Politische Kommunikation in Zeiten von Social Media – worauf kommt es an?

Social media has fundamentally changed the way political and state institutions communicate. In the television age, political communication was characterized by mass media, politics and citizens, and the media played a central mediating role. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter enable direct communication without the detour via journalistic mass media. We therefore speak of a hybrid media system in which social media enable a direct exchange between citizens, politicians and the media in all conceivable constellations. This allows individual citizens, politicians and journalists to interact with each other. Social media have become an integral part of the communication repertoire of political parties and state institutions. However, political communication in the age of social media also poses immense challenges such as data protection and personal rights - aspects such as hate speech and polarization are closely linked to this.