Enter the terms ‘social media’ and ‘politics’ into one search engine and you will get more than one billion results.
Social media is revolutionising the way politicians communicate with citizens, the media, and each other. Self-proclaimed social media experts evangelise about the need to participate and highlight the ‘disruptive power’ of social media on politics. Barack Obama’s presidential election campaigns in the United States have achieved almost mythical status as examples to follow.
But what is happening on this side of the Atlantic? Will social media be the key to engaging people in next year’s European Parliament elections campaigns, boosting turnout and influencing the results? Or will it be a damp squib?