Parliaments increasingly use social media to engage with citizens
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World e-Parliament Report 2012
Parliaments around the world are making unprecedented use of social media and mobile technologies to facilitate the work of their members and increase citizens' engagement.
That's according to a report jointly published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations.
IPU spokesperson Jemini Pandya says that for the first time, social media is among the top ten communication methods used by parliaments to engage with citizens.
"Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace ranked in fifth with 31 percent of parliaments using them this year. This had increased from only 13 percent when the last survey was carried out in 2009. Twitter ranked seventh position with 29 per cent of parliaments using it, again an increase up from 12 per cent in 2009. In total now, 85 per cent of the world's parliaments use some kind of social media, the highest level being in Europe with 98 per cent and Latin American with 95 per cent" (Duration: 29")
The World e-Parliament Report 2012 is based on information provided by 156 parliaments around the world on their use of information and communication technologies.
