Does Campaigning on Social Media Make a Difference? Evidence from candidate use of Twitter during the 2015 and 2017 UK Elections

Social media are now a routine part of political campaigns all over the world. However, studies of the impact of campaigning on social platform have thus far been limited to cross-sectional datasets from one election period which are vulnerable to unobserved variable bias. Hence empirical evidence on the effectiveness of political social media activity is thin. We address this deficit by analysing a novel panel dataset of political Twitter activity in the 2015 and 2017 elections in the United Kingdom. We find that Twitter based campaigning does seem to help win votes, a finding which is consistent across a variety of different model specifications including a first difference regression. The impact of Twitter use is small in absolute terms, though comparable with that of campaign spending. Our data also support the idea that effects are mediated through other communication channels, hence challenging the relevance of engaging in an interactive fashion

Movilizando terceras opciones en España: La comunicación política de los partidos minoritarios en Twitter

In a context in which traditional parties are losing popular support, minor parties stand as relevant components of contemporary democracies. Such relevance implies that research should approach their communication strategies as an object of study in itself. Ignored by mainstream media, minor parties need to take advantage of the Internet and social media to compete with major parties. This paper analyzes Spanish minor parties’ social-media communication in the context of the April 2019 election. A sample of 1,498 tweets was content-analyzed, gathered from the official Twitter profiles of the by then four main national minor parties: PACMA, the Communist Party of the Spanish Peoples, Zero Cuts, and VOX. Results indicate a lack of party-citizen interaction and dialogue, as well as the fact that mobilization tweets focus on traditional campaign-boosting functions.Es un escenario donde los partidos tradicionales pierden apoyo popular, los partidos minoritarios se erigen como sujetos relevantes en las democracias contemporáneas. Esta relevancia implica que desde la investigación académica la comunicación de los partidos minoritarios deba estudiarse en sus propios términos. Ignorados por los medios de comunicación tradicionales, los partidos minoritarios necesitan aprovechar las ventajas que suponen la web y las RRSS para competir con los grandes partidos. Este trabajo analiza la comunicación en redes sociales de los partidos minoritarios españoles en las elecciones generales de abril de 2019, con una muestra de 1.498 tuits recogidos de los perfiles oficiales de Twitter de los (por entonces) cuatro principales partidos minoritarios: PACMA, el Partido Comunista de los Pueblos de España, Recortes Cero y VOX. Los resultados indican falta de interacción y diálogo partidos-ciudadanos, con tuits de movilización centrados en las funciones tradicionales de impulso de la campaña

Influencers, marca personal e ideología política en Twitter

Social media has been a participant of the growth of the role of the influencer as a new model of opinion leader who combines personal branding with a prescriber role, including messages with political content. In this context, this research has applied a content analysis to 790 messages from ten Spanish influencers with a high impact on Twitter. We analyzed in particular the pursued objectives, the topics discussed and the ideological content of the tweets. In this regard, although these messages reflected an ideological political objective, the discourse is quite moderate, if not de-ideologized

Social Networks, Political Discourse and Polarization during the 2017 Catalan elections

This thesis investigates the political process in Spain and Catalonia during the Catalan election in December 2017. This regional election was unusual because of the independence process in Catalonia and its repression. Two parties, Ciudadanos (anti-independence) and Podemos (ambiguous position) and their leaders’ activity in Twitter was analyzed. It was explored from three perspectives: social networks, lexical and emotional discourse and ideological polarization. Firstly, social networks were used to see the properties of the support communities of both parties. Interestingly unlike Ps, Ciudadanos’ (Cs) metrics of cohesion showed that political communities of this party in Spain and Catalonia were remarkably well integrated. Secondly, using machine learning techniques, discourse cohesiveness of Ps and Cs’ politicians was analyzed regarding the lexical and emotional content of their messages. The results showed that even though Cs’ politicians were more lexically similar, Ps’ were more similar in terms of emotions. Specifically, the study of emotions in the discourse shed light on populist messages from Cs. This party used anger and disgust to take advantage the polarized political scenario. Lastly, with a sample of users (N=2000) in Twitter, the relationship between dispositional emotions and ideological polarization was investigated. Results showed that users predisposed to anger were significantly more polarized and those predisposed to fear were significantly less polarized. Interestingly, even though predisposition to fear decreased polarization, the interaction between fear and anger significantly increased it. These results have interesting implications regarding the increasing opportunities of politicians to target the electorate based on personal characteristics

Influencers, personal branding and political ideology on Twitter

Las redes sociales han visto crecer la figura del influencer como un nuevo modelo de líder de opinión que debe combinar la gestión de su marca personal con el rol de prescriptor, incluyendo los mensajes de contenido político. En este contexto, esta investigación aplicó un análisis de contenido a 790 mensajes de diez influencers españoles con alto impacto en Twitter. En concreto, se analizaron los objetivos perseguidos, los temas tratados y el contenido ideológico de los tuits. Al respecto, a pesar de que se refleja un objetivo ideológico-político en los mensajes, el discurso se torna bastante moderado, cuando no desideologizado.Social media has been a participant of the growth of the role of the influencer as a new model of opinion leader who combines personal branding with a prescriber role, including messages with political content. In this context, this research has applied a content analysis to 790 messages from ten Spanish influencers with a high impact on Twitter. We analyzed in particular the pursued objectives, the topics discussed and the ideological content of the tweets. In this regard, although these messages reflected an ideological-political objective, the discourse is quite moderate, if not de-ideologizedAs redes sociais viram a figura do influencer como um novo modelo de líder de opinião que deve combinar a gestão de sua marca pessoal com o papel de influenciador do público, incluindo mensagens com conteúdo político. Neste contexto, o presente estudo aplicou uma análise de conteúdo a 790 mensagens de dez influenciadores espanhóis de alto impacto no Twitter. Em particular, os objetivos-perseguidos, os tópicos discutidos e o conteúdo ideológico dos tuites foram analisados. A este respeito, embora um objetivo ideológico-político seja refletido nas mensagens, o discurso se torna bastante moderado, senão des-ideologizad

Tweets from the Campaign Trail

Hailed by many as a game-changer in political communication, Twitter has made its way into election campaigns all around the world. The European Parliamentary elections, taking place simultaneously in 28 countries, give us a unique comparative vision of the way the tool is used by candidates in different national contexts. This volume is the fruit of a research project bringing together scholars from 6 countries, specialised in communication science, media studies, linguistics and computer science. It seeks to characterise the way Twitter was used during the 2014 European election campaign, providing insights into communication styles and strategies observed in different languages and outlining methodological solutions for collecting and analysing political tweets in an electoral context

Political communication

This review seeks to introduce political communication by showing the kinds of studies currently published. Of necessity not complete, it does not list every study nor does it include every possible approach to political communication, but only those published in the sample of journals—one hopes enough to indicate the scope of this wide area of communication stud

Portuguese Party Leaders on Twitter: Interactions and Media Hybridisation Strategies

This study aims to understand to what extent Portuguese political party leaders use the interactions accessible on Twitter, namely the retweets, mentions of other users and hyperlinks, and to observe which connection networks are created — whether within the party or outside of it, such as citizens or political actors from other parties. Additionally, we verify how political actors use Twitter to implement a strategy in the hybrid media system model, establishing links to “traditional media” such as newspapers, radio, and television. The data comprises tweets published by four Portuguese party leaders, from Partido Socialista, Partido Social Democrata, Bloco de Esquerda and Chega, during 2021 and 2022, subsequently subject to content analysis using the MAXQDA program. The research revealed that all leaders use Twitter’s interaction possibilities but with different intensities. We verified that they all employ a hybrid communication strategy by converging traditional media content in the Twitter platform. We establish a typology of communication strategies party leaders implement on Twitter from the obtained data. We also identify and characterise the possibilities that media interactions conducted by party leaders can assume in the Twitter arena.Este estudo procura perceber até que ponto os líderes partidários portugueses utilizam as possibilidades de interação acessíveis no Twitter, nomeadamente o retweet, menção a outro utilizador e ligação web para outros endereços, e entender qual é a rede de ligações que é criada — se dentro do próprio partido, se aberta a protagonistas partidários de outras forças políticas ou a cidadãos. Adicionalmente, verificamos como é que, através do Twitter, os atores políticos põem em prática uma estratégia enquadrada no modelo mediático híbrido, estabelecendo ligações para os chamados “meios tradicionais de comunicação”, como jornais, rádio e televisão. Os dados são obtidos a partir de uma recolha de tweets publicados por quatro líderes partidários portugueses, do Partido Socialista, Partido Social Democrata, Bloco de Esquerda e Chega, em períodos específicos de 2021 e 2022, posteriormente sujeitos a análise de conteúdo e trabalhados informaticamente através do programa MAXQDA. A pesquisa revelou que todos os líderes utilizam as possibilidades de interação do Twitter, mas com intensidades diferentes. Verificámos que apostam numa estratégia de comunicação híbrida, fazendo convergir na plataforma do Twitter conteúdos dos média tradicionais. A partir dos dados obtidos foi possível estabelecer uma tipologia de estratégias de comunicação postas em prática pelos líderes partidários no Twitter, bem como identificar e caracterizar as possibilidades que as interações mediáticas, realizadas pelos líderes partidários, podem assumir na arena do Twitter