6533b861fe1ef96bd12c56b9
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Social Media as a Campaigning Tool in Elections: Theoretical Considerations and State of Research
Uta RussmannJörg HaßlerMelanie MaginVicente Fenollsubject
Parliamentbusiness.industrymedia_common.quotation_subjectContext (language use)Public relationsPoliticsState (polity)Political sciencemedia_common.cataloged_instanceSocial mediaEuropean unionbusinessFunction (engineering)media_commondescription
To extend their reach to supporters and voters, three election campaign functions are key to political actors: information, interaction and mobilisation. We argue that these three functions are interrelated and function most successfully through interrelationship. Thus, the distinction between top-down and bottom-up communication appears to be rather artificial in the context of online campaigns. In campaign practice, both directions are rather closely linked. Our theoretical framework shows how Facebook can be used specifically to realise the three key functions and provides the background for the following chapters for analysing how political parties actually use Facebook in European Parliament (EP) election campaigns. The state of research shows that Facebook has been neglected in previous research on social media use in EP elections.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-01 |