Twitter and Political Communication:Conceptualization and Empirical Findings

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: 1,0, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: German and American Politics: Electoral Campaigns and Political Leadership in a Comparative Perspective, language: English, abstract: What is Twitter being used for by German politicians? Can Twitter really bring the populace closer to the politicians? These are the central questions of the following paper. The key method in attempting to answer them is an analysis of the Twitter account of Kristina Kِhler, one of the most prominent German users of the online platform and the current federal Minister for families, senior citizens, women and the youth. The paper finds that increasing popularity of a politician decreases his activity on Twitter.