15 Comments

1. 

   Troels Runge

   11.01.2013 at 15:13  ·  Reply

   Facebook is by far the most important and widespread social media in Denmark. The penetration is in the upper nineties of all internet users in general. No other social network service is close to that penetration and it has been quite a puzzle. One school of thought attributes this to the previous slow expansion of mobile communications and poor mobile broadband in Denmark compared to other countries like Holland or Sweden. In those countries, other social network services like Twitter and Google+ are used with much more frequency. And even now, when mobile broadband is developing rapidly, people have already made Facebook their primary mobile social network with more than 2 million users in Denmark.

   Regarding the discussions on Facebook, they are often very vibrant indeed. The tension may differ depending on which politician you study, but it is often regardless of the number of followers or party affiliation. Sometime the issues are from the general list of political topics, sometimes they regard process and personal issues, and often they have local perspective.

   An interesting discussion has been made about the diminishing party memberships versus the mediatization of politics in Denmark. Some suggest that the development is a reflection of the increased professionalization of the party officials and the diffusion of political agendas through various media outlets in Denmark. It seems that the increased use of social media it becomes possible to connect to even better with the local constituents without the old large local party machines.

   There are several studies of the usage of Facebook in Denmark, but not nearly enough. Infomedia.dk have made several, some of them are available at http://infomedia.dk/viden-indsigt/analyser/, and I have made some too, sorry for tooting my own horn, available e .g. at http://digitalkommunikation.net/post/Folketinget-er-godt-pa-vej-mod-en-digital-kultur.aspx

   As for Twitter, it is by many (politicians) regarded as not elitist, but to some extend pointless since the interaction with the voters is already in play on Facebook. Some of the politicians use Twitter for surfacing ideas and proposals, others as a strategic tool for communicating with the press. And quite a few may have an account but never or rarely use it.

   There is movement, however slowly, for members of Folketinget towards embracing it. In 2010, 34 members of Folketinget used Twitter. In 2012, it had risen to 89.

   A good example is Dansk Folkeparti, where zero members used Twitter in 2010 compared to 6 in 2012. It seems that the members were inspired by Morten Messerschmidt, @MrMesserschmidt, using Twitter to discus danish politics – and the European Union – from Bruxelles.

   As you suggested in your original post, we still have a long way to go. One of the core problems is a lack of understanding of the possibilities other types of social media have to offer. For now, there is no apparent reason for being on Twitter.

2. 

   AnneCbxl

   11.01.2013 at 13:22  ·  Reply

   No, you probably have a point there. But most people will follow a newspaper or a radio show and perhaps also a politician and a political party if they are very interested.

   The problem is making the topics and issues tangible, because people do have lots of opinions. Somehow the P3 radio station manages to have lots of discussion on their facebook pages. Before then they were quick to introduce interactivity via SMS, so the listeners are used to being an integral part of the discussion.

3. 

   AnneCbxl

   11.01.2013 at 12:42  ·  Reply

   I see where you want to go, but I doubt the development in DK will go very fast. Since it is Margrethe Vestager leading up the field it probably also means that the “creative class” are the only ones to really embrace twitter. Meaning that it is somewhat elitist.

   More or less everybody in Denmark is on Facebook meaning that this is where the audience is. But if Barroso can do it, why not Helle?

4. 

   Jon

   11.01.2013 at 13:01  ·  Reply

   @Anne – yes, this perception that Twitter is elitist won’t go away soon in Denmark due to the order that people seem to have joined – journalists seem to have taken to it before ‘normal’ people have, so it could end up being even more of an echo chamber than it has become in the UK. But conversely look at Netherlands that has an excellent social media environment across lots of channels. That’s the level to aspire to.

   As for Facebook – yes, lots of people might be on it, but are the tools actually good for political debate? Because the average number of pages someone likes is 9.8 – i.e. meaning no-one is going to be debating all the MFs there. I wonder whether, when looking behind the numbers, how vibrant it actually will be?

5. 

   Jon

   11.01.2013 at 12:21  ·  Reply

   @Anne – you’re not the first person to suggest that, but no. Part of the aim of this blog post was to encourage more debate on Twitter. While I still have a profile on Facebook I am no fan of the site or its business practices, hence I am not keen to drive even more political discussion there. Plus it would take so damned long to do such research that I am not going to do it unless someone would pay me to do so!

6. 

   AnneCbxl

   11.01.2013 at 10:28  ·  Reply

   You should do a Facebook analysis as well Jon. I think you will see a lot more political debate there in Denmark.

7. 

   Jon

   09.01.2013 at 14:48  ·  Reply

   @Steve – that relationship is definitely weaker in Denmark, so you’re right to say that partly influences things. And it might also explain some of the activity on Twitter in Enhedslisten that are the closest MFs to their activists.

   I don’t reject the personal stuff – indeed far from it. But conversely an account from a politician that only has that would also be a bit off.

   There is something rather retro about the whole comms environment in DK politics – low Twitter use is just one aspect of it.

8. 

   Steve Green

   09.01.2013 at 14:27  ·  Reply

   A useful analysis. A thought/question: how much contact is there normally between a Danish MP and their constituents? Weekly surgeries? Do MPs spend a fair amount of the weekend at local events? Do MPs act as a local fixer for constituents against local government/welfare departments poor administration etc or on local planning issues? UK MPs for example as you know are often more social workers than legislators so being active on twitter is an obvious avenue. Personal tweets are also effective . I don’t dismiss them as quickly as you do.
   I find in countries where a party list system is used there is not the same voter/representative personal relationship. For the parliamentarian keeping in with the powers in the party is more important. But overall I’m still surprised at the lack of Danish MP tweeting.

9. 

   Kristian

   09.01.2013 at 11:00  ·  Reply

   Hi Jon, an interesting analysis. There are also a couple of members of the European Parliament on Twitter. Both @Dan_joergensen and @MrMesserschmidt use Twitter as a way of communicate. I also believe that Morten Løkkegaard and Jens Rohde is there somewhere 🙂 Thanks for the post.

10. 

    Jon

    09.01.2013 at 11:08  ·  Reply

    @Kristian – Thanks for the comment. Yes, I’m aware of those, and Bendt Bendtsen starting off as well. But for the study I had to draw the line somewhere, and limiting it to the Folketing was one of those limits. Sometime close to the EP elections 2014 I will have a go at an equivalent study of MEPs, possibly also from other countries.

11. 

    henrik lassen

    08.01.2013 at 20:37  ·  Reply

    Fascinating stuff – but I am a little worried about the element of time in all of this. If politicians spend all their waking hours tweeting the world more or less at random, when are they going to find the time to concentrate on their work? I would probably rather vote for somebody who spent more time time concentrating on the job at hand than on keeping the tweet-o-sphere updated every waking second. But maybe that’s just me….

12. 

    Jon

    08.01.2013 at 21:30  ·  Reply

    @henrik – it depends how its done. The advantage of Twitter (as opposed to blogging, Facebook) is that each tweet is so short it’s easy to find time for that alongside everything else. Further, we do not question the time politicians spend talking to journalists, and if Twitter gives them a more direct way to communicate with people, then why not? What’s your definition of “concentrating on the job”? And would you vote for them if you did not know what they had done?

13. 

    AnneCbxl

    08.01.2013 at 13:38  ·  Reply

    Thanks for this Jon, and @Leoparddrengen whom I will be following from now on!

14. 

    Jon

    08.01.2013 at 13:37  ·  Reply

    @Troels – I got asked about this on Twitter, and indeed in the post about European Commissioners. First of all it’s worth saying that it’s extremely subjective – it’s how I interpret things. I cannot give you a list of set criteria. But genuine political content – either being tough with a critique of an opponent, or going into depth in a discussion of a political point, scores highly. Just tweeting out the party line, or bland headlines, does not. Equally just tweeting about personal stuff is also no good.

    The challenge then comes with accounts – like @vestager – that mix a bit of all of these. If there is good political content in there somewhere, this will tend to trump the other aspects.

    Twitter overall in Denmark has some way to go, but even taking that as a given I think the political environment has a lot of room for improvement, even within the relatively under-developed Danish Twitter environment. It’s not as if the Norwegian or Finnish twitterspheres are full of life either, but there are a few more stand-out politicians there at least.

    Re. Sass Larsen – thanks! I’ll add a note next to him (although as that account had tweeted so little I didn’t analyse it anyway).

15. 

    Troels Runge

    08.01.2013 at 13:25  ·  Reply

    Thank you for an interesting analysis.

    I have a question regarding your Pol score, since it isn’t very clear as to how you calculate its value. If possible, could you please share the logic behind this score?

    Furthermore, your headline reads Danish politics has a long way to go. Do you conclude that because the number of politicians using Twitter is limited – or how they use it – or is it because Twitter usage in Denmark is limited? Or maybe both?

    BTW, Henrik Sass Larsen’s account, ‏@SassLarsen, is supposedly a fake account.

    Best regards
    Troels Runge