More of the Same or Manifold Perspectives?

A Systematic Review of Research on Politicians’ Use of Social Media

Abstract

The increasing importance of social media in political communication since Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign has led to a highly productive, dynamic, and ever-growing field of scholars researching the use of social media by politicians. However, academic literature in recent years has also featured debates about the heterogeneity of research in this area. It is commonly assumed and critically discussed that these studies primarily revolve around a U.S. context and use Twitter as a primary source of data, and that research time frames focus on election campaigns and neglect communication outside of election times. Yet, we still lack the data to support these assumptions. Against this background, we systematically analyze, document, and discuss the diversity of existing research on politicians’ use of social media between 2004 and 2020. In this context, we investigate the research objects of the existing studies, the theoretical backgrounds and methods used, and where they were conducted.