Reactions to Juncker’s State of the Union speech show the difficulties in creating a European public sphere online

Can platforms like Twitter facilitate the creation of a European public sphere? Based on an analysis of tweets during Jean-Claude Juncker’s ‘State of the Union 2016’ speech, Javier Ruiz-Soler outlines how Twitter can be conceived of as a ‘networked public sphere’ in which citizens have the potential to engage in a more democratic and participative form of political conversation. He finds little evidence for a genuine public sphere existing in relation to the speech, but suggests that other topics can generate more heterogeneous networks, with civil society and independent actors playing a greater role.