Like me! Analyzing the 2012 presidential candidates’ Facebook pages (original) (raw)
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The uptake of online media in election campaigning is leading to speculations about the transformation of politics and cyber-democracy. Politicians running for seats in Parliament are increasingly using online media to disseminate information to potential voters and building dynamic, online communities. Drawing on an online survey of the Facebook networks of the two top candidates running for seats in the 2007 Danish Parliament election, this study suggests that the online sphere is primarily populated by users who already know the candidates through the traditional channels of party organizations, and that they do not expect to influence the policy of their candidates. Instead, users view Facebook mainly as an information channel and as a means to gain social prestige.
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Social networks enable a fast and close relationship between candidates and citizens, which is enhanced if the former encourage dialogue and participation of the latter, i.e., they have a political engagement 2.0. In order to measure this engagement in Facebook, we developed a scale validated through a content analysis of the posts published by the main candidates of two elections for governor in different Mexican states. The results show that Facebook is used by electoral candidates more to spread their proposals and reflections than as a scenario to promote citizen participation through the exchange of ideas.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019
How does the urgency on publicizing opinions was expressed in the uses of an online social network during a conflicted period of time like the Presidential Campaign in countries such as Brazil and United States? In these scenarios, it seems that it is not enough to simply reflect on certain relevant topics; it seems essential to externalize opinions that seek to establish an intransigent position. To understand this phenomenon, possible evidence can be found in the way communities of fans are organized, guided by the regulation of affections in the media and in education. Thus, the concept of "opinionative priority" is proposed to understand the disputes about the meaning of democracy that emerge in online social networks, being the attempt to corroborate, counter or refute a statement, in a power dispute. It is the tensioning itself resulting from the need to belong, caused by social networks, and participatory culture, because it is not enough to be and be seen, it is necessary to be part of the discussions, or to initiate a new one. These disputes treat diverse opinions as enemies to be exterminated, obliterating the pluralistic democratic condition, supported by the fundamental right of freedom of speech. Therefore, it is understood that the "opinionative priority" is more than a communication process, since it promotes a pedagogical action in which opinion is formed from absence of moderation, once there is no time for considerations; there is only the urgency to defend a point of view in social networks.
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While the centrality of Facebook as a political arena has been widely acknowledged, only scant attention has been given to what makes some political posts more successful than others. Addressing this gap, we analyzed a corpus of political posts written by diverse political actors in Israel. We explored, in particular, two main groups of factors that have been associated with major attributes of Facebook usage: content engagement and self-presentation. The analysis yielded a model of six features that promote the success of a political post: implied emotions, humor, first person, self-exposure, personal stance, and anger-evoking cues. We also identified differences in successful posts written by right-wing and left-wing actors; while humor was found to be a significant predictor of success only in left-wing posts, references to an out-group are associated with success only in right-wing ones. Overall, the findings showed that attributes of self-presentation are strongly linked to the success of political posts.
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This study examines the use of Facebook in political communication during the 2009 European Parliament elections campaign. Its goal is to explore the possibilities of the European Parliament communication strategy on Facebook as well as the interaction and participation of its online audiences. The analysis has discovered new concepts significant for the field of online political advertising, the specific campaign construction with its key themes and the particular form of interaction. The original contribution of this paper is seen in its efforts to reveal the campaign of the European Parliament on Facebook, which was not previously studied.