UK elected representatives and their weblogs: first impressions

Purpose - To examine the weblogs written by members of UK legislatures and to determine whether such weblogs address commonly cited criticisms of MPs' web sites and serve to bridge the gap between representative and constituent. Design/methodology/approach - Examination of the literature on MPs' web sites to draw up a list of common criticisms. Construction of evaluation criteria to analyse the blogs in terms of content, currency, design, interactivity and evidence of personality both as a snapshot and over a longer period. Findings - That weblogs are, on the whole, kept up to date and show promising levels of activity. Blogs enable constituents to see with what their MPs have been involved (on both the local and the Parliamentary stages) and to see what areas of policy particularly interest their MP. Personality of the MPs is apparent on most of the blogs, which are less party-oriented than many MPs' web sites. Although the gap between representatives and constituents may have been bridged to an extent, blogging is still largely a top-down form of communication - even though people do submit relevant and pertinent comments to the blogs, proper two-way debate is rarely seen and comments are not always acknowledged or answered. Research limitations/implications - Based on a small number of blogs covering the UK only. Practical implications - Provides simple evaluation criteria that could be applied to blogs in other areas. Originality/value - Provides a useful first structured analysis of weblogs written by elected representatives, on which further work can be undertaken once the sample size has increased and existing blogs are more established.