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 language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Proceeding of the Fifth Annual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies |
Place of Publication | Beijing, China |
Publisher | Communication University of China, |
Pages | 164-178 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Event | Annual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies (5th : 2011) - Beijing, China Duration: 17 Dec 2011 → 18 Dec 2011 |
Conference
Conference | Annual PhD Student Conference in Journalism and Communication Studies (5th : 2011) |
---|---|
City | Beijing, China |
Period | 17/12/11 → 18/12/11 |
Keywords
- social media
- political communication
- network
- Plurk
- microblog