Beyond normalization and equalization on Twitter: Politicians’ Twitter use during non-election times and influences of media attention

Abstract

Twitter has already become one of the most important social media platforms for political communication. Concerning the use of Twitter in politics, two possible developments have been at the core of the theoretical discussion ‐ equalization and normalization. As normalization seems to be the case in most western countries about politicians’ Twitter use, it is yet unknown to what extent this debate can be applied to non-election times. The aim of our study is threefold. First, we address the debate of normalization on Twitter with a focus on the activity level on Twitter. Second, we classify the politicians based on their activity level in order to investigate to what extent the Twitter use still differs even if a high level of adoption has been reached. Third, we analyse the impact of the traditional media on the Twittersphere during parliamentary and non-parliamentary phases, thus focusing on non-election times. Our results show that even though media attention gives some politicians an advantage online, equalization tendencies are still possible on Twitter if politicians actively use the platform.