Social media platforms affect political representation by altering the ways that politicians relate to broader publics, the media, and fellow policy makers. Existing studies generate insights into the ways that members of national parliaments (MNPs) and members of the European Parliament (MEPs) use social media. In general, they suggest that left legislators and younger legislators use social media more than right legislators and older legislators. They show that representatives from tech-savvy districts use social media more. And they suggest, albeit tentatively, that legislators elected via personalized electoral systems may be particularly prone to utilize social media.
While these are important findings, scholars have not paid sufficient attention to the ways that institutional settings affect legislators' engagement with social media. This paper focuses on institutional effects. It departs from the intuition that MEPs, who work at a uniquely international institution with which mass publics are relatively unfamiliar, are at a disadvantage vis-à-vis MNPs. We expect MEPs to be relatively prolific social media users, to use social media more diaologically, and to publish updates in more languages than MNPs.
We test these hypotheses via an innovative design. We select for two kinds of legislators: (a) MEPs who are freshmen in the 2014-2019 term and who served as MNPs immediately before their election to the EP, and (b) MEPs who served in the 2009-2014 EP term and have subsequently become MNPs. We systematically compare each selected individual’s Twitter behavior over a three-month period during her EP tenure with her Twitter behavior over an analogous three-month period during her NP tenure. The results generate insights into the ways that institutions condition social media engagement and shape representational patterns across different legislative arenas.
