Leaders ’ ‘ Green ’ Posts
and agenda-setting . When analyzing environmental issues , research particularly covered the topic of public concern with the quality of the environment ( Van Liere and Dunlap 1980 ), and addressed the role of media in influencing citizens ’ proenvironmental attitudes ( Murch 1971 ; Shanahan , Morgan , and Stenbjerre 1997 ). Furthermore , studies analyzed political leaders ’ environmental policy preferences in party competition using party manifestos ( Benoit and Michael 2006 ; Carter 2013 ; Dalton 2009 ; Neumayer 2004 ). However , despite the fact that the citizens ’ pro-environmental attitudes , the media attention to environmental problems and political parties ’ proenvironmental orientations are well developed topics of research , studies specifically focusing on political leaders ’ use of media to spread information on environmental issues appear to be far more scarce . In this article , we address the missing link between political leaders and the media in regard to environmental issues and we particularly look at the salience of environmental issues in the leaders ’ use of social media . We have chosen to focus on Facebook since it boasts the highest number of people using it on a daily basis , thus representing the natural starting point for comprehending how the advent of social media is affecting the communicative choices made by contemporary politicians in this particular media environment .
Social Media , Facebook , and Environmental Issues
The advent of the Internet and social media has significantly affected the political sphere ( Bruns et al . 2016 ; Chadwick 2013 ; Chadwick and Howard 2010 ; Papacharissi 2002 ). Political actors can now build direct and immediate relationships with voters ( Chadwick 2006 ; Golbeck , Grimes , and Rogers 2010 ; Karlsen 2009 ; Nielsen and Vaccari 2013 ; Vaccari and Valeriani 2013 ). With a simple Twitter account or a Facebook page they can constantly update citizens about each kind of issue , from sharing information about their policy preferences to commenting about non-political issues such as expressing their joy about the result of a soccer match . Among social media , Facebook is the one with the highest number of people using it on a monthly basis : around 1.65 billion C connect to Facebook at least once a month , and on August 27 , 2015 there were more than 1 billion using this social medium during the same day . These numbers are even more significant if one considers that other social media with the highest numbers of monthly active users ( e . g ., QZone , D Instagram and Twitter ) do not cross the 648 million threshold with regard to this indicator . E Furthermore , there are very few countries across the world where Facebook is not the social medium with the highest number of citizens using it on a daily basis . Thus , to conduct an analysis of how social media are affecting the contemporary political sphere one simply must first focus on Facebook .
C
For details , see https :// investor . fb . com / investor-news / press-release-details / 2016 / Facebook-Reports-First-Quarter-2016-Resultsand-Announces-Proposal-for-New-Class-of-Stock / default . aspx .
D
Zone is a Chinese social media .
E
For details , see http :// vincos . it / 2016 / 06 / 21 / social-media-nel-mondo-instagram-500-milioni-di-utenti-cresce-snapchat /
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