The empirical factors of Twitter adoption by world governments: the impact of regime type and time on diffusion

ABSTRACT

Although more than 90% of the countries in the world have already activated at least one Twitter account, the empirical determinants of Twitter adoption by world governments have been largely ignored in the study of politics and communication. This study builds on this relatively young field of research by using diffusion of innovation theory, together with an analysis of the role that communication plays in democratic regimes, and an account of the digital divide, to gauge what factors influence the adoption of Twitter. Using binary logistic regression, the results show that higher levels of democratisation and time are both associated with leader adoption of this social platform. Although the association identified is not causal, these findings reveal the relationship between the role of time in the diffusion of innovations and the political communication of democratic country leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Political communication
• Twitter
• democracy
• logistic regression
• time

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Daina Chiba for his invaluable help throughout the course of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Andrea Pavón-Guinea is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Public Communication at the University of Navarra, where she currently teaches a course on international communication and public opinion. She holds a M.Sc. in media and communications (research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as a B.A. in Politics from the University of Essex, and a second B.A. in Journalism from the University of Navarra. Her research mainly focuses on the intersection of public communication and international politics.