Social Media for Political Campaigning. The Use of Twitter by Spanish Mayors in 2011 Local Elections

2012 ◽  
pp. 219-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ignacio Criado ◽  
Guadalupe Martínez-Fuentes ◽  
Aitor Silván
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Political Campaigning

scholarly journals Politics, marketing and social media in the 2018 local elections in Iceland

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182
Author(s):  
Birgir Guðmundsson ◽  
Hafdís Björg Hjálmarsdóttir ◽  
Vera Kristín Vestmann Kristjánsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Media System ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
Technical Extension ◽  
Marketing Methods

The importance of marketing techniques in political campaigning has increased as communicating politics has become more complex in a highly fragmented media environment. With different media logics interacting in a hybrid media system, political marketing methods through social media have drawn considerable attention and even been seen to pose a threat to democratic processes. This paper looks at the extent and nature of the use of marketing techniques in the 2018 municipal elections in Iceland, by using a mixed methods approach. The findings of a candidate survey and interviews with campaign managers suggest that the methods used are by and large a technical extension of previous methods and not qualitatively different from traditional electioneering. Both social media and traditional media are important marketing vehicles, but the importance of social media clearly on the rise. However, in larger communities in the capital region there tends to be a higher degree of professionalism than in other parts of the country and the size of municipality is important, while the type of party or age of candidates is not.

scholarly journals Political super branding through the use of social media technology : the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nadas Ramachandra Pillay
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
American President ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Social Media Technology

This study seeks to examine the exponential growth of social media technology as a key component in recent American political campaigning, as well as its use and impact on the larger disciplines of marketing and branding. Adopting the approach of a case study with the focus firmly on the current American president, Barack Obama, the study identifies the key media and technologies used in the build-up to the 2008 American presidential elections in order to unpack and understand how such media channels, technological platforms and patterns were successfully utilised. References are also made to the concepts of ‘branding’ and ‘super branding’ in the discussion, and to the myriad ways in which social media has helped create and roll-out what has since become commonly known as ‘brand Obama’. To provide a framework for the discussion and in order to further understand the rapid growth and proliferation of social media on the political campaigning landscape, a comparison is made with the 2004 American presidential election campaign. This, it is posited, will assist us understand the drivers of new media technologies especially as they are used to create and impact positively on the growth of political super brands.

(De)legitimizing Scottish independence on Twitter: A multimodal comparison of the main official campaigns

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 580-599
Author(s):  
Robin Engström
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Outcome Research ◽  
Moral Evaluation ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Uk

The Scottish independence referendum in 2014 saw the breakthrough of online political campaigning in the UK. Despite the outcome, research and media alike concluded that the main pro-independence campaign, Yes Scotland (YS), outdid the main pro-union campaign, Better Together (BT), in the online battle. This article addresses this discrepancy by exploring how YS and BT used social media affordances in order to legitimize their own and de-legitimize their opponents’ positions. The material consists of multimodal tweets published by YS and BT in the run-up to the referendum. The article employs a model for multimodal legitimation that takes into consideration the construction of authority, moral evaluation and the construction and justifications of means and goals. The findings show that both campaigns made extensive use of de-legitimating strategies, although YS was more balanced. The article also shows that the campaigns’ communicative choices had implications for the construction and justification of goals and means, with YS running a more visionary campaign than BT.

Microfake: How small-scale deepfakes can undermine society

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Ascott
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Media Channels

Advances in deepfake technology have led to the emergence of a new picture of how doctored material will be used in disinformation campaigns. While safeguards ensure that manipulated videos may not be such a problem at the highest levels of security and defence, lower levels ‐ such as local elections ‐ remain vulnerable to malign actors. At such levels, deepfakes can be distributed using social media channels to target unsuspecting victims. Current solutions only protect individuals who are prominent enough to be covered by the mainstream media, and not enough is being done by governments or social media companies to protect ordinary users from coordinated inauthentic activity online. However, with more images and videos of ourselves online than ever before, anyone can be a victim of a disinformation campaign. As deepfakes become easier to make, no one is safe ‐ hyper-localized manipulation will create problems for democratic institutions that have not yet been fully understood.

scholarly journals Tweeting to save the furniture: the 2013 Australian election campaign on Twitter

2016 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Small Target ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Federal Election ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
Target Strategy ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Past years have seen continuing experimentation in the use of social media for political campaigning. By the time of the 2013 Australian federal election, social media of various forms had become comparatively mainstream in Australia and were widely used by members and candidates: more than 350 candidates operated Twitter accounts during the campaign, for instance. This article explores the key patterns both in how politicians and their parties campaigned on Twitter during the 2013 federal election campaign and in how the public responded to and engaged with these campaigns. It documents significant, systematic differences between the major party blocs and interprets these as reflecting the Coalition’s ‘small target’ strategy and Labor’s last-ditch attempts to ‘save the furniture’, respectively.

Social Media and Political Campaigning

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
The Media ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Political Figure ◽  
Communication Operations

This paper develops a way for analyzing the structure of campaign communications within Twitter. The structure of communication affordances creates opportunities for a horizontal organization power within Twitter interactions. However, one cannot infer the structure of interactions as they materialize from the formal properties of the technical environment in which the communications occur. Consequently, the paper identifies three categories of empowering communication operations that can occur on Twitter: Campaigns can respond to others, campaigns can retweet others, and campaigns can call for others to become involved in the campaign on their own terms. The paper operationalizes these categories in the context of the 2015 U.K. general election. To determine whether Twitter is used to empower laypersons, the profiles of each account retweeted and replied to were retrieved and analyzed using natural language processing to identify whether an account is from a political figure, member of the media, or some other public figure. In addition, tweets and retweets are compared with respect to the manner key election issues are discussed. The findings indicate that empowering uses of Twitter are fairly marginal, and retweets use almost identical policy language as the original campaign tweets.

scholarly journals Local Elections in the Social Media Era (Socialization of Local Election through Social Media for Beginner Voters by Garut Regency Election Commission in 2018 Regional Election)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iis Zilfah Adnan ◽  
Achmad Wildan Kurniawan ◽  
Leadya Raturahmi ◽  
Hanny Latifah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Informative Content ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
Election Commission

The low voter turnout in the Regional Elections (Pilkada) in Garut Regency in 2008 and 2013, made the Pilkada take place in two rounds. This happened because of a lack of awareness of voters to vote. This situation was then followed up by the Regional Election Commission (KPUD) of Garut Regency by using social media for socialization, especially for beginner voters among students. In this regard, a study is needed to identify factors that influence KPUD in socializing 2018 regional elections for beginner voters, as well as how the challenges faced in utilizing social media. This study was conducted through qualitative descriptive approach to identify existing challenges and to understand the factors that influence the use of social media by KPUD as methods for socializing the local elections. Data collection techniques were conducted through interviews to seven informants and seven month observations of research. The results revealed that the challenge of using social media in the local elections was the low level of digital literacy of beginner voters and account administrators of KPUD because the content was not managed specifically and routinely. The use of social media on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube contain informative content in the form of socialization activities but has not led to a message of persuasion to novice voters. Keywords: Social Media, Election Socialization, Beginner Voters

scholarly journals The Delocalization of the Local Election

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512092477
Author(s):  
Caleb T. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Local Election ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
The Us ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Uk

Local elections are no longer just influenced by, marketed toward, or relevant to only a small, geographically constrained electorate. Social media increasingly connect politics to publics that may extend beyond politicians’ or issues’ local constituencies. Every election—from Senator to alderperson—has been rendered accessible and relevant to broad individuals, organizations, and interests. Now, campaigns—particularly in close races or battleground areas—can canvas beyond the local level to seek donations, campaign volunteers, or to encourage local residents to vote. Social media have become venues to demonstrate a candidate’s likability with users, which are parlayed into local goodwill and electability. And foreign nationals and governments increasingly are using social media to spread disinformation or to otherwise sway local issues. Ultimately, what was once a city, county, state, provincial, or national election can now play out on a global stage through social media, with all of the subsequent influence and impacts. This article uses several geographically dispersed and representative examples to exemplify the delocalization of the local election, including Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate Campaign (the US), the effect of nationwide social media popularity and interactivity on local election results (Taiwan and The Netherlands), and Russian influence in the 2016 Brexit Referendum (the UK). It concludes by calling for new understanding of what political involvement and political action may mean in a socially mediated society.

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