European Institutions On Social Media ‒ Shaping the Notion of European Citizenship

Eduards Gaušis

doi:10.1515/eb-2017-0003

European Institutions On Social Media ‒ Shaping the Notion of European Citizenship

Authors

Eduards Gaušis University of Latvia, Latvia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/eb-2017-0003

Keywords:

Democratic participation, European Parliament, European citizenship, social media, youth

Abstract

This study supports topical discussion about the possibilities to use social media as a tool for citizen involvement in democratic processes. Contemporary academic views and statistics on the use of social media for communication between institutions and citizens are gathered in the study. The research focus is on social media publications, analysing the content of four European Parliament’s social media accounts in Latvian during the period from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015. The aim of the research is to identify the potential of the information published on European Parliament’s social media accounts in shaping the European citizenship notion among youth in Latvia. The conclusions present clear idea on the frequency of European citizenship topics in the corresponding social media accounts as well as on the amount of feedback and the share of youth involvement in this communication. The results of the study suggest that for now European Parliament’s social media publications in Latvian have little potential to develop the notion of European citizenship and there is a need for a well-considered use of social media to assure that the opportunity for two-way communication is fruitfully used.

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