Who are professional politicians talking to? The making of Members of the European Parliament’s audiences on Twitter and Facebook

Abstract

This article looks at the representations that politicians develop depending on the audiences they believe they are reaching through social media platforms. The objective is twofold: to analyse these representations, and to understand how such representations are constructed. Based on a longitudinal study over a period of five years on the use of digital platforms by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the article highlights how the representations of audiences are related to the types of use that politicians make of these platforms. It also considers the representations of the audiences as they are built up by the followers of politicians themselves. Finally, the analysis of audiences’ representations highlights that those following MEPs on social media have a keen interest and awareness of (European) politics, calling into question the promotional discourses that tend to present the average citizen as the main audience of politicians on those platforms.