(Portuguese) Para que é que os deputados Portugueses utilizam o Twitter? Um caso de estudo de comunicação política num país com baixa taxa de adoção do Twitter

(Spanish/Castilian) ¿Para qué utilizan Twitter los diputados Portugueses? Estudio de caso de comunicación política en un país con baja tasa de adopción de Twitter

Portugal has the lowest Twitter usage rate in Western Europe and a political system that does not incentivize direct contact with voters. So, what do Portuguese MPs use Twitter for? We collected and manually coded 2,192 tweets from MPs. Our analysis shows that MPs use Twitter mainly as a business tool to serve a niche, the Twitter elite. Twitter is used significantly more often by male MPs, from small and non-conservative parties and from the largest constituencies. While following on Twitter depends on public recognition, popularity is only influenced by activity on the platform.

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Political communication,Twitter,Members of parliament,Social media,Portugal

• Media and Communications - Social Sciences