Members of the European Parliament on the Web: Transparency, Information and Representation on Personal Websites of Parliamentarians

The Members of the European Parliament are often ignored by citizens and media. Their work is perceived as being far away from the citizens, as just another part of the opaque institutions of the European Union. Just as far away seems to be the national level, which the European parliamentarians have to keep in mind for their work as well as their further political career. Online communication on personal websites has the potential to address these problems since parliamentarians may present their work in depth. This study looks at the websites of Members of the European Parliament with a quantitative content analysis, with the themes of information, transparency and representation being in the focus. For this, a comparison with national parliamentarians is made. The results show that differences between political levels as well as national and ideological factors play a role when assessing how parliamentarians present themselves online.