Out with the old, in with the new? Perceptions of social (and other) media by local and regional Norwegian politicians

Abstract

The role of social media has been studied extensively within a series of national political contexts. However, only few studies have focused on the uses of social media by local or regional politicians. This exploratory study presents results from a survey regarding the professional communication habits of Norwegian local and regional politicians. The main results indicate that while services like Facebook and Twitter have gained considerable popularity among politicians, the bulk of respondents find traditional channels of communication more important. Moreover, while the respondents largely acknowledge the interactive potential of novel services, considerable differences concerning use and adoption can be found among the politicians.