Twitter for Politics and Facebook for Leisure? The Social Media Behaviour of Italian Politicians

Abstract

In Italy, internet diffusion is still limited compared to other European countries, but social media users are massively growing year by year. Interestingly, many Italian social media users claim to use them to discuss politics. What is the prevailing social media behaviour of their politicians? Do they prefer Twitter to Facebook? Twitter seems to be the favourite social media for politics while Facebook is somehow considered by Italian politicians as a recreational tool. Twitter is also changing political rhetoric: while once Italian political discourse was obscure and pompous, it is now becoming simple and concise.