Towards hypermedia campaigning? Perceptions of new media's importance for campaigning by party strategists in comparative perspective

Abstract

This paper analyses changing strategies of election campaign communication in a rapidly evolving media environment, characterized by the rise of digital communication channels and online social networks as new tools of political campaigning. Using an expert survey to campaign managers of sixty eight political parties within twelve European nations, representing both old and new EU member states, the study investigates the perceived importance of different types of communication platforms in meeting campaign objectives, especially with regards to differences between new and direct modes of campaigning in comparison to traditional campaign channels. The attributed significance to these various channels is then analysed against a range of variables on macro (country) level as well as meso (party) level. The results suggest that while some differences can be observed in regards to adoption of particular types of social media between individual parties as well as between new and old EU member states (e.g. Facebook is seen as more important in younger democracies), overall we can see a relatively high level of homogeneity in strategies for campaign communication in the sample. The data points to the embedding of new communication platforms within election campaign strategies across most nations and parties; this indicates that the move towards "hypermedia" campaign style, integrating both old and new campaign tools and communication platforms, is now becoming a standard feature of professional campaigning in Europe.

Coproduction or cooptation? Real-time spin and social media response during the 2012 French and US presidential debates

“…However, whereas once television was the 'coproducer' of politics (Gurevitch et al, 2009), today social media potentially shares that role -a reality not lost on political strategists who now understand social media as an essential arena for the contestation of political meaning (Conway et al, 2015;Lilleker et al, 2015). The critical question is to what degree this new media constellation is changing the set of actors empowered to define that meaning, and how the process plays out.…”

The changing representation interface: democracy and direct contact with politicians

“…At the 2010 UK general election, qualitative research by Lee (2013) suggested that a large amount of dialogue is occurring between politicians and the electorate over email. As Lilleker et al (2015) have highlighted, there is a growing recognition of the importance of new media in professional political campaigning and evidence of the embedding of hypermedia campaigning amongst political parties in many European countries. Even so, a key focus of the use of the Internet by political parties has to date been on marketing rather than broader democratic engagement and dialogue beyond core supporters (Lilleker and Jackson 2013).…”

“…Yet evidence from the 2010 British Election Study (BES 2010) in the UK suggests that less than 15 per cent of respondents reported receiving emails from one of the major political parties, though this was comparable with contact rates via telephone. Recent research by Vaccari (2014) has found that across a number of European countries only around a third of political parties and electoral candidates responded to emails about policy issues (see Cogburn and Espinoza-Vasquez (2011), Katz et al (2013) and Lilleker et al (2015)). …”

“…In this context the Internet and on-line communication present both opportunities and challenges for how politicians communicate with the electorate (Coleman and Blumler 2009; Coleman and Shane 2011; Dahlberg 2011; Davis 2010;Enli and Skogerbø 2013;Gibson 2013;Hermans and Vergeer 2013;Jackson 2004;Karpf 2012;Larsson 2014;Lee 2014;Lilleker 2014;Lilleker and Jackson 2010;Lilleker et al 2011;Lilleker et al 2015;Strandberg 2013;Vergeer 2013;Vergeer et al 2013aVergeer et al , 2013bWard et al 2008). Tools such as email, blogs, on-line deliberation, forums, party selection tools and Twitter have the potential to bring politicians and the electorate into direct contact, and provide new opportunities for engagement and accountability.…”

Old and New Media Logics in an Electoral Campaign

“…Recently, institutional political actors who have incorporated digital media into their communication strategies have engaged in a rapid process of adaptation (Lilleker et al 2015). The integration of these tools has increased in campaigns to the point of becoming something natural and quotidian that is taken for granted as 'mundane Internet tools' (Nielsen 2011).…”