Media News - Friday, June 05, 2009

Majority of MEPs do not ‘tweet’

The European elections, starting Thursday, have not led to a boost in MEPs' use of the Internet and most of them still believe traditional forms of communication, such as television or newspapers, are more effective, a survey has shown. A large majority of parliamentarians - some 75 percent - use a web page to communicate with their voters, and they also rely heavily on the Internet for research (93 percent use search engines daily, especially Google, to understand legislative issues). But many of them have to still open up to social online media, such as Facebook or Twitter, a survey by communication consultancy Fleishman-Hillard has found. Thirty-three percent of MEPs use the social media networks 'extensively' and 20 percent - occasionally, but 29 percent 'do not use them or do not plan to use them.' As many as 62 percent of them have either never heard of Twitter (a micro-blogging service where short messages or 'tweets' are posted) or have no plans to use it, while only 24 percent of MEPs use a blog extensively. Of these, only 26 percent update it regularly (once a week) and comment on other blogs. Television appearances remain the most effective tool of communication for practically all of the deputies asked (94 percent), followed by speaking at events (82 percent) and one-on-one meetings (79 percent). By contrast, blogging or micro-blogging, as well as the use of online videos, are seen as among the least effective tools. Some 51 percent of MEPs believe blogs to be 'very effective' or 'effective,' and 46 percent have this opinion of online videos. 'At a time when the average European spends 9 hours a week online and 66.8 percent of people on the internet use social networks... MEPs need to make sure that they are communicating in this space in order to remain relevant,' the survey recommended. (EU Observer)

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