A Little Birdie Told Me: Twitter and the 2014 New Zealand General Election (original) (raw)

This thesis examines the use of Twitter by ten New Zealand political parties, their leaders, and their candidates during the campaign period immediately preceding the 2014 General Election. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the thesis not only demonstrates that Twitter was a platform used by all ten parties as part of their respective campaign strategies, but also argues that the ways in which Twitter was used was strongly influenced by each party’s organisational structure, resources, and, to a lesser extent, culture of professionalism among its field of candidates. This thesis is not concerned with measuring the effectiveness of Twitter in achieving the goals set for it by various political parties, aiming instead to explain the variance of Twitter use during one recent election campaign period.