Politician2.0 on Facebook: Information Behavior and Dissemination on Social Networking Sites – Gaps and Best-Practice. Evaluation Results of a novel eParticipation toolbox to let politicians engage with citizens online.

Abstract

This article covers our findings on information behavior and dissemination of parliamentary decision-makers in terms of using Social Networking Sites like Facebook. The article investigates why politicians use those technologies and integrate them more and more in their everyday workflow. In addition to the purpose of social network usage, the focus of our paper is also on best practices and how to deal with challenges like authenticity of politicians’ online profiles. The results presented within the remit of this paper are the outcome of 16 semi-structured interviews that took place as part of an evaluation effort within the EU research project WeGov [1]. The overall aim of the project is to develop a toolbox that enriches the dialogue between citizens and politicians on the web.