Congress 2.0: Incumbent Messaging in Social Media

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Author(s): Albert L. May (George Washington University, USA)and F. Christopher Arterton (George Washington University, USA)
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 28
Source title: Citizen 2.0: Public and Governmental Interaction through Web 2.0 Technologies
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Kathryn Kloby (Monmouth University, USA)and Maria J. D’Agostino (City University of New York, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0318-9.ch014

Keywords: Electronic Government / Government & Law / Information Science Reference

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Abstract

With Congress approaching full adoption of the three major social media platforms – YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook – this study gauges the performance of members’ official channels in terms of building audiences. Despite the popularity of these platforms, a divide exists among a few high performing members and many low performers. Using an index to differentiate performance, the study finds social media success is driven by several factors, party affiliation and ideology being significant. Performance is also derivative of larger political and media forces, and the study shows that the issues confronting government can engage audiences that turn to social media for information, as demonstrated by the congressional debate over healthcare on YouTube. The chapter explores how the utilization of this technology could be an historical step as important as the advent of C-SPAN in connecting Congress to the American people.

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Congress 2.0: Incumbent Messaging in Social Media

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