Analyzing the share of media followers of government Twitter accounts across Western European countries

The study investigates which democracy dimensions impact the share of (foreign) media followers of European governments’ Twitter social media accounts. To achieve this target, a network analysis and a data-linking strategy are relied upon to conduct three multilevel regression models. The first model reveals that while overall government media attention is positively associated with gross domestic product and internet penetration, it is negatively associated with higher levels of deliberative democracy. The second model, which focuses specifically on the share of foreign media followers, finds that individual-level factors are the primary predictors of foreign media attention. The third model explores the country context of media followers and indicates that government accounts benefit from followers in countries with higher democratic standards and greater media freedom, though there are negative associations with certain democratic dimensions such as liberal and participative democracy. Additionally, ministers and ministries consistently have a higher proportion of foreign media followers compared to heads of state. These findings are discussed in light of the literature on Twitter's role in media attention and gatekeeping theory.