new media and political participation

Stephanie WhiteSenior Seminar and Thesis

representatives

media

INTERNET

CITIZENS

“communication tools and patterns via new media platforms”

*during non-election periods**at subnational levels

quality of media Political Knowledge

Trust in Government

Political Participation

?• 30 million users

• 19% white, 18% hispanic, 26% black

• demographics getting younger

• real-time network communication

• passionate and proactive community

• fast-paced; mobile friendly

State of the Twittersphere

• 79.79%failedtoprovideahomepageURL

• 75.86%ofusershavenotenteredabiointheirprofile

• 68.68%havenotspecifiedalocation

• 55.50%arenotfollowinganyone

• 54.88%havenevertweeted

• 52.71%havenofollowers

• Theaverageusertweets.97timesperday

• Theaverageuserhastweeted119.34timesintotal

• Theaverageuserhasafollowing-to-followerratioof.7738

9.06%ofallTwitterusersareinactive(LESSTHAN10followers,10friends,AND10updates)(Hubspot,June2009)

how many NYS politicians tweet?

Assembly - 17 of 150 Senate - 21 of 62

3 accounts have less than 3 tweets 3 accounts have less than 3 tweets

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116117

118

119120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129130

131

132

133134 135

136

137

138139

140

141

142

143

144

144

145

146147

148

149

150

8788

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

12

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

1920

21

22

23

24

25

2627

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

3536

37

38

39

40

41

42

4344

4546

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

5455

5657

58

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

6768

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

7677

78

79

80

81

82

83

84 85

86

59

Brooklyn

Mama roneck

staten island

hu ntin gton statio n

coramSt james

islip

freeportlynb rook

roslyn New York StateAssembly Districts

Most active cities in NY State using Twitter (source: Google Trends 4/6/2010)

Highest rate of tweets week of March 15-22, 2010

First adopter

12

3

4

5

6

7

89

Brooklyn

10

1112 13

14

1415

16

17

18

19

20

21

2223

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

34

36

staten island

hu ntin gton statio n

islip

coramSt james

freeportlynb rook

Roslyn New York StateSenate Districts

Most active cities in NY State using Twitter (source: Google Trends 4/6/2010)

Highest rate of tweets week of March 15-22, 2010

First adopter

35

37

38

3940

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

4950

51

52

61

62

5455

56

57

58 59

60

60

53

Mama roneck

(MyowndataandGoogleTrends)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

18‐Feb‐09 9‐Apr‐09 29‐May‐09 18‐Jul‐09 6‐Sep‐09 26‐Oct‐09 15‐Dec‐09 3‐Feb‐10 25‐Mar‐10 14‐May‐10

Mostrecenttweet,bothHouses

Member

Members tweet, on average, less than once per week

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

November‐08

January‐09

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January‐10

February

March

MonthofAdoption

NumberAdopted

1 Brooklyn Senator has 995+ followers; average is 223+

types of tweets

Averages do not accurately reflect tweeting habits on an individual basis

suggestions

• Consistent names of legislators’ accounts (eg NYSSenateJones)

• Verified Accounts

• Links to member’s other urls - gov and social networking

• List location, district, and bio

• Engage more with local media outlets in district

• system of tagging bills, topics of debate

more tweets!more conversation!

• Interview individual elected representatives

• Follow representatives into election time

• Study local media outlets that cover political news

• Determine how to promote Twitter to citizens

• Develop a system for how gov can use Twitter

future opportunities