Social Media and Election Campaigns

This book aims to further research in the fields of social media and political communication by looking at stable democracies without current political turmoil, small countries as well as large continents, and minor political parties as well as major ones. Contributors address how politicians and citizens utilize social media, using state-of-the-art methodology and drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses. The book explores emerging practices of the mediation of politics, campaign communication, and issues of citizenship and democracy as expressed on social media. This book was originally published as a special issue of Information, Communication & Society.

Introduction: social media and election campaigns ¿ key tendencies and ways forward 1. Wave-riding and hashtag-jumping: Twitter, minority `third parties¿ and the 2012 US elections 2. Political networks on Twitter: tweeting the Queensland state election 3. Between broadcasting political messages and interacting with voters: the use of Twitter during the 2010 UK general election campaign 4. Mastering the art of social media: Swiss parties, the 2011 national election and digital challenges 5. Dodging the gatekeepers?: social media in the campaign mix during the 2011 Danish elections 6. Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication 7. Untangling a complex media system: a comparative study of Twitter-linking practices during three Scandinavian election campaigns 8. An investigation of influentials and the role of sentiment in political communication on Twitter during election periods