The Net Effect of Social Media on Election Results: The Case of Twitter in 2014 Turkish Local Elections

2016 ◽  
pp. 265-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Zahid Sobaci ◽  
Kadir Yasin Eryiğit ◽  
İbrahim Hatipoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Election Results

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.

Ein zunehmend bunter Freistaat: Die Analyse der bayerischen Kommunalwahlen im März 2020 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der kreisfreien Städte

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
Jan Pollex ◽  
Sebastian Block ◽  
Martin Gross ◽  
Dominic Nyhuis ◽  
Jan A. Velimsky
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Green Party ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Election Results

Despite their crucial role for democratic decision-making, local elections receive little atten­tion from political science research . To overcome this shortcoming, the article analyses the Bavarian local elections of 2020 . Although the CSU remains the strongest party in the Free State, the Green Party was able to make considerable gains, especially in larger cities . How­ever, the Greens could not gain any grounds in mayoral elections, whereas CSU and SPD competed for the win . In most of the cases, the Social Democrats won the posts in city halls . In addition to detailing election results, this article addresses the ballot lists, the com­position of local councils, and coalition building at the local level . Overall, this contribu­tion provides a comprehensive account of the elections, which are characterized by their unique ballot system and, thus, have a special role in the political system of Germany .

scholarly journals The Accumulation Effect

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raivo Palmaru
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Accumulation Effect ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Media ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Prevailing View

Abstract Although numerous studies over the past 20 years have revealed a clear connection between content analysis statistics and the results of public opinion surveys, the media’s “minimal effects” hypothesis still remains the overwhelmingly prevailing view. Among other things, it is not clear which of the two influences the other: Do people’s political preferences influence the media or do the media influence people’s preferences? In order to test this, the results of the 1999 and 2003 general elections and the 2002 local elections in Estonia, as well as the results of current public opinion surveys, were compared to the coverage given to the campaigning parties in the largest Estonian newspapers. The analysis showed that the coverage of political parties in the print media, as determined by the frequency of valuative notations, described the election results to a great extent. It is noteworthy that a change in media content was followed by a change in public opinion. At the same time, an accumulation effect became obvious: The voters’ preferences for political parties accumulated diachronically during the course of several weeks based on the information that was available to them.

Social Media and Electoral Processes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Bianca Fox ◽  
Valentina Marinescu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Diffusion Of Innovations ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Insufficient Evidence ◽  
Diffusion Of Innovations Theory ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Election Results ◽  
European Election

Existing research documents extensively explain the reasons for social media use during electoral campaigns. However, there is insufficient evidence showing that social media are indeed being used to complement traditional ways of communication. This chapter uses the diffusion of innovations theory to explain the adoption and non-adoption of Facebook (FB) by Romanian political parties during the 2019 European election campaign. The chapter addresses two research questions: the differences between Facebook adopters and non-adopters during this campaign in Romania and how this adoption or non-adoption impacted the overall election results. 885 Facebook posts were content analysed. This chapter evidences that adopting Facebook to engage the posts does not always result in improved electoral outcomes.

Nature of Tweets in the 2015 Nigerian Presidential Elections

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nwachukwu Andrew Egbunike ◽  
Noel Ihebuzor ◽  
Ngozi Onyechi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Election Results

Social media is becoming increasingly important as a means for social engagement. In Nigeria, Twitter is employed to convey opinion and make commentary on matters ranging from football to politics. Tweets are also used to inform, advocate, recruit and even incite. Previous studies have shown that Twitter could be effective for political mobilization. However, there is dearth of research on how Twitter has been used as a purveyor of neutral and/or hate speech in the Nigerian context. This study examined the nature of tweets in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria. The authors employed content analysis of 250 purposively selected tweets from the #Igbo hashtag which trended between March 29 and 31, 2015. The tweets were then categorized into five explicit hate and one neutral tweet category respectively. Results revealed the dominance of three hate tweet types: derogatory, mocking and blaming. These findings were then discussed bearing in mind earlier theories on the functionality of tweets and voting patterns from an analysis of the election results.

Ballot Paper Design and Vote Spoiling at Polish Local Elections of 2014: Establishing a Causal Link

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Pierzgalski ◽  
Maciej A. Górecki ◽  
Paweł Stępień
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Effect Relationship ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Paper Format

Large proportions of spoilt ballots may lead to a distortion of election results. While invalid votes are sometimes meaningful political acts, reflecting political protest, spoilt ballot papers may also be a consequence of voter error, which can be attributed to the poor design of a ballot paper. In this study, we focus on the widely publicized case of the Polish local elections of 2014. These elections saw unprecedentedly large proportions of spoilt votes, and ballot paper format was often mentioned as a potential culprit. Yet it remains largely unclear whether or not there indeed does exist a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot card format and the tendency of voters to cast invalid votes. We argue that what we deliver here is the first methodologically refined test of the aforementioned hypothesis. We apply the generalized synthetic control comparative method, proposed by Yiquing Xu (in 2017), and show that the implementation of a complex or ambiguous ballot design can result in a substantial increase in the rate of spoilt votes. We thus demonstrate that ballot paper design matters. Specifically, the results of this study corroborate the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot paper format and the fraction of invalid votes in the 2014 municipal elections in Poland.

Cost-of-ruling in Local Elections – The Case of Sweden

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Karlsson ◽  
Mikael Gilljam
Keyword(s):  
Local Elections ◽  
Election Results

There is a cost-of-ruling effect for parties who are part of ruling coalitions I local multi-party elections. Results from the case of Sweden (based on 8,892 election results of parties in local elections 1998-2010) indicate that a party on average loses almost a quarter of its share of the votes after an election period in government. The results also indicate that this cost-of-ruling effect varies depending on the party’s prominence and its political company within the ruling coalition. The voters punish anti-establishment parties who enter into ruling coalitions especially hard.

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.

Local elections may strain Tunisia's unity government

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governance ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Election ◽  
Security Personnel ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Results

Significance Military and security personnel voted early on April 29, with a turnout of 12%. There are concerns that widespread apathy, coupled with a desire among the Tunisian electorate with the opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the unity government’s performance, will dampen turnout and undermine the municipal councils from the outset. Impacts The local election results could cause parties to reassess campaign strategies for the 2019 general elections. Local governance will be effective only if adequate mechanisms are in place to transfer financial resources. The municipal elections present an opportunity for women and younger candidates.

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