Politicians ‘use Twitter for self promotion’
SCOTS politicians shamelessly misuse Twitter for self-promotion rather than engaging with constituents on important issues, according to a new study.
A researcher from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen reached the conclusion after analysing almost 10,500 tweets sent by 105 MSPs in four weeks.
Dr Graeme Baxter fed the tweets through language analysis software capable of determining the subject of the tweet and whether it was a conversation with others or a one-way ‘broadcast’.
The study found that only 13 per cent of the tweets involved meaningful engagement with voters.
The remaining 87 per cent of tweets focussed on politicians trying to portray themselves as ‘ordinary, likeable and humorous’, posting links to other articles or even simply discussing the weather in ‘bland’, ‘self-promoting’ tweets.
The soon-to-be published study is titled Members of the Scottish
‘Used blandly and superficially’
Parliament on Twitter: Good Constituency Men (and Women)?’
Dr Baxter examined 10,411 tweets taken from a period in 2014.
Some 14.8 per cent of the posts were described as ‘primary broadcasts’ – where MSPs provided their followers with their ‘personal thoughts, opinions and commentaries’. And 65.9 per cent were ‘secondary broadcasts’ – where the politicians just linked to other websites or repeated other’s comments.
Only 12.7 per cent of the tweets were designated ‘engagement and dialogue’ – where the politicians answered questions or responded to criticisms.
Dr Baxter’s team also conducted a small exercise to test whether MSPs would respond to genuine inquiries over Twitter – tweeting eight Glasgow MSPs over the demolition of the Red Road Flats.
In each case, none of them replied – this, he says, has nearly always been the case since they started the project in 2003.
Discussing MSPs’ use of Twitter in an interview, Dr Baxter said: ‘I do feel that this has been used quite blandly and superficially by most politicians. I get the impression that for most of them it’s a tool to demonstrate that they are IT savvy and up to date.’