Social media activists are more like voters than party members

New forms of political engagement and party affiliation have emerged with social media. A new study, based on data from a 2017 Danish voter survey, provides a unique insight into who follows political parties and candidates on social media.

‘We have identified a special group of followers that we call Social Media Partisans. These are citizens who only follow one party online but are not formal party members,’ explains Karina Kosiara-Pedersen, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science.

Together with research colleagues from Université libre de Bruxelles and the University of Houston, she made this new study, which is published in the journal West European Politics.

Less active in the real world

The typical Social Media Partisan (SMP) is, compared to party members, more often a younger woman with shorter education.

‘Social media help parties reach groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in their member organisations,’ says Karina Kosiara-Pedersen and elaborates:

‘In fact, SMPs are demographically more similar to party voters than traditional party members. This means that they make up for some of the inequalities in membership as an institutionalised form of participation,’ she says.

SMPs are more willing than regular voters to share party messages online. However, they are not as active as traditional party members when it comes to offline activities like campaigns and meetings.

‘This indicates that SMPs may be digital ambassadors for the parties - but  not necessarily active participants in the party's daily work and campaigning,’ concludes Karina Kosiara-Pedersen.

May influence the future of party politics

According to the researchers, the study provides valuable insight into how political parties may use social media to strengthen their connection with voters.

‘There is great potential in social media as a platform for political engagement and connection to individual parties. When using digital platforms, political parties may reach new voter groups,’ says Karina Kosiara-Pedersen and continues:

‘By understanding who their social media followers are, parties may better customise their engagement strategies and represent a wider section of the population. In other words, parties may strengthen their democratic representation by using social media engagement,’ concludes Karina Kosiara-Pedersen.

The study, entitled ‘Social media partisans vs. party members: political affiliation in a digital age’, is available here.