This document summarizes a presentation on the social media strategies of political institutions in Germany and Japan regarding environmental issues after the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. It finds that the German environmental ministry (BMUB) has a more active social media strategy than its Japanese counterpart, with more tweets engaging other accounts. The BMUB strategy aims to set the agenda, while Japanese officials do not alter strategies between media. Limitations and opportunities for further analysis are discussed.

1. CEDP
Post 2015 Paris Climate Conference Poli4cs
on the Internet
Social media strategies of poli4cal ins4tu4ons
on the environment in Germany and Japan
CeDEM Asia 2016
December 7, 2016
Manuela G. Hartwig

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Outline
• Background
• Data and method
• Results
• Discussion
1

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Background
• Poli4cians/individual profiles have a higher
popularity in social media than ins4tu4ons
(campaigning).
• Ins4tu4ons use social media to disseminate
informa4on
→ Mo4ves and means between individuals and
ins4tu4ons to facilitate social media profiles differ
2

4. CEDP
Background
• Discursive ins4tu4onalism emphasizes the importance
of ideas and discourses in the context of ins4tu4ons
and takes a more dynamic perspec4ve of change into
account (Schmidt 2008).
• Communica4on is essen4al for social integra4on and
effec4ve policy implementa4on.
→How do ins4tu4ons communicate with the public, how
communica4on strategies change over 4me and why are
certain poli4cs more effec4ve than others?
3

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Background: Post-COP21
11/30/15 –
12/12/15
COP21
April 22,
2016
• 191
signatories
(pre-G7)
May15/16
• Joint
agreement
on de-
carboniza4
on
May
26/27,
2016
G7
Oct 5,
2016
• 83
ra4fica4ons
• Germany
ra4fied
Nov 4,
2016
• Paris
agreement
went into
force
Nov 8,
2016
• Japan ra4fied
the Paris
agreement
4

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G: 1980
The Greens
(Bündnis 90/
Die Grünen)
G: 1984
The Greens
elected in the
Bundestag
G: 1986 BMUB
G: 1998-2005
Greens in
Government
coali4on with
Social
Democrats
(SPD)
J: 2001
Ministry for
the
Envrionment
J: 2012
Greens Japan
5
Ins4tu4onalisa4on of environmental („green“) poli4cs

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Data and method
Collec4ng Twieer profiles’ tweets using Ncapture (Nvivo)
Quan4ta4ve approach
- Number of followers, tweets (impact and behavior)
- Network strategies (ego-centric sociogram)
Qualita4ve approach
- Content
6

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Data and method
7

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Results: Number of tweets (G7 countries)
8
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2015/11/30 - 2015/12/06
2015/12/07 - 2015/12/13
2015/12/14 - 2015/12/20
2015/12/21 - 2015/12/27
2015/12/28 - 2016/01/03
2016/01/04 - 2016/01/10
2016/01/11 - 2016/01/17
2016/01/18 - 2016/01/24
2016/01/25 - 2016/01/31
2016/02/01 - 2016/02/07
2016/02/08 - 2016/02/14
2016/02/15 - 2016/02/21
2016/02/22 - 2016/02/28
2016/02/29 - 2016/03/06
2016/03/07 - 2016/03/13
2016/03/14 - 2016/03/20
2016/03/21 - 2016/03/27
2016/03/28 - 2016/04/03
2016/04/04/ - 2016/04/10
2016/04/11 - 2016/04/17
2016/04/18 - 2016/04/24
2016/04/25 - 2016/05/01
2016/05/02 - 2016/05/08
2016/05/09 - 2016/05/15
2016/05/16 - 2016/05/22
2016/05/23 - 2016/05/29
2016/05/30 - 2016/06/05
2016/06/06 - 2016/06/12
2016/06/13 - 2016/06/19
2016/06/20 - 2016/06/26
2016/06/27 - 2016/07/03
Number of Tweets
@bmub (Germany)
@Kankyo_Jpn (Japan)
@environmentca (Canada)
@ecologiEnergie (France)
@minambienteIT (Italy)
@DefraGovUK (UK)
@EPA (USA)

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Results: Number of tweets (G7 countries)
9
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2015/11/30 - 2015/12/06
2015/12/07 - 2015/12/13
2015/12/14 - 2015/12/20
2015/12/21 - 2015/12/27
2015/12/28 - 2016/01/03
2016/01/04 - 2016/01/10
2016/01/11 - 2016/01/17
2016/01/18 - 2016/01/24
2016/01/25 - 2016/01/31
2016/02/01 - 2016/02/07
2016/02/08 - 2016/02/14
2016/02/15 - 2016/02/21
2016/02/22 - 2016/02/28
2016/02/29 - 2016/03/06
2016/03/07 - 2016/03/13
2016/03/14 - 2016/03/20
2016/03/21 - 2016/03/27
2016/03/28 - 2016/04/03
2016/04/04/ - 2016/04/10
2016/04/11 - 2016/04/17
2016/04/18 - 2016/04/24
2016/04/25 - 2016/05/01
2016/05/02 - 2016/05/08
2016/05/09 - 2016/05/15
2016/05/16 - 2016/05/22
2016/05/23 - 2016/05/29
2016/05/30 - 2016/06/05
2016/06/06 - 2016/06/12
2016/06/13 - 2016/06/19
2016/06/20 - 2016/06/26
2016/06/27 - 2016/07/03
Number of Tweets
@bmub (Germany)
@Kankyo_Jpn (Japan)
@environmentca (Canada)
@ecologiEnergie (France)
@minambienteIT (Italy)
@DefraGovUK (UK)
@EPA (USA)
G7
COP21
Pre-G7

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Impact rate:
Number of
followers in
rela4on to the
main
popula4on

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Ego-centric sociogram
11
@BMUB @Kankyo_Jpn

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#Umfrage: Wie häufig
fahren Sie mit dem
#Fahrrad? Jetzt
abstimmen & re-tweeten!
#TagdesFahrrads
#Mobilwandel
12
0
50
100
150
200
250
@bmub (Germany)
@Kankyo_Jpn (Japan)
BM #Hendricks stellt
klar: BMUB + SPD-
geführte Ministerien
werden Wieder-
Zulassung von
#Glyphosat nicht
zus4mmen!
Geschaq! Die Welt hat
sich entschieden: für ein
globales Klimaabkommen,
erstmals mit allen Staaten.
#COP21

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Word Length Count
環境 2 453
開催 2 435
エコ 2 231
行う 2 325
発表 2 246
参加 2 187
地域 2 169
環境省 3 166
生物 2 165
公園 2 161
くださる 4 182
情報 2 213
自然
2 157
東京 2 154
地球 2 190
企業 2 192
募集 2 137
多様 2 128
大臣 2 127
取組 2 128
Word Length Count
#hendricks 10 359
#cop21 6 203
@bmub 5 129
@jochenflasbarth 16 121
#klimaschutz 12 118
#bmub30 7 64
#parisagreement 15 62
#ziek 5 59
@adlergunther 13 55
@unfccc 7 52
@bbsr 5 46
@iki 4 43
@mschroeren 11 43
@unep 5 43
@haufestephan 13 37
@rischwasu 10 37
paris 5 37
morgen 6 34
#dubistdiestadt 15 33
#umweltpolitik 14 30
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15. CEDP 14
Twieer ac4vity
ac4ve
passive
Twieer
popularity
low high
BMUB
MoE

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Discussion
Social media strategies
• BMUB has a more outlined social media strategy among
governmental ins4tu4ons than Japan
• Engagement in interac4on (retwee4ng) with mass-media supports
agenda-serng func4on of the German environmental ministry
• Germany: Dominated by ins4tu4ons that engage in interac4on
→ Public officials do not alter their communica4on strategies
between media but rather use a common strategy across different
media
15

17. CEDP
Limia4ons and further steps
• Comparing the social media strategy with other ministries
• Adapt the analysis by using different analyi4cal tools
→ Sociograms give insights of the ins4tu4ons’ social media
strategies but may represent a false image of the actual
impact
• Quan4ta4ve data provide a limited point of view in terms
of impact
→ revisit the data to inves4gate the impact of certain tweets
outside the ministries’ ego-centric network
16

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Thank you very much for your aeen4on!
Contact informa4on:
manuela.g.hartwig@gmail.com
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Acknowledgements: This study is part of the interna4onal research project on
Compara4ve Energy Policy Discourses in Japan and Germany (CEDP) at the Ins4tute for
Compara4ve Research in Human and Social Sciences of the University of Tsukuba, funded
by the Japan Society for the Promo4on of Sciences (JSPS) (AAD26048) (Principal
Inves4gator: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki, University of Tsukuba).

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