Local Politics Online: The Influence of Presumed Influence on Local Politicians’ Online Communication Activities

• In Event: Politicians Online: Antecedents and Effects

Abstract

How extensively local politicians use online media to communicate with others and the factors that influence online activities have rarely been examined. In particular, it remains to be answered whether local politicians use online media more extensively when they believe that online media have a strong political influence on other people. To examine this, a standardized survey among German local politicians was conducted (n = 608). The results show: The stronger the politicians perceive the influence of facebook and Twitter on journalists to be the more extensively they spread information via these social media networks. However, the presumed influences on the public or on other politicians don’t affect those online activities. Thus, local politicians apparently do not pursue a disintermediation strategy—which would mean that they try to bypass journalism by directly addressing the public. Rather, journalists seem to be an important target group of local politicians’ online communication efforts.

Authors

• Uli Bernhard, U of Duesseldorf

• Marco Dohle, U of Duesseldorf

• Gerhard Vowe, U of Duesseldorf