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This book aims to further the research in the fields of social media and political communication by moving beyond the hype and avoiding the most eye-catching and spectacular cases. It looks at stable democracies without current political turmoil, small countries as well as large continents, and minor political parties as well as major ones. Investigating emerging practices in the United States, Europe, and Australia, both on national and local levels, enables us to grasp contemporary tendencies across different regions and countries.
The book provides empirical insights into the diverse uses of different social media for political communication in different societies. Contributors look at the ways in which novel arenas connect with other channels for political communication, and how politicians as well as citizens in general use social media services. Presenting state-of-the-art methodological approaches, drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, the book brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers in order to address emerging practices of the mediation of politics, campaign communication, and issues of citizenship and democracy as expressed on social media platforms.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Information, Communication & Society.
List of contents
Introduction: social media and election campaigns - key tendencies and ways forward
1. Wave-riding and hashtag-jumping: Twitter, minority 'third parties' and the 2012 US elections
2. Political networks on Twitter: tweeting the Queensland state election
3. Between broadcasting political messages and interacting with voters: the use of Twitter during the 2010 UK general election campaign
4. Mastering the art of social media: Swiss parties, the 2011 national election and digital challenges
5. Dodging the gatekeepers?: social media in the campaign mix during the 2011 Danish elections
6. Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication
7. Untangling a complex media system: a comparative study of Twitter-linking practices during three Scandinavian election campaigns
8. An investigation of influentials and the role of sentiment in political communication on Twitter during election periods
About the author
Gunn Sara Enli is Associate Professor and project leader for "Social media and Election Campaigns" (2012-2015) at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published extensively in the field of media and communication studies, with a recent focus on politics and social media, media history, Nordic media, and authenticity.
Hallvard Moe is Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests are public service broadcasting, online media, ICT and cultural policy, television studies, democratic theory and media history.
