Electoral Politics on Social Media

Political communication in Social Networks Election campaigns and Digital Data Analysis: A Bibliographic Review

“…"Pop politics" (Mazzoleni & Sfardini, 2009) is characterized by: informality of language ("Informal"); thematic simplification ("Simplification"); narration ("Storytelling"), instrumentalisation of facts ("Instrumental actualisation"), "Dramatisation", provocations ("Taboo breaker"), trivial lexicon ("Vulgarism") and negative emotionality ("Negative affect"). Research confirms that most public comments tend to have negative emotional tones (Diakopoulos & Shamma, 2010;Dang-Xuan et al, 2013;Jungherr, 2013;Mejova et al, 2013;Gainous & Wagner, 2014;Hosch-Dayican et al, 2014;Park, 2014;Trilling, 2014;Ceron & d'Adda, 2015;Xenos et al, 2015;Haleva-Amir & Nahon, 2016;Rossi & Orefice, 2016;Bracciale & Martella, 2017a). There are also correlations between levels of partisanship and negative campaigns and the dominant position of candidates in the electoral arena (Evans et al, 2017).…”

“…This gives the central actors in the networks a crucial importance in the circulation of information and in proposing the interpretative key of the contents (Jürgens et al, 2011;Sudhahar et al, 2015;Jensen et al, 2016). The relevance of humour and satire (Mejova et al, 2013;Sreekumar & Vadrevu, 2013;Trilling, 2014;Freelon & Karpf, 2015;Haleva-Amir & Nahon, 2016;Shin et al, 2016), makes plausible the image of Social Networks as media environments for phatic statements in response to events, rather than deliberative spaces for dialogues on topics and values (Hussain et al, 2014;Holtz-Bacha & Zeh, 2016). Other studies have shown that interaction is challenging for political parties and there are certain disadvantages in communication with online voters (Kalsnes, 2016).…”

“…Personal issues are contents about personal aspects of candidates, analyzed by literature in the two dimensions of "Personalization", and draw their profiles, beyond the role of delegates, trustees, parties or constituency services (Jackson & Lilleker, 2009): a) "Individualization": references to professional qualities and their commitment, with which politicians define themselves (Self-definition); and b) "Privatization": aspects of biography and private, family, and sentimental life, friendships, leisure time, etc.. Studies show that candidates often use Social Networks to highlight strictly personal content (Voerman & Boogers 2008;Hermans & Vergeer, 2012;Enli & Skogerbø, 2013;Goodnow, 2013;Kruikemeier, 2014;Bentivegna & Marchetti, 2015;Evans, 2016;Haleva-Amir & Nahon, 2016;Karlsen & Enjolras, 2016;Bracciale & Martella, 2017a;McGregor, 2017).…”

Bibi and Mr. Prime Minister: do different Facebook identities imply different messages for political leaders?

“…The electoral system in Israel is based on national elections in which citizens vote for the parties elected to the Israeli parliament (Knesset) (Bar-Ilan et al , 2015) every four years, or in the event that the Knesset passes a no-confidence motion or fails to approve the annual budget (Haleva-Amir and Nahon, 2016). With the exception of three election campaigns in which the Israeli public voted for a party and a prime minister, all elections in Israel were held in a similar manner, in which citizens voted for their party of choice.…”

“…The leading candidate or chairman of the winning party receives the right to form what is typically a coalition government and to head it as prime minister. Due to this structure, the power of political parties in Israel has increased in recent years (Haleva-Amir and Nahon, 2016).…”