skip to main content
10.1145/3429395.3429411acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesmisncConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Facebook Campaigns During the 2019 Greek General Elections

Authors Info & Claims
Published:04 December 2020Publication History

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates Facebook campaigns of candidates running for the 2019 general elections in Greece. Moreover, it sheds light on the impact of content, post and candidate related variables on engagement measures by taking into consideration the valence of voters' engagement. Towards this end the content posted on the Facebook pages of all candidates running in the nine largest districts was collected and analyzed through quantitative content analysis. Based on the findings, candidates place emphasis on promoting their campaigns as well as their personal image. Dialogic and personalized posts were the most effective types of posts in terms of engagement. Moreover, posts with text, hashtags and emoticons can enhance several aspects of users' engagement. The size of district, the number of votes received, candidate's Facebook page popularity, age, gender, incumbency status and party affiliation were found to be important predictors of users' engagement.

References

  1. Melanie Magin, Nicole Podschuweit, Jörg Haßler, and Uta Russmann, 2017. Campaigning in the fourth age of political communication. A multi-method study on the use of Facebook by German and Austrian parties in the 2013 national election campaigns. Information, Communication & Society, 20(11), 1698--1719.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  2. Porismita Borah, 2016. Political Facebook use: Campaign strategies used in 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 13(4), 326--338.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  3. Vaclav Stetka, Powel Surowiec, Jaromir Mazák, 2019. Facebook as an instrument of election campaigning and voters' engagement: Comparing Czechia and Poland. European Journal of Communication, 34(2), 121--141.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  4. Jenny Bronstein, Noa Aharony, and Judit Bar-Ilan, 2018. Politicians' use of Facebook during elections. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 70 (5), 551--572.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  5. Rune Karlsen, and Bernard Enjolras, 2016. Styles of social media campaigning and influence in a hybrid political communication system: Linking candidate survey data with Twitter data. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(3), 338--357.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. Zachary Auter, and Jeffrey Fine, 2018. Social media campaigning: Mobilization and fundraising on Facebook. Social Science Quarterly, 99(1), 185--200.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  7. Michael Xenos, Timothy Macafee, and Antoinette Pole, 2017. Understanding variations in user response to social media campaigns: A study of Facebook posts in the 2010 US elections. New Media & Society, 19(6), 826--842.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  8. Raffael Heiss, Desiree Schmuck, and Jörg Matthes, 2019. What drives interaction in political actors' Facebook posts? Profile and content predictors of user engagement and political actors' reactions. Information Communication & Society, 22(10), 1497--1513.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  9. Manon Metz, Sanne Kruikemeier, and Sophie Lecheler, 2019. Personalization of politics on Facebook: examining the content and effects of professional, emotional and private self-personalization. Information, Communication & Society, 1--18.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  10. Karen Ross, Susan Fountaine, and Margie Comrie, 2015. Facing up to Facebook: politicians, publics and the social media (ted) turn in New Zealand. Media, culture & society, 37(2), 251--269.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. Gunn Enli and Hallvard Moe, 2013. Introduction to special issue: Social media and election campaigns-key tendencies and ways forward. Information communication & society, 16(5), 637--645. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. Marton Bene, 2017. Go viral on the Facebook! Interactions between candidates and followers on Facebook during the Hungarian general election campaign of 2014. Information, Communication & Society, 20(4), 513--529.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  13. Carlos Muñiz, Eva Campos-Domínguez, Alma Rosa Saldierna, and Jose Luis Dader, 2019. Engagement of politicians and citizens in the cyber campaign on Facebook: a comparative analysis between Mexico and Spain. Contemporary Social Science, 14(1), 102--113.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  14. Eva Johanna Schweitzer, 2008. Innovation or normalization in e-campaigning? A longitudinal content and structural analysis of German party websites in the 2002 and 2005 national elections. European Journal of Communication, 23(4), 449--470.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  15. Karolina Koc-Michalska, Darren Lilleker, Tomasz, Michalski, and Jan Zajac, 2016. Social media actions and interactions: The role of the Facebook and Twitter during the 2014 European Parliament elections in the 28 EU nations. In: Digital Media, Power, and Democracy in Election Campaigns, 2--3 July 2015, Washington, DC, USA. http://eprints.bournemouthac.uk/22484/1/KKM-DGL-TM-JZ-Washington2015-FINAL.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. Rasmus Klein Nielsen, and Cristian Vaccari, 2013. Do people "like" politicians on Facebook? Not really. Large-scale direct candidate-to-voter online communication as an outlier phenomenon. International Journal of Communication, 7, 24.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  17. Yannis Theocharis, Pabla Barberá, Zoltan Fazekas, Sebastian Adrian Popa, and Olivier Parnet, 2016. A bad workman blames his tweets: the consequences of citizens' uncivil Twitter use when interacting with party candidates. Journal of Communication, 66(6), 1007--1031.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  18. Cristina Vaccari, and Rasmus Klein Nielsen, 2013. What drives politicians' online popularity? An analysis of the 2010 US midterm elections. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 10(2), 208--222.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  19. Stamatis Poulakidakos, and Anastasia Veneti, 2019. Political communication and Twitter in Greece: Jumps on the bandwagon or an enhancement of the political dialogue?. In Censorship, Surveillance, and Privacy: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1125--1152). IGI Global.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  20. Amalia Triantafillidou, Georgios Lappas, Alexandros Kleftodimos, and Prodromos Yannas, 2018. Attack, Interact, and Mobilize: Twitter Communication Strategies of Greek Mayors and their Effects on Users' Engagement. In Sub-National Democracy and Politics Through Social Media (pp. 65--89). Springer, Cham.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  21. Konstantinos Parisopoulos, Efthimios Tambouris, and Konstantinos Tarabanis, 2012. Facebook and Greek elections: New fad or real transformation?. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 31(3), 58--64.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  22. Anders Olof Larsson, 2015. Pandering, protesting, engaging. Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 'Short campaign'. Information, Communication & Society, 18(4), 459--473.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  23. Roman Gerodimos and Jakup Justinussen, 2015. Obama's 2012 Facebook campaign: Political communication in the age of the like button. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(2), 113--132.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  24. Tal Samuel-Azran, Moran Yarchi and Gadi Wolfsfeld, 2017. Engagement and likeability of negative messages on Facebook during Israel's 2013 elections. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 6(1), 42--68.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  25. Sanne Kruikemeier, 2014. How political candidates use Twitter and the impact on votes. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 131--139.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  26. Gunn Sara Enli and Eli Skogerbø, 2013. Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication. Information, communication & society, 16(5), 757--774.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  27. Amelia Adams and Tina McCorkindale, 2013. Dialogue and transparency: A content analysis of how the 2012 presidential candidates used Twitter. Public Pelations Review, 39(4), 357--359.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  28. Ethan Pancer and Maxwell Poole, 2016. The popularity and virality of political social media: hashtags, mentions, and links predict likes and retweets of 2016 US presidential nominees' tweets. Social Influence, 11(4), 259--270.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  29. Keller, T. R., & Kleinen-von Königslöw, K. (2018). Followers, spread the message! Predicting the success of Swiss politicians on Facebook and Twitter. Social Media+ Society, 4(1), 2056305118765733.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  30. Lamprini Rori, 2020. The 2019 Greek parliamentary election: retour à la normale. West European Politics, 43(4), 1023--1037.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  31. Marketing Value, 2019. https://value.marketing/greek-facebook-ads-political-landscape-analysis-2019/Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  32. Vasilis Panagou, 2019. https://www.athensvoice.gr/politics/565469_kommata-kai-social-media-xero-posa-xodepses-stis-eklogesGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  33. Richard Nadeau and Andre Blais, 1993. Explaining election outcomes in Canada: economy and politics. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 26(4), 775--790.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  34. Antonis Kalogeropoulos, 2018, Digital News Report 2018: Greece, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://media.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/digital-news-report-2018.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  35. https://www.insider.gr/eidiseis/politiki/114684/kampania-tis-nd-me-stoheysi-se-neoys-psifoforoys-proto-spot-gia-ethnikesGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar

Index Terms

  1. Facebook Campaigns During the 2019 Greek General Elections

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Login options

      Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

      Sign in
      • Published in

        cover image ACM Other conferences
        MISNC2020&IEMT2020: Proceedings of the 7th Multidisciplinary in International Social Networks Conference and The 3rd International Conference on Economics, Management and Technology
        October 2020
        178 pages
        ISBN:9781450389457
        DOI:10.1145/3429395

        Copyright © 2020 ACM

        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

        Publisher

        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 4 December 2020

        Permissions

        Request permissions about this article.

        Request Permissions

        Check for updates

        Qualifiers

        • research-article
        • Research
        • Refereed limited

        Acceptance Rates

        Overall Acceptance Rate57of97submissions,59%

      PDF Format

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader