EU executives on social media: Assessing the potential and trajectories of legitimation via public communication on Twitter

Sina F Özdemir, Kristine Graneng and Pieter de Wilde
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Sina F Özdemir: Department of Sociology and Political Science, 8018Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Kristine Graneng: Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Pieter de Wilde: Faculty of Arts, 3647University of Groningen, The Netherlands

European Union Politics, 2025, vol. 26, issue 2, 255-280

Abstract: Social media offers opportunities for European Union (EU) executives to improve their precarious legitimacy. Their broad, unmediated, instant, and cheap reach allows EU executives to explain to citizens what they are doing in their own words and to learn from citizens what they want. Yet, while the potential of social media is well-known, we know very little about how EU executives use them. This study addresses this gap by analysing how EU executives legitimise themselves through strategic public communication on Twitter. Through a manual and automated content analysis of a sample of 73,413 tweets, we show how EU executives engage in ‘opinionated communication’. Appeals to output legitimacy are the single most prominent form of self-legitimation, but they are often combined with opinions, calls for input, and/or emphasis on activities. Our findings challenge the common perception that EU executives are risk-averse communicators who focus exclusively on factual output-oriented communication.

Keywords: European Union; self-legitimation; social media; strategic communication; legitimacy; public communication; Twitter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:26:y:2025:i:2:p:255-280

DOI: 10.1177/14651165251320881

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