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National Twitter Bubbles Vs. European Interests in the Western Balkans

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National Twitter Bubbles Vs. European Interests in the Western Balkans Policy Brief No.22/2019 - Tweet Global, Connect (Only) Local? National Twitter Bubbles vs. European Interests in the Western Balkans Authors: Marie Jelenka Kirchner, Zoran Nechev and Ivan Nikolovski - Policy Brief No.22/2019 December 2019 Tweet Global, Connect (Only) Local? National Twitter Bubbles vs. European Interests in the Western Balkans Authors: Marie Jelenka Kirchner, Zoran Nechev and Ivan Nikolovski - December 2019 The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje. Impressum _ Title: Tweet Globally, Connect (Only) Locally? National Twitter Bubbles vs. European Interests in the Western Balkans Publisher: Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in the Republic of North Macedonia Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje Authors: Marie Jelenka Kirchner, Zoran Nechev and Ivan Nikolovski Proofreading: Jana Dimitrovska Design: Dejan Kuzmanovski This publication is available at: http://www.kas.de/nordmazedonien http://www.idscs.org.mk Tweet globally, Twitter are arguably not the most relevant value to measure the quality of bilateral connect (only) or international relations, but in a political locally? National sphere with increasing significance of the Twitter Bubbles vs. tweet as a political medium, it matters European interests more and more who follows whom. in the Western This short analysis1 is not designed to be Balkans understood as a policy recommendation, _ but is instead intended to link the increasing importance of social media to When Twitter was launched in 2006, the bigger context of regional cooperation who would have imagined that, about and EU integration of Western Balkan one decade later, it would become a governments. In this, the analysis does mouthpiece for political strategies and not come to conclusions, but instead a showroom for contested positions, presents trends and patterns in social putting traditional tools of international media activities of high-level political relations and diplomacy under pressure? figures from the Western Balkan. In this short introduction to the Balkan Twitter While politicians worldwide use Twitter Bubble it is important to remember that to varying extents, it is needless to say followings only show one side of the coin that 280-character messages have in the increasingly interwoven jungle of become increasingly important to bring social media interaction. Other important political statements across, showcase factors are the activity levels of Twitter the state of affairs, and appal millions users, the quality of their content and of users in a matter of minutes. The many other aspects which we touch only analysis of Twitter has therefore seen on the surface to open the way for greater a growing interest over the past few in-depth analysis of the digital inter- years. One aspect of this research is to relations within the Western Balkans and see the level of connectivity of political between Western Balkan politicians and figures via Twitter. Connections on their EU partners. 1 With permission of Twitter, IDSCS has extracted online relationships between accounts in the period between August and September 2019. Methodology _ To what extent are politicians from who lost his office in September. This, Western Balkan countries connected to however, does not impact the overall their counterparts from other countries trends in our research. To define trends in the region? Do they follow political or patterns, the analysis involves two actors from the European Union? Or groups. As listed in detail in the annex, maybe rather national representatives? on the one hand, group A consists of 38 The methodology of this short analysis heads of state, heads of government, is straightforward and based on a and relevant ministers/ ministries digital programme to extract data with from the Western Balkan countries. In the permission of Twitter to be used this, the analysis looks at all national for our needs. In this, the analysis does actors at the ministerial level whose not look at levels of interaction between portfolio is relevant to EU accession different Twitter users, but instead negotiations, such as Minister of Foreign extracted online relationships between Affairs, Minister of Justice, or Minister accounts in August and September of Defence. On the other hand, group B 2019. Considering this, some accounts consists of 32 EU institutions, significant considered in this research seem actors in EU-Western Balkan relations outdated, because politicians have lost during the past term of the European their political function in the meantime Parliament (2014-2019), NATO accounts or others were newly elected as is the as well as political actors from EU case with former and new presidents member states who have had or still of the EU Commission Jean-Claude have significance in the context of this Juncker and Ursula von der Leyen, or analysis. Furthermore, few accounts with US security adviser John Bolton from the US are included in the analysis. 2 IDSCS Policy Brief No.22/2019 - December 2019 The results _ To a higher or lesser extent, all officials, and politicians and see how governments in the Western Balkans much they are in fashion on Twitter. have committed to EU integration and are closely in touch with the European The second part will look at national Commission which monitors their way actors to see who seems interesting into the European Union. Arguably – or relevant – for Western Balkan the most important link between WB politicians to follow. Again, these governments and the European Union results cannot be mistaken as a is the responsible Commissioner for DG barometer to measure the quality of NEAR, office held by Johannes Hahn bilateral relations, but can give insights for the past 5 years. Is he the one with into (digital) political culture and mutual the highest follower count out of the relations. sample group? Do politicians from the Western Balkans show interest in his Beyond this, the analysis canvasses the Twitter activity or prefer to follow the handlings of NATO and its Secretary representatives of other institutions? And General, Jens Stoltenberg, to finally look how about members of the European at the level of connectivity between Parliament? The first part of this short ministries and governments of the analysis will look at EU institutions, Western Balkan 6. Tweet globally, connect (only) locally? National Twitter Bubbles vs. European interests in the Western Balkans 3 1. Followers NATO account and only Prime Minister Ana Brnabic follows Jens Stoltenberg. of EU affairs Accounts from Kosovar politicians _ on the other hand show distinctively higher interest in NATO/ security affairs: Group A accounts show divided (almost) all of them follow both NATO interest in the tweets of EU officials. and Stoltenberg. In this category, Federica Mogherini, Donald Tusk, and Johannes Hahn lead The European Parliament enjoys less the ranks with 20 or 21 followers from interest among Group A: The president of group A each. Jean Claude Juncker the European Parliament, David Sassoli, comes second with 18 followers from has only 11 followers. More interest the region. As representatives of EU is shown in the former MEP Eduard Foreign Policy and EU Council Policy, Kukan who outdoes his colleagues with it surely should be in the individual 15 followers. The chair of the AFET interest of Western Balkan politicians committee, David McAllister, as well as to be up-to-date with messages from EP Rapporteurs for the countries in the these politicians and with the activity region, do not spark as much interest on their social media. Only the official in group A as different representatives NATO account and NATO Secretary of EU member states or even US General Jens Stoltenberg enjoy similar representatives. popularity with 18 followers from group A each. While the followers of Not a single account from group A is EU officials/ institutions are equally connected to the account of Brexit- distributed among group A countries, negotiator Michel Barnier, suggesting NATO followers show clearer that EU-internal policies do not interest distinctions: from Serbia, only the Western Balkan politicians as much as Minister of Defence follows the official the question of their own accession. 4 IDSCS Policy Brief No.22/2019 - December 2019 This is reflected in the results of a Tweet by Ana Brnabic sums up what side-research on the usage of the is implied in this: Despite one country Hashtag “#Brexit” which appears in only deciding to leave the EU, the wish of 7 Tweets among all accounts of group Western Balkans is stronger than ever A since the Brexit referendum. One to join the club. Figure 1.1. WB Prime Ministers following EU and NATO leaders Ana Brnabic Denis Zvizdić (official account) (private account) @SerbianPM @DrZvizdic 16 EU and NATO Follows 12 EU and NATO Follows Ana Brnabić Ramush Haradinaj (private account) (private account) @anabrnabic @haradinajramush 9 EU and NATO Follows 11 EU and NATO Follows Duško Marković Edi Rama (private account) (private account) @DuskoMarkovicCG @ediramaal 16 EU and NATO Follows 2 EU and NATO Follows Zoran Zaev (private account) @Zoran_Zaev 15 EU and NATO Follows Tweet globally, connect (only) locally? National Twitter Bubbles vs. European interests in the Western Balkans 5 Figure 1.2. WB Presidents following EU and NATO leaders Hashim Thaçi Aleksandar Vucić (private account) (private account) @HashimThaciRKS @avucic 19 EU and NATO
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