Social media politics: the experience of Taiwanese politicians

Luc Chia-Shin Lin

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Since their successful use in Barack Obama’s 2008 US presidential campaign, social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become major political tools in Taiwan and elsewhere. This research uses a case-study approach to investigate why social media such as Plurk are so attractive to Taiwanese politicians. It finds that social media help politicians to establish alternative support networks that enable them to effectively disseminate information and to be more visible in the mass media. However, politicians have to surrender some control in order to obtain these benefits from social media, due to their Web 2.0 characteristics. In politicians’ use of social media, there is an interplay between top-down and bottom-up power structures.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceeding of the Fifth Annual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies
    Place of PublicationBeijing, China
    PublisherCommunication University of China,
    Pages164-178
    Number of pages15
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    EventAnnual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies (5th : 2011) - Beijing, China
    Duration: 17 Dec 201118 Dec 2011

    Conference

    ConferenceAnnual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies (5th : 2011)
    CityBeijing, China
    Period17/12/1118/12/11

    Keywords

    • social media
    • political communication
    • network
    • Plurk
    • microblog

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