Abstract
According to theoretical approaches, such as the influence of presumed media influence approach, individuals’ attitudes and behaviors are affected by the influences they believe the media has on others. Politicians, for example, are thought to perform media relations activities because they ascribe great importance to the media. This has been tested regarding politicians’ online activities using data from two surveys of members of Germany's national parliament, the Bundestag (nt1/t2 = 194/149). It was hypothesized that parliamentarians use Facebook and Twitter more extensively when they believe that these social media tools have a strong political influence on the public, journalists, and other politicians. However, the results indicate that parliamentarians use Facebook and Twitter regardless of whether they expect it to have an impact on other people. Therefore, politicians’ online activities are determined by other reasons and not such strategic motives. Thus, although (or precisely because) the hypotheses are rejected, the findings are an important contribution to the research on politicians’ motives for online communication.
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