Social Media and Election Campaigns by Gunn Sara Enli Hallvard Moe

Author:Gunn Sara Enli, Hallvard Moe [Gunn Sara Enli, Hallvard Moe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317397168
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 4 Reciprocal activity on Facebook and Twitter (January–December 2011) according to party size. Monthly updates average and user average in absolute numbers. Party size is based on the 2011 election result (calculated voters).

4.4 Content

Since the level of activity that the political parties had invested in their Facebook sites could not explain the degree of resonance that they gained, a quantitative content analysis was conducted to find the differences between the parties. The idea was that if mere activity could not explain resonance, then perhaps the characteristics of the content could explain it more or less. Another objective of the analysis was to test whether political parties had adopted the new media logic of social media and focused on mobilization and participation, or if they merely used Facebook as another channel to distribute one-way information.

The data presented in Figure 5 shows that three-quarters (75 per cent) of all Facebook postings of all parties consisted of simple information pieces and references to mass media. Only six per cent of the postings aimed at engaging citizens (mobilization), and 11 per cent at involving users in an interactive exchange (participation). Making internal structures and processes more transparent for citizens accounted for merely six per cent of all postings. The Swiss political parties, therefore, use Facebook predominantly as a one-way information channel, communicating political positions and sharing mass media contents that they find interesting.

There is little variation between parties with regard to the contents: ‘Information’ and ‘mass media references’ are the dominant thematic clusters of all parties. While the Social Democrats posted the highest number of ‘mobilization’-related contents (11 per cent), the Liberals provided the most postings related to ‘participation’ (16 per cent). Overall, the picture is quite homogenous: Only a small number of Facebook postings over the entire 2011 aimed at mobilizing users and inviting them to participate. Again, the data provides no evidence of an ideological gap, as there are no significant differences between left-leaning and right-leaning parties.

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