POLITICAL LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS ATTITUDES: TWITTER AS A TOOL FOR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

In general, digital media but specifically social media are distinctive feature for political strategies in contemporary election campaigns. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the attitude of the follower on the content of message in the context of popular micro-blogging site called Twitter. This paper focuses on leader’s twitter content and the follower attitude of Bandung Mayor in Indonesia. The leader’s Twitter content is developed through the perception of political communication messages that will attract more followers to the achievement and quality of the leader. This research tests the relationship between leaders’ twitter content that consist of news sharing, context of message, quality of communication and daily activities updates with the attitude of the followers. More tests were carried out to examine the most significant predictor of the follower’s attitude on the content component of twitter. The findings reveal that the three components in leaders’ twitter content are positively significant with the follower attitude. B y analysing the strategies of political leaders behind the use of social media, this article contributes to the on-going research of political influence on social media.