Israel’s Social Media Elections

Abstract

Social media has become a major tool to disseminate information, opinions and news, used for political campaigning and offering new opportunities for individuals and politicians alike. The Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, has been particularly aggressive in his use of social media to gather political support. Considered as the great survivor of Israeli politics, that flourished in the atmosphere of social protests and emerged from the old political mechanism, he derives his power from social networks, using them as alternative media to the traditional networks. As the research demonstrates, social media has determined dramatic changes in the balance of political power, and although the main channels of information remain the traditional media, the exposure of the public to social media is accelerating with a wide unmediated public debate. With social media, newcomers in Israeli politics could also create a presence and rise to become renowned politicians. It is interesting however, that the veteran politician-Netanyahu-was able to take advantage of disseminate information over the Internet and become active on his Facebook page, including engaging Internet users in direct dialogue. The paper examines the use of social media by newcomers and veteran politicians in the last two elections and analyzes the way Netanyahu used social media to accomplish his political goals, including high involvement of the public and motivating record-high voter turnout to maintain his own reelection and the domination of the Israeli Parliament by the Likud Party.

Evaluating the Role of Media during Elections: The Case of Local Elections of 31st March 2019 in Turkey

“…News media is one of the main actors in the public sphere to construct informed citizens on political issues. However, as Katz (2018) notes, social media has become a major tool to disseminate information, opinions, and news, used for political campaigning and offering new opportunities for individuals and politicians alike.…”

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

“…For example, Benjamin Netanyahu, chairman and leader of the Likud party, has the highest engagement rates on social media of all other parties or leading candidates, even compared to the Likud party he heads (Zamir and Rahat, 2017). Katz (2018) attributes Netanyahu's social media success to his effective marketing strategies on social media, his popularity and his authoritative status as the current prime minister.…”

“…Although Israel's political parties had already used digital means for self-promotion, the 19th Knesset elections of January 2013 are considered a watershed event in terms of the political use of technology and specifically social media (Haleva-Amir and Nahon, 2016). As a result of the increased use of these means, especially Facebook, to contact voters and advance political agendas, these elections are known as Israel's first Facebook elections (Katz, 2018).…”

“…Netanyahu has been active on multiple digital platforms over the past few years, and it is fair to say that he has discovered the potential of social networks and their role in reaching broad audiences directly without the need for media mediation (Katz, 2018). Netanyahu's personal Facebook page is very popular (approx.…”