13. Electoral Campaigns: Social Media & Campaigning

Question 1

benefits of social media

Answer 1

they are unmediated, personal, interactive, cheap and easy to use, and can go viral

Question 2

four opportunities social media benefits

Answer 2

advertisement opportunity

human contact opportunity

target group opportunity

salon debate opportunity

Question 3

advertisement opportunity

Answer 3

show your accomplishments (or goals)

Question 4

human contact opportunity

Answer 4

show your personal side / interact with voters

Question 5

target group opportunity

Answer 5

microtargeting

Question 6

salon debate opportunity

Answer 6

interacting with journalists

Question 7

social media can impact four things:

Answer 7

1. mobilisation
2. party vote share
3. candidate vote share
4. democracy

Question 8

social media and mobilisation

Answer 8

social media provides information and are a tool for coordination, which is why it can help protest mobilisation, electoral mobilisation (voter turnout), and campaign mobilisation (campaign for us).

tool for coordination –> can help protest / electoral / campaign mobilization

Question 9

social media and party vote share

Answer 9

social media can impact party vote shares via the normalisation hypothesis and/or the equalisation hypothesis by mirroring the current differences in money and professionality or by providing a new tool to small parties

normalization / equalization

Question 10

social media and candidate vote share

Answer 10

social media tools fit persons better than parties and are cheap and easy to use. They allow for personal and personalised interaction and can create ties between a candidate and their followers

personal interaction –> create ties between candidate and followers

Question 11

social media and democracy

Answer 11

social media can either be good or bad for democracy, depending on how you look at it.

they can be good because they can narrow the distance between voters and politicians and reconnect them

they can be bad because they facilitate the spread of disinformation and cause polarisation

good: narrow distance / reconnect

bad: disinformation / polarization

Question 12

populists and social media

Answer 12

Populists tend to have fewer social media pages than non-populist politicians. This is simply because populist parties are more centralised and the leaders can use the party’s pages as their own.

fewer (more centralized), leaders use party page as its own