The use of emotions in 2019 European Elections campaign materials

Abstract

This research analyses three fundamental questions to determine how, when and by whom emotions are used in campaign materials (political propaganda). Focusing on the 2019 European elections we carry out a three-phase analysis. Firstly, we check the use of rational content against content that appeals to voters’ emotions. Secondly, we observe which of these emo tions are channelled towards the use of negative strategies and, therefore, identifying who is the object of this attack. And lastly, we determine which party families make the most use of humorous content since this resource is believed to be part of an appeal to voter’s feelings and, therefore, it is essential to know if there are differences between political groups. Considering this analytical strategy, the structure of the work begins with the contextualisation of the 2019 European elections to focus, later, on highlighting the importance of electoral campaigns as a given time when communicative activity intensifies. Once the importance of electoral campaigns has been defined the article analyses how campaign materials, in a general context of political propaganda, are one of the most powerful tools. In this sense, the analytical strategy of political parties’ campaign materials can be said to focus on the use of emotions. Data from the European Elections Monitoring Center (EEMC) has been used not only for theoretical contextualization, but throughout the whole paper.

Once More, with Feeling! Digital Campaigns and Emotional Candidacies in X in Andalusia and Castilla y León

“…As mentioned, our analysis will focus on the organisations on the extreme left and right of the ideological spectrum, i.e., Podemos-and its split in Andalusia-and VOX. These two populist parties-despite the differences that might exist between them (Rooduijn et al 2019;Vampa 2020;Caravantes 2020)-have a similar communicative dynamic, to the extent that populism usually seeks to favor an emotional discourse that links the postulates of the parties to any social profile within its reach (Vittori 2017;García-Hípola et al 2021). In this sense, it is relevant to analyze how two organisations from different ends of the ideological spectrum, and with opposing electoral expectations, try to reach citizens.…”