USER MOBILIZATION AND PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS. A CASE STUDY FROM ROMANIA (original) (raw)

The electoral campaign through social media. Case Study - 2014 Presidential Elections in Romania

Developing a real network-society, the political communication through Social Media is no longer performing unidirectional, the political actors and the journalists do not have the same influence on the masses, as they had in the classic systems of political communication and the online opinion leaders have become key-factors in all this equation. In this sense, the main purpose of online campaign staff is to empower fans to interact with the posts of the candidate. Thus, any kind of feedback - like, comment or share – decentralizes the political message in social groups of fans, where he has a greater influence than the political actor. Once the message is discussed in social groups, strong ties (friends) of the fans are persuaded to become, in their turn, fans of the political actor and the conversion rate increase and this process will continue as long as interaction rate is high. In this paper, we aim to analyse the communication process through Facebook in the electoral campaign for the 2014 Romanian Presidential Elections and to compare the level of support for candidates on Facebook and for the real vote.

The mobilizing power of Facebook in the campaign for the ongoing presidential elections 2019 in Romania – candidate Viorica Dăncilă

Technium Social Sciences Journal

In an era of communication, technology and dependence on online social networks, Social Media are communication tools that public administrations and especially political actors must learn to use efficiently. Our objective are: (1) analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs) that facilitate the communication on Facebook of the PSD candidate, Viorca Dăncila, Coparativ with the PNL candidate, Klaus Werner Iohannis, during the presidential election campaign, (2) identify and analyze messages that generate high commitment rate from the utiizers, (3) analyzing the dominant emotions generated by the online audience.

European Elections, National Agenda: Facebook in the 2019 Romanian EP Elections

Central European journal of communication, 2020

Politicians and political campaigns are not inadvertent to the development of social media platforms as environments that allow access to a larger audience. Not relying solely on the traditional media as a mouthpiece for their messages and taking matters into their own hands off ers new segues for analyzing political communication. However, not all elections are of equal interest, both for the electorate and for the candidates, as second-order election theory suggests (Reif & Schmitt, 1980; Hix & Marsh, 2004). Th is paper investigates the area situated at the intersection of these two research directions. Th is quantitative study aims to analyze how Romanian political parties and candidates used Facebook in the electoral campaign for the European Parliament, in May 2019. Th e study follows the correlation between Facebook metrics, like frequency of posts and the popularity of the pages, and the political agendas refl ected in each party’s Facebook posts. Th e conclusions are consist...

Social Media and Political Communication: Case study – the Parliamentary Parties in Romania

Global Media Journal – Pakistan Edition (Vol VI, Issue I, Spring 2013), Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad, Pakisan, ISSN – 2070-2469

The study aims to examine the extent to which parliamentary parties from Romania are using Social Media to promote their image and political messages, but also the level of participation of supporters in social networks. Another objective of this paper aims to identify similarities between the hypothetical percentages of supporters of political parties in Social Media, electoral percentages of accessing the Romanian Parliament and the current political configuration of the Romanian Parliament. The research is focused on comparative analysis of the "de facto" representation of the parliamentary parties in the Romanian community and the degree of representation in social networks. Through this study we have tried to show that there are similarities between the degree of support for parties in the real world, relative to the virtual environment.

A Dialogue of the Deaf, or Communities of Debate? The Use of Facebook in the 2013 Czech Parliamentary Campaign

Teorija in praksa, 2014

This article presents an analysis of the citizens’ engagement with the 2013 Czech Parliamentary Elections campaign on Facebook. While many studies primarily focus on the intensity and forms of adoption of social networks by political actors in campaign communication, we attempt to explore both political parties’ use of Facebook as well as the extent and ways of citizen participation on the online election campaign. The empirical base for this study consists of all communication archived over the course of three weeks (before and after the elections) on the Facebook profiles of ten most important Czech political parties. Using quantitative content analysis, we first present an overview of the dynamics and intensity of users’ engagement with the campaign, illustrating that some of the small as well as populist parties have managed to mobilize significantly larger part of Facebook population than more established parties. Following that descriptive part, we first turn to the analysis of the actual content of communication, examining primarily the tone of users’ comments, and than we move on to a more in-depth, qualitative examination of communication on the profiles of two selected political parties which were very successful in their online mobilization. The results indicate that most party profiles have displayed a rather surprising level of heterogeneity, allowing for dissenting voices to be displayed in what is generally seen as a heavily managed communication environment.

Candidates in the Presidential Elections in Romania (2014) : The Use of Social Media in Political Marketing

The phenomenon of social media has drawn the attention of the specialists from the political marketing because it contributes quickly and efficiently to the increase of the political product’s visibility and appeals to its supporters for content creation and viral promotion of the political messages. In addition, the candidate can communicate directly with the citizens and may involve them in creating virtual communities. In our study we briefly present the way in which social media was used, timidly at first, during the campaign for the 2008 parliamentary elections, for the 2009 presidential elections and for the 2012 local and parliamentary elections. The importance of social media increased during the 2012 Romanian presidential impeachment referendum and contributed decisively to rallying voters to go to the polls and, implicitly, to the Klaus Iohannis’s victory in the 2014 presidential elections. We have focused especially on Facebook, as social network, because it has managed t...

A dialogue of the deaf, or communities of debate? The use of facebook in the 2013 Czech parliamentary elections campaign

2014

This article presents an analysis of the citizens' engagement with the 2013 Czech parliamentary elections campaign on Facebook. While many studies primarily focus on the intensity and forms of adoption of social networks by political actors in campaign communication, we attempt to explore both political parties' use of Facebook as well as the extent and ways of citizen participation on the online election campaign. The empirical base for this study consists of all communication archived over the course of three weeks (before and after the elections) on the Facebook profiles of ten most important Czech political parties. Using quantitative content analysis, we first present an overview of the dynamics and intensity of users' engagement with the campaign, illustrating that some of the small as well as populist parties have managed to mobilize significantly larger part of Facebook population than more established parties. following that descriptive part, we first turn to th...

Campaigning on Facebook: Posts and online social networking as campaign tools in the 2017 general elections in the Republic of Kosovo

Central European Journal of Communication, 2019

The 2017 general elections in Kosovo are the first to be considered for the high use of Facebook by political parties. Kosovo has nearly 1 million Facebook users, and this is one reason that has pushed all political parties, without distinction, to include Facebook in their electoral strategies. The paper analyses the use of Facebook by political parties in the 2017 general election and deals with the adaptation of Kosovar political parties with this new form of political communication and their popularity on Facebook. Data were collected during the campaign using the software R. In the fourth age of political communication, the web 2.0 has changed political campaigns and the flow of information now is more dynamic than in the past. The paper presents the flow of information/messages through Facebook, with politicians connecting directly with citizens, bypassing traditional media. Through a quantitative content analysis of the seven parties’ Facebook pages, it is analysed how they used Facebook as a campaigning tool and based on the findings, the mobilisation function was the dominant one.

Social media -a catalyst for civil society movements and a tool for populism. Evidence from Romania

Civil Szemle, 2023

The paper aims to evaluate the potential of social media in shaping civic and electoral behavior by analyzing several civic protest movements as well as the role of social networks in the last legislative elections held in Romania in December 2020. It examines both sides of social media, namely its use for organizing and supporting civic movements, and its use as a tool for the accession of a far right populist party to the Parliament. The selected cases demonstrate that social networks are a catalyst for civil society movements pillared by people who are demanding to have their share in the political process and a tool for maximizing the votes of a new populist party. Social media acts as a breeding ground for a vibrant civil society. Through social networks people connect with each other, organize themselves and discover the feeling of "togetherness". Civil society thus becomes an actor that politicians must take into account in the decision-making process, as the civic movements presented here demonstrate. The problems that arise are the way social media is used and the social responsibility of social platforms. The good side of social media, as platforms for organizing and mobilizing people for right causes that support democracy, citizens' rights, the anti-corruption fight, is often diminished by its dark side, which means fake news, manipulation or even incitement to hatred and violence. The social responsibility requires finding a balance between the freedom of expression, one of the greatest gains of modern democracies, and the need to reduce misinformation and manipulation that take place on digital channels.

Online Social Networks and Parliamentary Elections. An International Comparison

2018

More and more researchers focus on the role of social networks in election campaigns. This article represents a case study of the parliamentary elections from 2015 in Spain and 2016 in Romania, with the aim of comparing the two online political campaigns. We describe how both parties in Romania and Spain used Facebook during the last parliamentary elections, in order to see how the political parties communicate and the online reactions generated by their messages. With the help of content and statistical analysis we take a closer look the messages published in the Facebook profiles of candidates and political parties during the general elections. The results indicate that, during parliamentary elections, unlike the presidential ones, the voters' attention is not directed to a candidate, but to a group of candidates. As a result, the communication strategy is different, focusing on increasing the notoriety of the candidates. The low interest in parties and parliamentary elections leads to using social networks mainly for disseminating information about the candidates and less as tool for mobilizing voters