Representation style and digital communication: the case of the online presence of French MPs elected in 2017

ABSTRACT

The two chambers of the French parliament are known to be among the weakest in Europe since the Constitution of the Fifth Republic restricts their role. This weakness is an incentive for MPs to go local and adopt the constituency representation model. However, the magnitude of parliamentary renewal (416 newly elected members) following the 2017 elections combined with the entry into force of the law of 14 February 2014 prohibiting the combination of a deputy’s mandate with a local executive function disrupt, at least circumstancially, the rules of the game. Have these changes contributed (or not) to transform the style of representation of current deputies, especially online? In this article, we identify two opposing styles of representation used online by the deputies elected in 2017: the constituency model and the trustee model (coupled with the representation of self-model). These results are discussed according to the French context.

KEYWORDS:

• Representation style
• digital communication
• parliamentarians
• social media
• French National Assembly

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In our opinion, this indicator is too little used by researchers. However, see for example: Straus et al. (2016); Cook (2017). To construct our indicator, we use the various French administrative divisions on the assumption that they are indicators of the level of rurality (or urbanization) of the territory. For each district, we check whether at least the chief town of a canton belongs to (1) a metropolis, (2) an agglomeration community or an urban community (and no other chief town in the district belongs to a metropolis), or (3) a community of communes (and no other chief town in the district belongs to a metropolis or an agglomeration/urban community).

2 With Factiva. Research about taking into account presence in traditional media, see Blach-Ørsten et al., 2017).

3 The figures we present here for Facebook are only for pages and not for personal accounts. If we add the deputies who do not have a page but a personal account on this social media, we reach 98.5 per cent of the deputies present on Facebook. The presence on Facebook can therefore also be considered a must.

Additional information

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Marie Neihouser

Marie Neihouser holds a PhD in political science (Université de Montpellier, France). After a postdoctoral position at Université Laval (Québec, Canada), she is now a research fellow at ESPOL (Université Catholique de Lille, France). Her main centres of interest focus on relationships between internet and politics, political communication (MPs' digital communication), media studies and digital social sciences.