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ABSTRACT
Research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities and perceptions of the members of parliament (MPs) themselves. However, the authors’ prior research demonstrated that in fact social media necessitate a new prism through which to study such communication. The contribution of the present study is to look at this relationship through the heretofore under-researched prism of those who in fact are doing much of the actual communication (at least in Israel): the parliamentary assistants (PAs). Whereas other studies tend to focus on the communicative contents, the present research deals mainly with the behind-the-scenes processes that produce such content.
In this study 26 PAs were interviewed in Israel’s Knesset regarding three central questions: What are the goals of the MPs’ activities on Facebook? What are the key obstacles perceived by the assistants while maintaining MPs’ Facebook presence? What are the main professional dilemmas that PAs run into during their Facebook activity on behalf of MPs? By addressing these questions, the paper contributes to generating a more comprehensive picture of the ways political Facebook posts are born, and of the processes through which MPs’ social media presence is generated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr. Azi Lev-On (PhD, New York University, 2005) studies the uses and perceived effects of social media, public participation and deliberation online, online communities, collective action and campaigns, and behaviors in computer-mediated environments.
Chen Sabag Ben-Porat is a PhD. candidate in the School of Communication in Bar Ilan University. Her research focuses on the impact of election methods on the relationship between parliamentarians and the public through social media.
Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig (PhD, Harvard U, 1976) served as chair of the Dept. of Political Studies (2004–2007) and the School of Communication (2014–2016) at Bar-Ilan University (Israel), and also as Chair of the Israel Political Science Association (1997–1999). He studies political communication, new media and journalism, and the information society. He authored 50 academic articles and book chapters plus two books in those fields.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Low-intensity social media users had Facebook pages with 0–5000 likes; moderate-intensity social media users had Facebook pages with 5000–10,000 likes; and high-intensity social media users had Facebook pages with over 10,000 likes.