scholarly journals Introduction to special issue about election reporting: Why journalism (still) matters

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 985-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion ◽  
Daniel Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Campaign Coverage ◽  
Election Coverage ◽  
Social Media Platforms

This introduction unpacks the eight articles that make up this Journalism special issue about election reporting. Taken together, the articles ask: How has election reporting evolved over the last century across different media? Has the relationship between journalists and candidates changed in the digital age of campaigning? How do contemporary news values influence campaign coverage? Which voices – politicians, say or journalists – are most prominent? How far do citizens inform election coverage? How is public opinion articulated in the age of social media? Are sites such as Twitter developing new and distinctive election agendas? In what ways does social media interact with legacy media? How well have scholars researched and theorised election reporting cross-nationally? How can research agendas be enhanced? Overall, we argue this Special Issue demonstrates the continued strength of news media during election campaigns. This is in spite of social media platforms increasingly disrupting and recasting the agenda setting power of legacy media, not least by political parties and candidates who are relying more heavily on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to campaign. But while debates in recent years have centred on the technological advances in political communication and the associated role of social media platforms during election campaigns (e.g. microtargeting voters, spreading disinformation/misinformation and allowing candidates to bypass media to campaign), our collection of studies signal the enduring influence professional journalists play in selecting and framing of news. Put more simply, how elections are reported still profoundly matters in spite of political parties’ and candidates’ more sophisticated use of digital campaigning.

Political communication Modi style: A case study of the demonetization campaign on Twitter

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usha M. Rodrigues ◽  
Michael Niemann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Government Websites

Abstract Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) is one of the world's most followed political leaders on Twitter. During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, he and his party used various social media networking and the Internet services to engage with young, educated, middle-class voters in India. Since his first sweeping win in the 2014 elections, Modi's political communication strategy has been to neglect the mainstream news media, and instead use social media and government websites to keep followers informed of his day-to-day engagements and government policies. This strategy of direct communication was followed even during a critical policy change, when in a politically risky move half-way through his five-year prime ministership, Modi's government scrapped more than 85 per cent of Indian currency notes in November 2016. He continued to largely shun the mainstream media and use his social media accounts and public rallies to communicate with the nation. As a case study of this direct communication strategy, this article presents the results of a study of Modi's Twitter articulations during the three months following the demonetization announcement. We use mediatization of politics discourse to consider the implications of this shift from mass communication via the mainstream news media, to the Indian prime minister's reliance on direct communication on social media platforms.

scholarly journals Sociale mediers rolle i politisk kommunikation: et litteraturstudie

Politik ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander Andreas Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Trace Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Slow Evolution ◽  
Over Time

This study is a systematic literature review of research on social media and political communication from political parties or politicians in parliament. The literature review is narrowed down further to focus on European studies. The review sorts studies into three thematic categories: political sender, citizen engagement and public actors. The study finds that papers are mostly pessimistic about the democratic influence of social media. This might be because studies have been looking for a social media revolution rather than slow evolution over time. The paper goes on to divide studies according to digital methods using digital trace data or traditional methods or a combination of both. The literature review presents the advantages of each approach and further highlights the potential of mixed and multiple methods. Finally, the literature review highlights recent issues with collecting data through platform API and argues that the field should be careful about relying too heavily on this collection approach in the future as social media platforms are starting to restrict access to digital trace data.

scholarly journals When Social Media Doesn’t Determine All: The Topics and Narratives of Latvian Political Parties on Facebook During the 2019 European Parliament Elections Campaign

Tripodos ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Mārtiņš Pričins
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
European Parliament Elections ◽  
Research Period

Over the last decade, the implementation of campaigns by political parties and their candidates on social media platforms has become an integral part of political communication. Political communication studies have long indicated that elections are becoming personalized, with more focus on party leaders or individual candidates. But studies on communication by political parties to understand the identity of parties and their potential in communication with voters remain relevant. The aim of the paper is to analyse the visual election materials of the political parties from Latvia on the social network Facebook during the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election campaign. The research period is two weeks before elections. The subject of the study is election materials on Facebook accounts of the parties representing the national parliament of Latvia. A codebook for analysis has been developed, containing common and specific variables, designed to explore the verbal and visual dimensions. The results of the study allow us to draw conclusions about the changing success of new populist and traditional parties, as well as to look at the role of Facebook in elections in a little-studied country.

scholarly journals Political Communication With Social Media In Pakistan: Internal And External Efficacy

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (II) ◽  
pp. 130-138
Author(s):  
Hannan Khan Tareen ◽  
Malik Adnan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Political knowledge influences political behavior and political participation as the person who has sufficient political knowledge will contribute his part in political issues and get engage himself in political campaigns. Hence, a politically informed person put an impact upon others by sharing his views and information. Now a day social media has revolutionized the world due to its unlimited features, and it made it easier for everyone to spread the news and especially the political content. Different political parties use social media platforms to engage their voters and especially youth. This study suggests that social media plays a critical role for youngsters to disseminate information regarding politics and affects the internal and external efficacy of youth by the transmission of knowledge and political participation through social media.

No Interaction on Instagram

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-51
Author(s):  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
Interaction Processes ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Social Media Platforms

This chapter addresses a neglected issue within the field of social media and political communication. It focuses on interaction processes on Instagram asking how political parties used Instagram—a platform that is centered around images—when engaging in interaction with their followers on the platform. The focus is on political parties' use of Instagram in the 2014 Swedish national election campaign. This gives an impression of the first attempts of political parties' use of this communication platform. The quantitative content analysis focuses on Instagram images including their captions and comments (posts) that Swedish parties published four weeks prior to Election Day. The results suggest that not much changes on Instagram compared to other social media platforms: Swedish political parties hardly used Instagram to interact with their followers, and the very few interactions taking place did not contribute to the exchange of relevant and substantive information about politics. Interaction and deliberation are also not enhanced by the images.

scholarly journals Twitter Campaigning Strategies in Australian Federal Elections 2013–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512110634
Author(s):  
Axel Bruns ◽  
Daniel Angus ◽  
Timothy Graham
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Federal Election ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Society ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Suitable Environment ◽  
Cross National

This special issue of Social Media + Society develops a cross-national, longitudinal perspective on the use of social media in election campaigns. Australia, where leading social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were adopted early and widely by the general population, and where federal election cycles are unusually short (often less than 3 years), provides a particularly suitable environment for observing the evolution of social media campaigning approaches. This article extends our analysis of previous federal election campaigns in Australia by examining Twitter campaigning in the 2019 election; to allow for a direct comparison with previous campaigns, it builds on a methodological and analytical framework that we have used since the 2013 election.

Elections and Social Media

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Sarıtaş ◽  
Elif Esra Aydın
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
The Past ◽  
Target Mass ◽  
The Social ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Today, using of the internet extended social media by individuals habitually enables both the business firms and politicians to reach their target mass at any time. In this context, internet has become a popular place recently where political communication and campaigns are realized by ensuring a new dimension to political campaigns. When we examine the posts and discussions in the social media, we can say that they are converted into open political sessions. As there are no censorship in such channels, individuals have a freedom to reach to any partial/impartial information and obtain transparent and fast feedback, and with this regard, political parties, leaders and candidates have a chance to be closer to electors. In this study, it is aimed to give information about the social media, present what medium has been used for election campaigns from the past until today and besides, by considering the effects of effective and efficient use of social media and new trends related to the internet by politicians, together with their applications in the world, to make suggestions about its situation and application in Turkey.

scholarly journals Exploring Political Parties on Facebook: Literature Review of the Two Main Political Parties in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
John Demuyakor
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
Facebook Pages

Abstract Ghana currently has over 25 registered political parties. The two key political parties in Ghana are the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC). Before the introduction of social media, especially Facebook, political parties in Ghana employed traditional communication strategies, such as TV, Radio, and News Papers, to execute political communication. However, since 2012 political parties in Ghana have deployed and relied heavily on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, as a political communication tool to disseminate their political manifestoes to the electorates in order to clinch political power. This article adopted a purely descriptive approach with an emphasis on document analysis to review relevant information and literature for the study. Hence literature is sourced from secondary sources like a pool of online libraries, political party’s websites/Facebook pages, and other scholarly research related to the subject under investigation. The objective of this paper is to carefully explore political parties on Facebook, emphasizing the two main Political parties in Ghana, thus the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Political Knowledge and Misinformation in the Era of Social Media: Evidence From the 2015 UK Election

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kevin Munger ◽  
Patrick J. Egan ◽  
Jonathan Nagler ◽  
Jonathan Ronen ◽  
Joshua Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform

Abstract Does social media educate voters, or mislead them? This study measures changes in political knowledge among a panel of voters surveyed during the 2015 UK general election campaign while monitoring the political information to which they were exposed on the Twitter social media platform. The study's panel design permits identification of the effect of information exposure on changes in political knowledge. Twitter use led to higher levels of knowledge about politics and public affairs, as information from news media improved knowledge of politically relevant facts, and messages sent by political parties increased knowledge of party platforms. But in a troubling demonstration of campaigns' ability to manipulate knowledge, messages from the parties also shifted voters' assessments of the economy and immigration in directions favorable to the parties' platforms, leaving some voters with beliefs further from the truth at the end of the campaign than they were at its beginning.

Interaction on Instagram?

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Paper Analysis ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Social Media Platforms

This paper directs attention to the use of Instagram by political parties in the Swedish national elections in 2014. It investigates how political parties made use of Instagram – a platform centered around images – when engaging in interaction with their followers on the platform. Therefore, the paper analysis Instagram images including their captions and comments (posts) that Swedish parties have published four weeks prior to Election Day. A particular focus is on the deliberative potential of Instagram. The results suggest that not much changes on Instagram compared to other social media platforms: Political parties hardly used Instagram to interact with their followers and the few interactions taking place on parties Instagram accounts did not contribute to the exchange of relevant and substantive information about politics (i.e., deliberation). Interaction and deliberation is also not enhanced by the images.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document