How effective is the online political communication? Analysis of the Basque political parties’ interaction network in Twitter

Abstract

The regular communicative activities of the political parties and the «permanent campaign» strategy (Canel y Zamora, 2004; Norris, 2005) have a special influence on the democratic participation (Lilleker y Jackson, 2010; Mossberger y Tolbert, 2010; Campbell, 2013; Keane y Feenstra, 2014). How someone is perceived and the credibility are essential attributes which entail steady and rational actions related to offline traditional media and, in the last two decades, to online media as well. This systemic organizational communication is important, considering the deterioration of the confidence in the political parties, which has taken place simultaneously to the development of a citizenry employing digital technologies and the web (Velasco, 2011). With the aim of contributing to the studies on the online political communication and its effectiveness for generating debate and influence at a social and mass media related level (Sampedro, 2012; Chadwick, 2013; etc.), the article studies the positioning and the interactivity strategies in Twitter of the Basque political parties with parliamentary representation. As the main hypothesis states, due to the pseudo-endogamous character of Twitter, many of the conversations generated in this social platform are mainly among the political leaders and the media. The results evidence a scarce interest of the Basque parties and their leaders for fostering the audience, which has consequences in the effectiveness and influence of their communications during and outside election periods.