Curating the news. Analyzing politicians’ news sharing behavior on social media in three countries

Abstract

Social media platforms allow politicians to communicate to and with their followers directly, without the interference of news media professionals. Political actors have eagerly adopted these platforms, which arguably makes them less dependent on traditional news media for their political communication. Still, they rely on the authority and trustworthiness of traditional outlets when they share news on their online platforms. In this paper, we research politicians’ online news sharing behavior in three countries by studying which politicians share news, which outlets published the news they share, and which news management strategies they employ when sharing news online. Results show that government party politicians share less news than opposition members, radical right-wing politicians share more news published by alternative news outlets, and government and opposition politicians use different news management strategies when sharing news online. We conclude that politicians’ online news sharing is a strategic practice and could have serious implications for partisan selective exposure in the digital information environment.

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