What do politicians do on Twitter? Functions and communication strategies in the Spanish electoral campaign of 2016

Twitter has been incorporated as an essential tool in the communication strategies of political actors. However, we need to know more about its use. Our objective is to analyze the main functions attributed to Twitter in electoral campaigns. We studied the 2016 election in Spain based on a comparative analysis. The sample consisted of 9,042 tweets, published by the four parties that received the most votes and their candidates. The results show: First, the most widely used function was the dissemination of political proposals. Second, a low level of personalization was detected. Third, there was an incipient tendency towards hybridization between new and conventional digital media in the use of this platform. Finally, it was shown that the functions given to Twitter are conditioned, in different ways, by three factors: the historical trajectory of the party, its position on the government-opposition line, and the individual or collective dimension.

[1]  Andreu Casero-Ripollés,et al.  Political leaders in (inter)action. Twitter as a strategic communication tool in electoral campaigns , 2017 .

[2]  Karen Beckwith.  Comparing Democracies: Elections and Voting in Global Perspective. Lawrence LeDuc , Richard G. Niemi , Pippa NorrisThe New American Voter. Warren E. Miller , J. Merrill ShanksHow Russia Votes. Stephen White , Richard Rose , Ian McAllister , 1998 .

[3]  Karolin Kappler,et al.  Communication dynamics in twitter during political campaigns: The case of the 2011 Spanish national election , 2013 .

[4]  E. Domínguez,et al.  Una aproximación al estudio del infoentretenimiento en Internet: origen, desarrollo y perspectivas futuras , 2012 .

[5]  Christian Elmelund-Præstekær,et al.  Negative and Personalized Campaign Rhetoric: Party Communication and Media Coverage of Danish Parliamentary Elections 1994–2011 , 2014 .

[6]  C. Reinemann,et al.  It's the Debates, Stupid! How the Introduction of Televised Debates Changed the Portrayal of Chancellor Candidates in the German Press, 1949—2005 , 2007 .

[7]  M. Broersma,et al.  BETWEEN BROADCASTING POLITICAL MESSAGES AND INTERACTING WITH VOTERS , 2012 .

[8]  A. Sfardini,et al.  Politica pop. Da 'Porta a porta' a 'L'isola dei famosi' , 2009 .

[9]  W. Bennett,et al.  The Personalization of Politics , 2012 .

[10]  J. Virgili,et al.  La personalización de la política en la cobertura mediática: una comparación de las campañas electorales en España y Alemania , 2014 .

[11]  L. van Zoonen,et al.  Personalisation in Dutch and German Politics: The Case of Talk Show , 2000 .

[12]  J. J. I. Perosanz.  Métodos cuantitativos de investigación en comunicación , 2007 .

[13]  D. Lilleker,et al.  Microblogging, Constituency Service and Impression Management: UK MPs and the Use of Twitter , 2011, The Impact of Legislatures.

[14]  J. Criado,et al.  Twitter en campaña: las elecciones municipales españolas de 2011 , 2013 .

[15]  John H. Parmelee,et al.  Politics and the Twitter Revolution: How Tweets Influence the Relationship between Political Leaders and the Public , 2011 .

[16]  Darren G. Lilleker,et al.  Towards a More Participatory Style of Election Campaigning: The Impact of Web 2.0 on the UK 2010 General Election , 2010 .

[17]  José Luis Piñuel Raigada,et al.  Epistemología, metodología y técnicas del análisis de contenido , 2002 .

[18]  P. Norris,et al.  Campaign Strategies and Tactics , 1996 .

[19]  El marketing político y sus consecuencias para la democracia , 2015 .

[20]  Andreas Jungherr.  The Logic of Political Coverage on Twitter: Temporal Dynamics and Content , 2014 .

[21]  Kevin M. Wagner,et al.  Tweeting to Power: The Social Media Revolution in American Politics , 2013 .

[22]  Anders Olof Larsson,et al.  Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook , 2016, New Media Soc..

[23]  Susana Miquel-Segarra,et al.  Un potencial comunicativo desaprovechado. Twitter como mecanismo generador de diálogo en campaña electoral , 2016 .

[24]  Todd Graham,et al.  New platform, old habits? Candidates’ use of Twitter during the 2010 British and Dutch general election campaigns , 2016, New Media Soc..

[25]  M. Castells.  Comunicación y poder , 2009 .

[26]  N. Anstead,et al.  The Emerging Viewertariat and BBC Question Time , 2011 .

[27]  Paloma Abejón Mendoza,et al.  Facebook y Twitter en campañas electorales en España , 2012 .

[28]  G. L. García.  'New' vs 'old' leaderships: the campaign of Spanish general elections 2015 on Twitter , 2016 .

[29]  Amparo López Meri,et al.  Twitter-retórica para captar votos en campaña electoral. El caso de las elecciones de Cataluña de 2015. , 2016 .

[30]  G. Enli,et al.  PERSONALIZED CAMPAIGNS IN PARTY-CENTRED POLITICS , 2013 .

[31]  J. Blumler,et al.  The Third Age of Political Communication: Influences and Features , 1999 .

[32]  Lars Nord,et al.  Three Attitudes to 140 Characters The Use and Views of Twitter in Political Party Communications in Sweden , 2012 .

[33]  Rens Vliegenthart,et al.  Getting closer: The effects of personalized and interactive online political communication , 2013 .

[34]  Tamir Sheafer,et al.  The Personalization(s) of Politics: Israel, 1949–2003 , 2007 .

[35]  D. Lilleker.  Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age , 2014 .

[36]  Bruce Bimber,et al.  Digital Media in the Obama Campaigns of 2008 and 2012: Adaptation to the Personalized Political Communication Environment , 2014 .

[37]  H. Klingemann,et al.  The Oxford handbook of political behavior , 2007 .

[38]  L. van Zoonen,et al.  The Personal in Political Television Biographies , 2010 .

[39]  Peter Van Aelst,et al.  The personalization of mediated political communication: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings , 2012 .

[40]  G. Mazzoleni,et al.  "Mediatization" of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy? , 1999 .