Earlier this year we had a paper accepted into the Information Discovery and Delivery journal analysing the Twitter accounts of Pakistani politicians and their information sharing practices during the 2018 pre-election campaign. Among other findings, it was found that the most active Twitter account belonged to the winning party. Author Accepted Version of the paper is freely available here.
You can view the full abstract below:
Abstract
Purpose
The use of Twitter by political parties and politicians has been well studied in developed countries. However, there is a lack of empirical work, which has examined the use of Twitter in developing countries. This study aims to explore the information-sharing patterns of Pakistani politicians through Twitter accounts during the pre-election campaign of 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
Data of three weeks of the official party accounts and the politicians running for prime minister were analysed. The mixed-methods approach has been used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data retrieved through Twitonomy.
Findings
It was found that the most active Twitter account belonged to the winning party. The prominent Twitter account functions were a call to vote, promotional Tweets, promises and Tweeting about party developments. The present study provides evidence that there is a difference between the Tweeting behaviour of established and emerging parties. The emerging party heavily posted about changing traditional norms/culture/practices.
Practical implications
The study contributed to existing knowledge and has practical implications for politicians, citizens and social media planners.
Originality/value
The present study was designed carefully and based on empirical research. The study is unique in its nature to fill the research and knowledge gap by adding a variety of Twitter functions used by politicians.
Full Reference:
Batool, S.H., Ahmed, W., Mahmood, K. and Saeed, H. (2021), “Twitter dialogue: an analysis of Pakistani politicians’ information sharing”, Information Discovery and Delivery, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-03-2020-0031
Author Accepted Version Freely available here.
Dr. Wasim Ahmed 