The Use of Social Media Platforms by Montreal Municipal Politicians and its Impact on Democracy

This study was conducted over the course of five weeks, from the week of April 11 to the week of May 16, 2022. Qualitative analysis was conducted through two methods: written content analysis was conducted on 188 posts on the social media platform Twitter, and interviews with two Montreal borough councilors were carried out. The goal was to determine the impacts of social media use of Montreal municipal politicians by measuring the sentimental reactions to incumbent Mayor Valérie Plante’s posts and by comparing them to the analyses of the political experiences of the two borough councilors.

 

The results determined that municipal politicians are very often scapegoats for mobs, and it is in their best interest and in the best interest of democracy to simply take on a one-sided informative role on their social media accounts and engage in actual discussions of good faith in face-to-face and/or private settings. In the future, more content analysis could be conducted in order to determine which specific topics of discussion are more prone to incite negative reactions from online crowds.