1st Edition
Elections and Social Networks around the World
This book analyzes the role of social networks during electoral campaigns around the world, taking into account the non-technological particularities (political, electoral, social, economic, cultural) of the media configurations of different countries.
Political parties all over the world engage in real virtual battles to appear at the cutting edge of technology. Providing in-depth case studies from across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, this book emphasizes the need to study how institutions, culture, and politics shape the processes of technology diffusion in each context. It asks: what are the uses of social networks in election campaigns in different countries?; what are the factors that lead to social networks playing an important role in the elections of a given country? International and comparative in focus, the book brings together work on the uses of social networks (Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, Telegram, and more) in the context of an election campaign by different actors (such as parties, companies, journalists, voters). The book explores the different methodological and theoretical approaches developed for the study of the uses of social networks in an electoral context. The contributors focus on the identification of the “online ecosystem” of electoral actors in each country, studying their strategies and logic. They also analyze the scaremongering rhetoric about the possible effect of social media on elections as an object of study. While taking seriously the issues of polarization, disinformation, or negative campaigning, the book provides understanding of how these work and how their discourses are constructed.
This book will be of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of Political Science, Media, and Communications Studies.
1. Introduction
Erica Guevara and Anaïs Theviot
PART 1: POLITICAL AND ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN AN HYBRID MEDIA CONTEXT
2. Introduction to Part 1: Political and electoral system in an hybrid media context
Erica Guevara and Anaïs Theviot
3. Gender and Online Campaign Styles in Multimember Districts: The Use of Twitter in the 2022 Congressional Election in Colombia.
Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Raga, Laura Fernanda Cely, Juan José Corredor-Ojeda and Wilson Forero-Mesa
4. Digital Communication and Social Media Strategies of Political Actors in Romania
Antonio Momoc
5. Social media communicative power in Ghana’s 2016 and 2020 elections
Wilberforce Dzisah
6. Digital Political Campaigns in Social Media: The First Round of Peru's 2021 General Elections
Álvaro Montúfar-Calle, Tomás Atarama-Rojas and Giancarlo Saavedra-Chau
PART 2: EVOLUTION OF PARTISAN DYNAMICS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
7. Introduction to Part 2: Evolution of partisan dynamics on social networks
Erica Guevara and Anaïs Theviot
8. Is activism on social media headed for a renewal? A comparative analysis of the profile of cyber-activists and their practices in the United States and in France during the 2020 and 2022 presidential campaigns.
Max-Valentin Robert and Anaïs Theviot
9. Social media communication of the foremost Italian political leaders in the Legislature XVIII (2018-2022). Three key moments and their internet approach
Marino de Luca
10. India’s Multi-Platform Election Campaigns for Voter Mobilisation
Sangeeta Mahapatra
11. Strategy and digital narrative in social networks of Morena's gubernatorial candidates in the electoral process in Mexico 2022
Sergio Rivera Magos and Gabriela González Pureco
PART 3: PERSONALIZATION AND POPULISM
12. Introduction to Part 3: Personalization and populism.
Erica Guevara and Anaïs Theviot
13. Populism, gender, and social media in electoral campaigns in Central America
Ignacio Siles, Erica Guevara and María Fernanda Salas
14. Populist political communication on Facebook during the EP election campaign and post-electoral period 2019. The Polish case.
Artur Lipiński
15. Social media, electoral politics, and political personalization in Indonesia.
Masduki
16. Digital Populism, propaganda and the construction of electoral legitimacy in the 2022 Presidential elections in Kenya.
Jacinta Maweu
PART 4: POLARIZATION, ECHO CHAMBERS, MISINFORMATION AND CONSPIRACY STRATEGIES AND DISCOURSES
17. Introduction to Part 4: Polarization, echo chambers, misinformation and conspiracy strategies and discourses.
Erica Guevara and Anaïs Theviot
18. Internet Memes in the Conspiracy Feedback Loop of Bolsonarism.
Marcelo Jarmendia
19. Social media use, opinion polarization, social movement participation, and voting: The case of Hong Kong.
'Chris' Fei Shen and Dan Huang
20. The dynamics of political echo chambers in the multi-party political system.
Pawel Matuszewski
21. The political use and depolarizing role of Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp in Ecuador's 2021 national elections.
Marcos Zumárraga-Espinosa, Sonia Egas-Balseca and Carlos Reyes-Valenzuela
22. Disinformation, hate speech, and fake news. How much negativity did the parties spread on social media during the 2021 election campaign?
Daniel Ruttloff, Jessica Haak, Lea Groos, Marta Moch, Natalie Mittler, Tatevik Tophoven-Sedrakyan and Isabelle Borucki
23. Conclusions
Erica Guevara
Biography
Erica Guevara is Associate Professor of Communication Studies, and researcher at the Center for the Study of Media, Technologies and Internationalization (CEMTI), at Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France. Her main research interests are media and politics in Latin America, with a substantive focus on electoral campaigns, but also the relationships between the media and the state.
Anaïs Theviot is Associate Professor, member of the ARENES Laboratory, and head of the master's degree in public and political communication at the Université catholique de l'Ouest, France. She is interested in online partisan activism, electoral campaigns, and the effects of digital technologies on political engagement.
