Bruns A, Burgess J, Mahrt M, Puschmann C (eds) Twitter and Society. Peter Lang, New York, pp 15–28
Bundestag (2016a) Webpage of the German Bundestag. www.bundestag.de (last retrieved: 20.01.2016)
Bundestag (2016b) Webpage of the German Bundestag. https://www.bundestag.de/ada/beteiligung/forumdisplay.php?f=2 (last retrieved: 20.01.2016)
Bundestag (2016c) Webpage of the German Bundestag. http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/bundestag/committees (last retrieved: 19.09.2016)
Coleman S (2005) New mediation and direct representation: reconceptualizing representation in the digital age. New Media Soc 7(2):177–198
Coleman S, Blumler JG (2009) The internet and democratic citizenship: theory, practice and policy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Emmer M, Vowe G (2004) Mobilisierung durch das Internet? Ergebnisse einer empirischen Längsschnittuntersuchung zum Einfluss des Internets auf die politische Kommunikation der Bürger. In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 45. Jg. (2004), Heft 2, S 191–212
Hegelich S, Shahrezaye M (2015) The communication behavior of German MPs on Twitter: preaching to the converted and attacking opponents. Eur Policy Anal 1(2):155–172
Jackson N, Lilleker D (2011) Microblogging, constituency service and impression management: UK MPs and the use of Twitter. J Legis Stud 17(1):86–105
Jürgens P, Jungherr A (2015) The use of Twitter during the 2009 German national election. German Polit 24(4):469–490
Lijphart A (2012) Patterns of democracy. Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries, 2. Auflage. Yale University Press, New Haven
Rauchfleisch A, Metag J (2016) The special case of Switzerland: Swiss politicians on Twitter. New Media Soc 18(10):2413–2431
Ritzi C, Wagner A (2016) Symbolisch oder echt? Die politische Beteiligung junger Erwachsener in Deutschland online und offline. Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen (ZParl), Heft 2/2016, S 304–326
Schnoor M (2015) Erstes Zeugnis für die Digitale Agenda: Setzen, Sechs! Ungenügend! #BTADA. http://digibuzz.de/erstes-zeugnis-fuer-die-digitale-agenda-setzen-sechs-ungenuegend-btada/ (last retrieved: 29.02.2016)
Spiegel Online (2016) Twitter nennt erste Zahlen zur Nutzung in Deutschland. Ausgabe vom 21.03.2016
Steffani W (1979) Parlamenarische und Präsidentielle Demokratie. Strukturelle Aspekte westlicher Demokratien. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen
Voß J (2015) Ein Jahr BTADA: Der Bundestagsausschuss Digitale Agenda in Zahlen. http://politik-digital.de/news/ein-jahr-btada-der-bundestagsausschuss-digitale-agenda-in-zahlen-144667/ (last retrieved: 29.02.2016)
Zittel T (2003) Political representation in the networked society: the Americanisation of European systems of responsible party government? J Legis Stud 9(3):32–53
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schwanholz, J., Moon, B., Bruns, A., Münch, F. (2018). Much Ado About Nothing? The Use of Social Media in the New Digital Agenda Committee of the German Bundestag. In: Schwanholz, J., Graham, T., Stoll, PT. (eds) Managing Democracy in the Digital Age. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61707-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61708-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)