http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21344/abstract<Behind paywall />
Twitter use by the U.S. Congress
Jennifer Golbeck,, Justin M. Grimes, Anthony Rogers
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Volume 61, Issue 8, pages 1612–1621, August 2010
Abstract
Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service with millions
of members and growing at a tremendous rate. With the buzz surrounding
the service have come claims of its ability to transform the way
people interact and share information and calls for public figures to
start using the service. In this study, we are interested in the type
of content that legislators are posting to the service, particularly
by members of the United States Congress. We read and analyzed the
content of over 6,000 posts from all members of Congress using the
site. Our analysis shows that Congresspeople are primarily using
Twitter to disperse information, particularly links to news articles
about themselves and to their blog posts, and to report on their daily
activities. These tend not to provide new insights into government or
the legislative process or to improve transparency; rather, they are
vehicles for self-promotion. However, Twitter is also facilitating
direct communication between Congresspeople and citizens, though this
is a less popular activity. We report on our findings and analysis and
discuss other uses of Twitter for legislators.
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