scholarly journals The Influence of the Negative Campaign on Facebook: The Role of Political Actors and Citizens in the Use of Criticism and Political Attack in the 2016 Spanish General Elections

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 356
Author(s):  
Silvia Marcos-García ◽  
Laura Alonso-Muñoz ◽  
Andreu Casero-Ripollés
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Attack

Social media has become an essential platform in the field of digital political communication. In the context of accommodating electoral campaigns to digital media and the absence of barriers to freedom of expression existing on these platforms, attacks on political rivals and negative campaigns are increasing on social media. This research analyzes the use of criticism on Facebook by political actors during the electoral campaign and citizens’ reactions to these messages. The sample (n = 601) contains the publications disseminated on Facebook by political parties and leaders during the electoral campaign of the general elections of 26 June 2016 in Spain. The results show that criticism is an emerging resource in the digital communication strategy of political actors, mainly used by the opposition parties and their candidates, who focus their attacks on the party and leader of the Government. Attacks are mainly focused on the professional side of their rivals, although they also give a central role to emotions. Citizens are attracted to these attacks and are prone to interact with posts that include this resource.

scholarly journals Un potencial comunicativo desaprovechado. Twitter como mecanismo generador de diálogo en campaña electoral

Obra digital ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 39-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Alonso-Muñoz ◽  
Susana Miquel-Segarra ◽  
Andreu Casero-Ripollés
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
General Elections

El uso de Twitter como herramienta estratégica para la comunicación política se ha incrementado notablemente durante los últimos años, especialmente en periodo de campaña electoral. El objetivo de esta investigación es examinar el grado de cumplimiento de los principios dialógicos atribuidos a las redes sociales. Para ello se aplica la técnica del análisis de contenido cuantitativo a los tuits publicados por los principales partidos españoles (PP, PSOE, Podemos y Ciudadanos) durante las elecciones generales de 2015. Los resultados demuestran que pese al elevado número de publicaciones realizadas por los cuatro partidos, ninguno aprovecha el potencial dialógico de Twitter.Untapped communication potential. Twitter as a mechanism for generating dialogue in an electoral campaignAbstractThe use of Twitter as strategic tool for political communication has increased considerably in recent years, particularly during electoral campaigns. The main goal of this paper is to examine the degree of compliance with the principles of dialogue attributed to social media. To achieve this, a quantitative content analysis was carried out on the tweets shared by the main Spanish political parties during the 2015 General Elections. The results show that although a high number of tweets were made by the four political parties during this period, none of them took advantage of the full potential of dialogue on Twitter.Keywords: Twitter, social media, political communication, electoral campaign, digital media

scholarly journals “Wars” on COVID-19 in Slovakia, Russia, and the United States: Securitized Framing and Reframing of Political and Media Communication Around the Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta N. Lukacovic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Frame Element ◽  
Political Factions ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
The Government

This study analyzes securitized discourses and counter narratives that surround the COVID-19 pandemic. Controversial cases of security related political communication, salient media enunciations, and social media reframing are explored through the theoretical lenses of securitization and cascading activation of framing in the contexts of Slovakia, Russia, and the United States. The first research question explores whether and how the frame element of moral evaluation factors into the conversations on the securitization of the pandemic. The analysis tracks the framing process through elite, media, and public levels of communication. The second research question focused on fairly controversial actors— “rogue actors” —such as individuals linked to far-leaning political factions or militias. The proliferation of digital media provides various actors with opportunities to join publicly visible conversations. The analysis demonstrates that the widely differing national contexts offer different trends and degrees in securitization of the pandemic during spring and summer of 2020. The studied rogue actors usually have something to say about the pandemic, and frequently make some reframing attempts based on idiosyncratic evaluations of how normatively appropriate is their government's “war” on COVID-19. In Slovakia, the rogue elite actors at first failed to have an impact but eventually managed to partially contest the dominant frame. Powerful Russian media influencers enjoy some conspiracy theories but prudently avoid direct challenges to the government's frame, and so far only marginal rogue actors openly advance dissenting frames. The polarized political and media environment in the US has shown to create a particularly fertile ground for rogue grassroots movements that utilize online platforms and social media, at times going as far as encouragement of violent acts to oppose the government and its pandemic response policy.

scholarly journals Evidence of disorientation towards immunization on online social media after contrasting political communication on vaccines. Results from an analysis of Twitter data in Italy

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0253569
Author(s):  
Samantha Ajovalasit ◽  
Veronica Maria Dorgali ◽  
Angelo Mazza ◽  
Alberto d’Onofrio ◽  
Piero Manfredi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Immunization Policy ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Political Events ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Measles Outbreaks

Background In Italy, in recent years, vaccination coverage for key immunizations as MMR has been declining to worryingly low levels, with large measles outbreaks. As a response in 2017, the Italian government expanded the number of mandatory immunizations introducing penalties to unvaccinated children’s families. During the 2018 general elections campaign, immunization policy entered the political debate with the government in-charge blaming oppositions for fuelling vaccine scepticism. A new government (formerly in the opposition) established in 2018 temporarily relaxed penalties and announced the introduction of forms of flexibility. Objectives and methods First, we supplied a definition of disorientation, as the “lack of well-established and resilient opinions among individuals, therefore causing them to change their positions as a consequence of sufficient external perturbations”. Second, procedures for testing for the presence of both short and longer-term collective disorientation in Twitter signals were proposed. Third, a sentiment analysis on tweets posted in Italian during 2018 on immunization topics, and related polarity evaluations, were used to investigate whether the contrasting announcements at the highest political level might have originated disorientation amongst the Italian public. Results Vaccine-relevant tweeters’ interactions peaked in response to main political events. Out of retained tweets, 70.0% resulted favourable to vaccination, 16.4% unfavourable, and 13.6% undecided, respectively. The smoothed time series of polarity proportions exhibit frequent large changes in the favourable proportion, superimposed to a clear up-and-down trend synchronized with the switch between governments in Spring 2018, suggesting evidence of disorientation among the public. Conclusions The reported evidence of disorientation for opinions expressed in online social media shows that critical health topics, such as vaccination, should never be used to achieve political consensus. This is worsened by the lack of a strong Italian institutional presence on Twitter, calling for efforts to contrast misinformation and the ensuing spread of hesitancy. It remains to be seen how this disorientation will impact future parents’ vaccination decisions.

scholarly journals Tinjauan Filosofis Egoisme dalam Komunikasi Politik di Era Pandemi Covid-19: Tantangan Kampanye Daring Pilkada Serentak Tahun 2020 di Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Eric Fernardo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Signal Interference ◽  
Information Channel ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
The Government

Indonesia has held simultaneous regional elections on 9th December 2020. In contrast to previous years, when the campaign became a moment for citizens to gather with their prospective leaders, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the limitation of face-to-face meetings in order to implement Covid-19 health protocols. The government through the General Elections Commission (KPU) has issued General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) 13/2020 which has explicitly encouraged candidate to use digital media in political campaigns. This is an effort to encourage candidates to take advantage of the digital space in campaigning. Currently, the candidates already have social media, but its use has not become the main information channel in political communication. During this campaign period, the candidates have used social media as a channel of political communication, but the social media used is limited to conveying invitations or information that the candidate has attended an activity, so social media has not become the main information channel in campaigning. The lack of organizing an online campaign by this candidate viewed from a philosophical perspective of egoism, based on the idea that the public or prospective voters are more focused on themselves. Participating in a online campaign for prospective voters requires extra sacrifices such as paying for internet quota fees, it is more troublesome because prospective voters have to learn to operate a online video application, and there are no direct benefits. The challenges faced in implementing an online campaign include, firstly, because it is preferred by the community, it is believed that the community prefers to meet face-to-face with the prospective leader directly because it provides direct benefits to the community, secondly, it is right on target because an online election campaign will not attract people, new voters because it will only be followed by voters who firmly support the candidate. Thirdly, because of the lack of creativity from the campaign team due to the lack of innovation from the candidates for not building a team that campaigns boldly, in addition to innovation, infrastructure problems that the evaluation of signal interference and the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure in the regions have hampered the implementation of bold campaigns.

scholarly journals STRATEGI KOMUNIKASI POLITIK DIGITAL PASCA-KEBENARAN

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Andika Hendra Mustaqim
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Right

Post-truth in politics when it is warming up with various phenomena. The research objective revealed and explored in this study is how post-truth digital political communication strategies. The research method uses descriptive qualitative with a qualitative approach with critical paradigm and analysis. The post-truth political communication strategy that will be delivered is applicable and can be applied in the practice of political communication. The strategies are fake news: between facts and lies; near-lie: use the right words to form wrong impressions; deception with self delusion; spin: favorable interpretation of facts; euphemasia; repetition; personalization; and ignoring rationality, prioritizing emotions. The digital political communication strategy is more focused on how to use digital media for the benefit of political communication. The strategies are blogging; influencing public opinion; social media: building enggage and closeness; and mainstream media; focusing entertaining and attractive. These three strategies are based on digital media that are fully utilized in terms of digital political communication post-truth.

scholarly journals 'Nothing Special… Just a Crisis': Framing Social Policies in Latvia 2008–2010

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-308
Author(s):  
Артур Холявин
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Welfare State

  Arturs Holavins – MSc in Politics and International Relations, Doctoral student, European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia. This article addresses the way in which Latvian political actors communicated the gap between popular support for the welfare state and austerity measures aimed at dismantling it. I investigate the case of the Latvian economic crisis of 2008–2010. To this end, I utilise the typology developed by Paul Hart and Karen Tindall. Originally, this typology had been developed to analyse different approaches to the framing of economic crises by political elites in several Western countries. Initially, the study intended to include post-socialist countries, severely hit by the 2008 Economic crisis, however this original aim was not realised. In order to fill this gap, this paper focuses on the Baltic states, which suffered economic crisis and extensive transformation of their welfare systems. The typology distinguishes between three framing types: 'threat', 'opportunity' and 'business-as-usual', the first two of which are ideologically antagonistic. Analysing 250 news articles and a number of political documents that trace the political communication of Latvian prime ministers, welfare Ministers and ruling coalition parties, this paper provides evidence that 'framing' the crisis as a threat to the public good was the most common way of rationalising the need for austerity measures following the economic downturn. At the same time, the crisis as an opportunity frame has been used since the end of the economic crisis in Latvia. The latter was the outcome of successful electoral results of the ruling party 'Unity', the driving force of the First Dombrovskis government. Since the 2010 general elections in Latvia, both Dombrovskis himself and other politicians and officials loyal to the government have used the frame 'crisis-as-an-opportunity', continuing the dismantlement of the welfare state even after the end of the economic crisis.

Political Communication in the Digital Age: Algorithms and Bots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hikmet Tosyalı
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere

Technology is one factor that has formed the basis for change in the media throughout history. Analog data and information shared by verbal, visual or written methods are now stored, processed, reproduced and shared in digital format due to developments in information technologies. On the other hand, social media, which is an important part of the digital media system, has become an important medium for political communication studies due to its prevalence and big data. As political actors better understand the value of data sets of millions of users, their interest in social media has also increased. However, this growing interest has also brought concerns such as digital profiling, informatics surveillance, systematic disinformation, and privacy violations. It has long been discussed that the practices of governments and technology companies for creating a structure similar to the gatekeeping in traditional media by taking social media under control. In recent years, some of these discussions are (ro)bot accounts on social media because online social networks are no longer just connecting people. Machines talk and interact with people, and even machines do this with other machines. Automatic posts made by bot accounts through algorithms to imitate people’s behavior on social media are liked, reposted or commented on by people and other bots. Bots that make political shares are also used by political actors worldwide, especially during election periods. Politicians use political bots to appear more popular on social media, disrupt their rivals’ communication strategies, and manipulate public opinion. This study aimed to reveal the effects of bots on political communication. After explaining the concepts of propaganda, algorithm, bot and computational propaganda, how political bots could affect the public sphere and elections were discussed in the light of current political communication literature.

Political Communication: Redefining Contemporary Political Management Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (11) ◽  
pp. 255-268
Author(s):  
Amit Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
Political Branding ◽  
General Elections

Modern politics, particularly prevalent in the Western Democracies, is replete with instances wherein communication has come to play a pivotal role in the formation or dislodging a government. This is not to say that in traditional political scenario, the role of communication was any lesser. Far from it, communication has always characterized the build-up of events in politics. However, the significance of the same has increased manifold thanks to the advent of social media and complex nature of modern politics as well as due to rise of such concepts as political branding which has gained traction in the wake of proliferation of technology. The same holds true in the Indian political scenario as well. The last few years have redefined the role of communication and its tools in Indian politics, especially during a mega-political event like election. The last two general elections were testimonies to the same. The might of social media has been realized by even its staunchest critics. Along with it, the popular concept of permanent campaign has also characterized the phenomenon of political communication. This paper goes on to explore the underlying concept of political communication and how the same has come to influence the turn of events as well as the final outcome of an election.

scholarly journals CHANGING FACE OF ELECTORAL BEHAVIOUR: ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA -GENERAL ELECTIONS 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 118-121
Author(s):  
Archana Sawshilya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Majority Party ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
General Elections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electoral Behaviour

The 2019 election witnessed a society that was consuming digital technology .For the first time in the history of India’s political platform the national elections were fought both on the streets and by using the smart phones and social media platforms using the digital technology .The digital media teams of the political parties in the 2019 elections played a very crucial role in trying to tip the scales in the favor of their party .The NaMo app had nearly 10 million downloads while the Shakti app of the Congress had around 70-80 lakh users. But the critics raised the question what if the party that mis-adopted the technology during 2019 is also the majority party in the house that would be responsible for designing the control mechanisms?

scholarly journals Political communication in post-truth society

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-87
Author(s):  
Nina Gorenc
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Apathy ◽  
The Impact

The research behind this paper is set in the context of the 2016 US presidential election that has come to symbolize the post-truth era. We conducted a literature review on the 2016 election, with the aim to better understand the impact of computational propaganda on the election outcome and on the behaviour of voters. The paper opens with a definition of post-truth society and related concepts such as fake news and computational propaganda. It explores the changes of political communication in a digital environment and analyses the role of social media in the 2016 election. It probes into phenomena such as the trivialization of politics and the loss of credibility of political actors, which are both common in post-truth societies. The reviewed literature seems to indicate that social media have become strong actors on the political stage, but so far not the predominant source of political information and influence on the behaviour of voters. The paper makes two important contributions. Firstly, drawing on the concept of post-truth society, it analyses the role of computational propaganda in the 2016 presidential election, and secondly, it attempts to explain the paradox of general political apathy on one hand, and increased political activism on the other. These are some of the challenges we are now facing, and in order to be able to cope with them it is important to acknowledge and understand them.

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