From showroom to chat room : SVT on social media during the 2014 Swedish elections

• Whilst social media like Twitter and Facebook carry with them the potential for the practice of journalism, novelties like these are also associated with adaptation difficulties - perhaps especially when it comes to the interactive capabilities that services like these afford. This study employs a multi-method approach to study the different uses of Twitter and Facebook by one media company - the Swedish public service broadcaster (PSB) Sveriges Television - during the 2014 election year. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data, we find that Twitter was used more extensively and in a comparably more interactive fashion than Facebook. Hence we suggest Twitter, used more for interaction, functions as a chat room'; whilst Facebook, used more for broadcasting messages, can be viewed as functioning like a showroom'. As Twitter is often associated with societal elites in the Swedish context, it raises a question about the suitability for a PSB to engage to such a degree on this particular platform.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Elections

Facebook

journalism

multi-method

political communication

public service broadcasting

social media

Sweden

Twitter

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)