ABSTRACT
Drawing mainly on the data from the Global Centre for ICT 2009 survey (Global
Centre for ICT 2010), this article depicts the current state of new media use by
parliaments, with particular attention to social media intended to foster communi-
cation and interaction among individuals and institutions. One of our purposes is
to establish a baseline of use by legislatures and to consider some of the factors
that influence implementation. This baseline can support future studies in asses-
sing trends and impact of technologies on parliamentary processes and percep-
tions towards parliament. New media, and especially social media, have
proved highly effective in election campaigns and in other forms of (temporary)
political action (Coleman and Blumler 2008, Lilleker and Jackson 2010, Ragas
and Kiousis 2010). They have also emerged as some of the leading ways in
which parliaments can become more open, transparent, and accountable public
institutions, as well as fostering greater engagement with citizens. One of the
primary purposes in ascertaining the use of new media in parliaments is to
begin to assess the effectiveness of this use to achieve these goals and to under-
stand better the factors that appear to be the most significant in its
implementation.
