Interactive cities? Local political online communication in Switzerland

Abstract

Do city governments and administrations use interactive online tools in their communication? Are they eager to foster interaction with citizens via social networks and microblogs? And what kind of tools do they employ on their websites? We seek to answer these questions with a quantitative analysis of interactive political online communication implemented by city governments and administrations in Switzerland. Results show that more than 70% of all Swiss cities (N=159) offer at least one interactive tool; about one third of the cities are active in social networks. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland more cities use social networks than in the German part, while the Italian-speaking part, Ticino, lags behind.