Parteikommunikation im Zeitalter von Social Media

How active are the local branches of political parties on social media? Do such parties use social media on the training ground of democracy? This study answers these questions using a comprehensive data set consisting of big data and data from surveys. It identifies political parties’ key reasons for using social media by developing and examining a complex explanatory model, the results of which reveal that the majority of parties’ district offices are active on social media, for example on WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube in addition to Facebook. One key reason for them using social media sites is their desire to meet the expectations of their own party members. Furthermore, they appear to use social media in their election campaigns and because of their general distrust of the conventional media’s reporting. What is noticeable is that the local divisions of the AfD in particular seem to be extremely successful in using social media.