Twingly och Twitter på se2009.eu. En fallstudie av det svenska EU-ordförandeskapets användning av sociala medier på ordförandeskapswebben

Abstract

Deliberative democracy theory holds that democracy is about active partaking on formal and informal arenas in the public sphere where fairly equal citizens can obtain knowledge, discuss, evaluate and affect the political agenda before decisions are made.

In line with the deliberative vision of online deliberation social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Twingly offer such formal and informal arenas where people can obtain knowledge and interact with other people, and politicians.

The Swedish EU-Presidency was the first EU-presidency to make use of social media and it was the first time the Swedish Government Offices used other social media than email and chat features.

This thesis will examine the Swedish EU-Presidency’s ambitions of using social media as well as the actual use of social media on the Swedish EU-Presidency website in the light of deliberative democracy theory.

The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the Swedish EU-Presidency’s use of social media in the light of deliberative democracy theory.