Utilizing Interactivity of Social Media in Political Communication of the Iraqi Government and Parliament Websites

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the extent to which the government discourse interacts with the public within the political communication environment in Iraq, which has witnessed democratic transformations in its communication and political systems. The degree of interaction involved in the political communication process in light of modern technology was examined through a selected sample representing websites of the largest government institutions concerned with communication in Iraq: the site of the central government and the site of the Iraqi parliament. For the purpose of the study, the focus was exclusively on the interactive response shown by the political communicator to user comments due to the importance of proving indicators of interest and positive interaction by government institutions in their relationship with society and in achieving the effectiveness of political communication in emerging democracies. The analytical sample was limited to three social networking sites available on the websites of the Iraqi government and parliament: (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube). Interactions were monitored during the period of April 2022. The quantitative method of content analysis was used in revealing the level of interactions by the political communicator complemented by a thematic analysis of the user’s comments. The results showed the lack of interest and interaction on the part of those government websites with any comments or opinions published by the public, which reveals that the pattern top-down communication model still dominates the mentality of the political communicator in the new democracies.