In recent years, Twitter has imposed itself as a major political communication tool in many European countries, offering politicians permanent real-time access to the public sphere, and thus becoming a privileged tool for public and private interactions with colleagues, sympathisers and journalists. Constraints on length and formatting, along with a medium-specific “communication system” based on 4 major operators (@, RT, # and http://) and embeddable media contents have helped shape the way in which the tool is used both by politicians and the publics who seek to interact with them or react to them.

During the European Parliamentary Elections held in May 2014, candidates and voters in all of the countries within the European Union expressed themselves on Twitter in the run-up to the elections and after the results were made public. Although certain trends appear to be common to the various countries, use of the medium is also influenced by different national political and media contexts, as well as by the events which marked the election campaign. The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers from several European countries in order to compare and contrast the use of microblogging in political communication. The conference will thus showcase research carried out within the framework of the “TEE2014” research project which collected and studied data from six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), but is also welcomes contributions from researchers with similar datasets or analyses of other national contexts.

Among the themes studied, special attention will be paid to the following:

1. Twitter as a communication tool: “Twitter styles” and communication strategies (or lack of) from candidates in different countries
2. Twitter in the public sphere: media ecology and the circulation of tweets in relation with events during the election campaign
3. Political discourse on Twitter: forms of expression and the grammar of political tweets from a cross-national standpoint

Participants are invited to submit proposals for paper presentations or posters, either in English or in French. Proposals will be subjected to double-blind peer-review. 

Publication:

Following the conference, a selection of papers will be published as book chapters. 

Fees:

Full attendance and conference materials:                                              150 €

Special rate for PhD students / members of the scientific committee:    75 €

Fees include midday meals on Thursday 26^th and Friday 27^th November, wine tasting and conference dinner on Thursday evening, coffee breaks and conference materials.

Staff and students of the University of Burgundy may attend the conference sessions free of charge.

Calendar:

25^th August 2015: Deadline for paper proposals (600-800 words)

25^th September 2014: Participants notified of acceptance

Organisers:

Conference organised by Alex Frame (TIL, EA4182) & Gilles Brachotte (CIMEOS-3S, EA4177), University of Burgundy, in collaboration with the Human Sciences Centre (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme) in Dijon.

For any further information or enquiries please contact: tee2014@sciencesconf.org