Mcloughlin () How Social Media Is Changing Political Representation
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How Social Media is Changing Political Representation in the United Kingdom Liam D.G. McLoughlin School of Arts and Media, University of Salford Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 <blank> Contents Table of Contents i List of Tables iv List of Figures v Abbreviations vi Acknowledgements vii Abstract viii Chapter 1. The Importance of Social Media in UK Politics 1 1.1. Introduction to the Thesis 1 1.2. Can 280-characters Really Change Politics? 3 1.3. The Crisis of Representative Democracy 8 1.4. Is Social Media as the Solution? The Prospect of Citizen-Representative Communication 10 1.5 What is Social Media? 12 1.5.1. Introduction to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram 15 1.6. Problems with Existing Research 17 1.7 Research Questions 20 1.8. Outline of the Thesis 22 Chapter 2. Conceptualising the linkage between representation & communication 25 2.1 Concepts of Political Representation 25 2.1.1 Hannah Pitkin, foundations of representative theory 28 2.1.2 Additional Theories - Mansbridge (2003) 32 2.1.3 Dynamic approaches to representation - Urbinati (2006) & Saward (2010) 34 2.2 In-between Election Democracy 36 2.3 Problems with Theories of Representation 39 2.4 Political Communication 41 2.4.1 Actors and formats of political communication 43 2.5 The interlinkage Between Political Representation and Political Communication 46 2.5.1 The role of communication in representation 47 2.6 A Framework to Understand the Implications Communication on Representation 51 2.6.1 Direct Representation 51 2.6.2 Indirect Representation 53 2.6.3 Networked Representation 55 2.7 Conclusion: The Theoretical Linkage between Social Media Communication & Representation 57 Chapter 3. Representative Communication in UK Politics, MPs & Citizens 59 3.1 Members of Parliament: Their Roles and Who They Act For? 60 3.2 Communication Between MPs & Citizens 64 3.2.1 Trends in political communication between MPs & Citizens 66 3.3 MPs and the Internet 68 3.3.1 MPs &Websites 69 3.3.2 MPs & Blogs 70 3.3.3 MPs & Emails 71 3.4 Explaining the uptake of internet communication platforms by MPs 72 3.5 The Impact of Websites, Blogs & Emails on Representation 75 3.6 MPs & Social Media 77 3.6.1 Explaining the uptake and use of social media 78 3.6.2 The direction and content of communication 80 3.7 Citizens’ Communication to MPs 83 3.7.1 Explanations for citizens’ participation and citizen initiated-contact 85 3.7.2 New forms of collective civic participation? 88 3.8 Conclusion: The Impact of Internet Communications on Representation in the United Kingdom, 89 A New Hope in Social Media? i Chapter 4. Methodology 90 4.1 Introduction and Justification for the Methodological Approach 90 4.1.1 Case study selection: The United Kingdom 91 4.1.2 Previous approaches to social media research 94 4.1.3 Mixed-method and convergent design methodology 96 4.2 Social Media Data Collection 100 4.2.1 Scope and timeframe of the data collection 102 4.2.2 Data collection process: Facebook 102 4.2.3 Data collection process: Twitter 103 4.2.4 Data collection process: Instagram 104 4.2.5 Coding of the data 104 4.2.6 Limitations of social media data collection 105 4.2.7 Ethics of social media research 105 4.3 Survey Data Collection (Citizens) 109 4.3.1 Online surveys 109 4.3.2 Participant selection & recruitment 110 4.3.3 Questionnaire design 110 4.3.4 Survey sample 111 4.4 Elite Interviews 112 4.4.1 MP recruitment 114 4.4.2 Interview format & Questions 115 4.4.3 Ethical considerations for Surveys & Interviews 116 Chapter 5. Political Representatives’ Explanations for their Social Media use 118 5.1 How Central Has Social Media Become to MPs Communication Strategies? 119 5.1.1 How MPs compare social media with other communication platforms 121 5.1.2 Differences in use between Facebook, Twitter & Instagram 123 5.1.3 Evidence of social media use as part of a permanent electoral campaign 126 5.1.4 Are social media pages more important than MPs’ websites? 127 5.1.5 MPs that do not use social media 128 5.1.6 Use of third-level social media websites 129 5.1.7 The degree that MPs engage in interpersonal communication with citizens on social media 132 5.2 Technical Considerations of Social Media Management by MPs 133 5.2.1 Do MPs have a communication strategy? 133 5.2.2 Themselves or their staff? 133 5.2.3 How MPs access social media 136 5.3 MPs Social Media Concerns 138 5.3.1 Abuse of politicians 138 5.3.2 Concerns over the representativeness of MPs audiences 140 5.3.3 Data protection & privacy of constituents 141 5.3.4 Resources & time management 142 5.4 Discussion: How the use of Social Media by MPs Impacts Representative Communication 144 Chapter 6. Understanding MPs Social Media Communication Through Data 146 6.1 Revisiting Uptake and Usage of Social Media by MPs 147 6.1.1 Facebook Pages 148 6.1.2 Twitter 149 6.1.3 Instagram 153 6.1.4 MPs with no social media accounts 155 6.1.5 Normalisation of social media websites 155 6.1.6 Overall demographic trends across social media 156 6.2 What Patterns can be Found in how MPs Use Social Media 158 6.2.1 Frequency of MPs social media posts 159 6.2.2 Media-Type 160 6.2.3 The Functions of MPs Posts 162 6.3 Who do MPs Represent on Social Media? 172 6.3.1 MPs representing at the national or constituency level on social media 172 6.3.2 Does MPs use of social media signify a move away from the party? 173 6.3.3 The subjects and policies MPs focus on 174 6.4 Discussion: What can be understood of MPs Representative Strategy Through Their Social Media? 177 ii Chapter 7. Citizens use of Social Media 181 7.1 Who Engages in Representative Communication with MPs? 182 7.1.1 Platform differences 185 7.1.2 The Discovery of MPs social media accounts 186 7.2 The Type of Relationship Citizens Seek with Political Representatives 187 7.2.1 Comparing how citizens follow MPs across different media types 190 7.3 Evidence of a Disparity between What MPs Post, and What Citizens See on Social Media 193 7.4 Citizen-Initiated Contact and Social Media 196 7.5 The Interpretation of MPs Social Media Approach and Levels of Reciprocity 200 7.6 Communication between Citizens and their Local MP on Social Media 202 Chapter 8. Is social media changing political representation in the UK? 205 8.1 RQ1: The Extent to Which MPs Use Social Media, And for What Purpose 206 8.1.1 Which MPs use social media? 207 8.1.2 RQ3: Evidence against Direct Representation: MPs use of social media for unmediated ……… 208 ……… communication 8.1.3 Why MPs use social media: A matter of audience? 210 8.1.4 What type of content do MPs post? Broadcasting about themselves? 212 8.1.5 Who do MPs represent on social media 215 8.1.6 The selective response: What MPs responses towards citizens say about who MPs represent 216 8.2 RQ2: Patterns of Citizen-Initiated Contact, and The Relationship Citizens Seek with Their 217 ……… Representatives 8.2.1 Citizens seeking news, not representation 218 8.2.2 Explaining the participation of citizens: Between Representational Lurking and Monitorial ……… 219 ……… Citizens 8.2.3 On collective action 222 8.3 How is Social Media Changing Political Representation in the UK 223 8.3.1 Explaining the MP-Constituent Relationship on Social Media: Surrogate & Parasocial ……… 223 ……… representation. 8.3.2 Is Social Media increasing representation of citizens? A contingent yes. 224 8.3.3 The unknown role of algorithms: Evidence that social media companies are skewing the ……… 226 ……… perceptions of MPs to citizens? 8.4 Limitations of this thesis and areas for future study: Is there space for two-step representation? 226 8.5 Concluding Remarks 228 References 231 Appendix A. Semi-structured interview Schedule (UK MPs) 254 Appendix B. Citizen Social Media User Survey 255 Appendix C. Social Media Coding Schema 266 Appendix D. Additional statistical tests, Chapter 6 267 Appendix E. Additional statistical tests, Chapter 7 269 Glossary 273 Words: 85,826 iii List of Tables Table 1.1. Number of MPs and UK Users Across Five Social Media Sites 14 Table 1.2. Research Questions 21 Table 4.1. Demographic Distribution of Survey Participants 112 Table 6.1. Uptake of social media websites by MPs 148 Table 6.2. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Age of MP 150 Table 6.3. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Party 151 Table 6.4. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Electoral Marginality 151 Table 6.5. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Number of Years In Office 152 Table 6.6. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Ethnicity 152 Table 6.7. Uptake of Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram by Gender 152 Table 6.8. Functions of Facebook Posts by Percentage 163 Table 6.9. Functions of Twitter Posts by Percentage (excluding Retweets) 166 Table 6.10. Who MPs Retweet 168 Table 6.11. Functions of Instagram Posts by Percentage 170 Table 6.12. Facebook posts by Geographical Focus 173 Table 6.13. Policy Focus of MPs’ Twitter (ex. retweets) and Facebook Posts 176 Table 7.1.