Towards a European public sphere? A comparative study of the Facebook activities of Danish and Spanish members of the European Parliament

Lidia Valera-Ordaz ^[1] ; Mads P. Sørensen ^[2]
1. [1] Universitat de València
  
  Universitat de València
  
  Valencia, España
2. [2] Aarhus University
  
  Aarhus University
  
  Dinamarca
Localización: El profesional de la información, ISSN-e 1699-2407, ISSN 1386-6710, Vol. 28, Nº 6, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Estructuras de poder en Comunicación / Power structures in Communication)
Idioma: inglés
Enlaces
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Resumen
- This comparative study examines the everyday Facebook activities of all Danish and Spanish members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and the extent to which there is a real political conversation between citizens and European representatives. Through content analysis, it analyzes the Facebook practices of a significantly under-studied population (MEPs) during a non-campaign period (January 15 to February 15, 2017) while most of recent research has overwhelmingly focused on campaign periods. The results show that both Danish and Spanish MEPs are generously present and active on Facebook, but that they are less popular than their national counterparts. The study shows that Danish MEPs use Facebook in a clearly more dialogue-oriented way than their Spanish colleagues. Their updates often lead to conversations between followers, and they frequently take part in these political discussions, while Spanish MEPs tend to limit their Facebook practices to content publication, avoiding citizen conversation.