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Electoral cycles are highly charged, politically intense moments that influence public discourse. Political elites, citizens, and the traditional news media seek to generate opinions and interactions on social networks. This research is motivated by the following questions: What are the communicative and deliberative practices used in these spaces? Is it possible to identify the characteristics that --through deliberative conversations-- potentially foster or undermine democratic debate, particularly when using populist and polarizing discourse? Using a mixed methods approach, we apply a social network analysis tool to track conversations and identify the volume of political discourse (N=346,000). Using selective and staged filtering, we identified posts from nine Peruvian Twitter accounts during the September 2022 electoral campaign in Lima: three candidates, three media outlets, and three accounts with high levels of engagement. Our data comprised the comments from these nine accounts and was extracted using an Application Programming Interface (API). Subsequently, we carried out ethnographic content analysis on publications with more than 30 comments. In this phase, we analyzed Twitter comments using a codebook to identify deliberative practices and user responses. Our findings underscore the significant role of principal media outlets in shaping political conversation on Twitter. We also discovered that attempts to interact and deliberate were often overshadowed by heated comments attempting to impose opinions on others. Most importantly, our research reveals a widespread disillusionment with politics, political institutions, and even the political preferences of fellow citizens in Peru, highlighting a key challenge for democratic discourse on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic, social, and health crises have shaken and polarized contemporary politics. An element fueling this polarization is the dissemination of divisive topics on social media platforms. While these polarizing social media tendencies are increasingly studied, research exploring digital political communication in South America remains scarce. This study aims to analyze the electoral campaigns in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru to define the features that trigger polarized emotional reactions on Facebook. The corpus comprises a sample of 2,930 posts published by candidates and political parties during the first round of the presidential elections held in these countries between 2021 and 2022. We hypothesize that users are more likely to react in a polarized way to content focused on divisive issues. In addition, we examine how these patterns differ across countries and the influence of the level of political polarization. Finally, the role played by party-level characteristics in the emotional reactions of users is also analyzed. By means of quantitative content analysis, these questions are addressed using multilevel negative binomial regressions to identify what predicts Love and Angry reactions. The bandwagon effect seems to work positively on users' moods since the most popular political actors receive significantly more Love reactions, irrespective of the post's subject. In more polarized countries, there is a tendency to react more negatively to certain divisive issues, generating greater visibility of these issues on social networks and thus promoting more polarization. These findings expand knowledge about the dynamics of digital political communication in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electoral cycles are highly charged, politically intense moments that influence public discourse. Political elites, citizens, and the traditional news media seek to generate opinions and interactions on social networks. This research is motivated by the following questions: What are the communicative and deliberative practices used in these spaces? Is it possible to identify the characteristics that –through deliberative conversations– potentially foster or undermine democratic debate, particularly when using populist and polarizing discourse? Using a mixed methods approach, we apply a social network analysis tool to track conversations and identify the volume of political discourse (N=346,000). Using selective and staged filtering, we identified posts from nine Peruvian Twitter accounts during the September 2022 electoral campaign in Lima: three candidates, three media outlets, and three accounts with high levels of engagement. Our data comprised the comments from these nine accounts and was extracted using an Application Programming Interface (API). Subsequently, we carried out ethnographic content analysis on publications with more than 30 comments. In this phase, we analyzed Twitter comments using a codebook to identify deliberative practices and user responses. Our findings underscore the significant role of principal media outlets in shaping political conversation on Twitter. We also discovered that attempts to interact and deliberate were often overshadowed by heated comments attempting to impose opinions on others. Most importantly, our research reveals a widespread disillusionment with politics, political institutions, and even the political preferences of fellow citizens in Peru, highlighting a key challenge for democratic discourse on social media.

This study delves into the role of image schemas in language with a specific focus on their presence in the construction of metaphors in political speeches delivered during the 2018 electoral campaigns in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Image schemas refer to recurring patterns of understanding that arise from our bodily movements through space. To achieve this, the study utilizes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Image-Schema Theory, which investigate the presence of image schemas in political discourse. The study centers on the PATH, CONTAINER and FORCE image schemas, examining their role in the formation of metaphors and how they structure the relationship between source domains (journey and container) and the target domain (politics). Precisely, the study examines how politicians conceptualize politics as a journey or container, identifying four structural elements that define this relationship. The research also considers the persuasive techniques employed by Kurdish politicians and how they impact voting patterns. Overall, the study shows that image schemas are an essential tool in gaining public support and influencing voters, and they work as source domains for accessing target domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish far-right Vox party ran for the first time as a candidate for the Catalan parliamentary elections in February 2021. This paper analyses the party's political discourse on Twitter during the Catalan parliamentary election campaign in order to assess whether the degree of dialectical confrontation of their messages can exceed the limits of democratic debate. The results reveal how this far-right party's inflammatory messages, which seek to insult its political opponents, ultimately foster an undemocratic environment that turns Vox's political rivals into its enemy, driving social polarisation and a discourse of hatred towards individuals defending other ideologies or parties. Ultimately, it is intended to add that political-ideological nuance for future research that surpasses traditional hate speech —such as those based on criteria such as race or sex— and the suitability of Twitter for the proliferation of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we introduce an innovative approach to examining campaign themes in Italy, by performing an original corpus linguistic analysis of the party manifestos related to the crucial 2022 election. Through its systematicity and flexibility, our approach allows us to gauge theory-driven propositions using a large amount of so far unexplored textual data. As anticipated, the 2022 Italian party manifestos are characterised by a somewhat balanced configuration of emphasis across a variety of themes, of which some are more controversial and others more widely shared among voters and parties. Further, we also corroborate that parties primarily focus on those themes that historically fit them best, ideologically and in terms of perceived competence. Lastly, salient 'issues of the day' are differently emphasised by Italian parties, which particularly avoid devoting considerable attention to the highly sensitive Russian-Ukrainian war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hatred is distinguished from the expression of democratic opinion by its harmful intent. Dissemination of hate speech on social media is characterised by its virulence (Zamora-Medina et al., 2021), especially when directed towards the political class, and particularly at women, who are challenged in a different way to their male counterparts (Soriano, 2019). This violence triggers an anti-feminist reaction (Wilhelm & Joeckel, 2018) characterised by extreme misogyny, reaction, and a tendency towards personal attacks. Thus, the aggression exerted by haters against this vulnerable group contaminates the public sphere and negatively affects the quality of democracies. On the basis of this state of affairs, this research seeks, through content analysis, to identify and analyse expressions of hatred directed towards the five female candidates for the presidency of the Community of Madrid (Isabel Díaz of the Partido Popular, Mónica García of Más Madrid, Rocío Monasterio of Vox, Alejandra Jacinto of Podemos, Izquierda Unida, and Alianza Verde, and Aruca Gómez of Ciudadanos) in the comments made on their official Instagram accounts during the May 2023 election campaign. In addition, it aims to examine hate discourses that may be related to both a female gender bias and other vulnerable groups through issues such as aporophobia or xenophobia, among others. The results show that hatred is directed towards female politicians with great intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic, social, and health crises have shaken and polarized contemporary politics. An element fueling this polarization is the dissemination of divisive topics on social media platforms. While these polarizing social media tendencies are increasingly studied, research exploring digital political communication in South America remains scarce. This study aims to analyze the electoral campaigns in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru to define the features that trigger polarized emotional reactions on Facebook. The corpus comprises a sample of 2,930 posts published by candidates and political parties during the first round of the presidential elections held in these countries between 2021 and 2022. We hypothesize that users are more likely to react in a polarized way to content focused on divisive issues. In addition, we examine how these patterns differ across countries and the influence of the level of political polarization. Finally, the role played by party-level characteristics in the emotional reactions of users is also analyzed. By means of quantitative content analysis, these questions are addressed using multilevel negative binomial regressions to identify what predicts Love and Angry reactions. The bandwagon effect seems to work positively on users’ moods since the most popular political actors receive significantly more Love reactions, irrespective of the post’s subject. In more polarized countries, there is a tendency to react more negatively to certain divisive issues, generating greater visibility of these issues on social networks and thus promoting more polarization. These findings expand knowledge about the dynamics of digital political communication in the Global South.

The use of emotions in electoral campaigns, the role of leadership in these campaigns and the presence of electoral content in social networks are relevant elements of Political Science. This work provides a proposal for the measurement of these elements in electoral campaign materials. Indicators covering the highlighted topics will be presented, using the regional elections of Castile and Leon from February 2022 as a measurement test. In this way, it is established that positive emotions are the most frequently used by political parties, and the presence of regional leaders and the extensive use of social networks has been common practice during this exceptional campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes brought by new technologies and the ensuing rapid development of the communication field have resulted in an increasing number of studies on politicians’ use of the internet and social media. However, while election campaigns have been the predominant research area in political communication scholarship, music has not yet been taken as an object of study alongside spectacularisation and politainment. Aside from some preliminary studies, systematic research on music in politics is scarce. The literature holds that music is a universal language. Music in politics can therefore be deemed to be an identification tool that can help politicians connect with voters and bring together positions between the different actors of international relations. This is an exploratory study about the use of music in political campaigning. It is focused on the role played by the Spotify playlists created by the main political parties in recent election campaigns in Spain. The initial hypothesis is that some of the candidates strategically selected songs to be shared with their followers. A quantitative content analysis (N = 400) of some Spotify playlists showed that there were significant differences in the selection of songs among the different political parties. This research contributes to the understanding of how Spotify has been used for electoral campaigning, as well as shedding some light on the current communication literature on music and politics.

This Special Issue contributes to the growing literature on parties abroad. Expansive citizenship has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between emigrants and their home country. Political parties face the dilemma of engaging or not in this new arena for electoral politics and must consider how. However, until recently the literature on transnationalism and on party politics has surprisingly largely overlooked this issue. This introduction identifies the existing gaps in the literature, and stresses two main questions that remains largely unanswered, namely (1) why and how parties decide to campaign abroad, and (2) how voters abroad are receptive to these campaigns and operate their party choice in this specific context. The five articles offer a mix of case studies and comparative perspective, and quantitative and qualitative analyses. This case selection allows to explore the diversity of strategies adopted by political parties abroad in different settings, with different tools. The results illustrate the impact of local party branches and entrepreneurs' outreach and local campaigns on mobilisation, turnout, and the result of elections, but also show that emigrants' vote choice is influenced both by the context of their country of origin and of their country of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties take advantage of the internet to disseminate their messages, particularly during election campaigns. In addition to the public, these messages reach journalists, who have turned these platforms into another tool for their professional work. The aim of this study is to reflect on how the nature of publications can affect the work of journalists who use this content as raw material to work with. In order to explore this more deeply, a quantitative approach is proposed, consisting of a metric analysis of 1,280 Facebook posts by 10 political forces and a survey of 1,004 people, representing the universe of the Spanish population. The results show that the parties disseminate unidirectional and propagandistic content on Facebook during campaigns, marginalising dialogue and interaction. This restricts journalists’ ability to converse with political parties through the social network, which at the same time is impacted by messages whose veracity is secondary to their objective of reaching as many internet users as possible.

This paper analyzed the legal framework regarding transparency in financing political parties for the election campaign in Albania and North Macedonia. The main object was the identification and analysis of the changes in the legislative solutions that are implemented in these two countries for issues related to (i) the method of reporting the financing of the election campaign, (ii) the periodicity and time of reporting, (iii) the publication of donations with private funds, (iv) the institutions of monitoring and auditing financial reports, (v) publication of financial reports and (vi) sanctions for violators of the law. The assessment of the level of law enforcement, as a reflection of the differences in the two countries' efforts toward the development of democratic elections, was part of the objectives of this study. The comparative analysis was the main methodology used in this paper. Based on the results of this analysis, it can be confirmed that the national legislation for the financing of election campaigns in Albania and North Macedonia is: (i) drafted following the requirements and standards defined in international documents, (ii) the differences are a reflection of the process of democratic development of these two countries. The quality in the implementation of the legislation was identified as a factor with hindering effects on the transparency of the financing of political campaigns. The commitment to improve the legislation aiming, in particular, additional capacities development for controlling and law-enforcing institutions, as well as the engagement in education and strengthening the culture for implementing the rule of law, are necessary for both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed the legal framework regarding transparency in financing political parties for the election campaign in Albania and North Macedonia. The main object was the identification and analysis of the changes in the legislative solutions that are implemented in these two countries for issues related to (i) the method of reporting the financing of the election campaign, (ii) the periodicity and time of reporting, (iii) the publication of donations with private funds, (iv) the institutions of monitoring and auditing financial reports, (v) publication of financial reports and (vi) sanctions for violators of the law. The assessment of the level of law enforcement, as a reflection of the differences in the two countries' efforts toward the development of democratic elections, was part of the objectives of this study. The comparative analysis was the main methodology used in this paper. Based on the results of this analysis, it can be confirmed that the national legislation for the financing of election campaigns in Albania and North Macedonia is: (i) drafted following the requirements and standards defined in international documents, (ii) the differences are a reflection of the process of democratic development of these two countries. The quality in the implementation of the legislation was identified as a factor with hindering effects on the transparency of the financing of political campaigns. The commitment to improve the legislation aiming, in particular, additional capacities development for controlling and law-enforcing institutions, as well as the engagement in education and strengthening the culture for implementing the rule of law, are necessary for both countries.

Political parties are a suitable option when one wants to implement a democratic system in a country, and this process has undergone plenty of changes over time. The best way for political parties to become attractive for citizens is to show that they share the same interests, usually through election promises. In terms of pledge fulfillment, there isample research made by academic writers and we can identify certain reasons for which political parties fulfill their electoral promises or not. My paper has two components and aims to identify the situation of fulfilling the electoral promises of a political party in Romania in 2020. I propose to add to the previous papers a supplement, having as case study of a political party „Alliance for the Union of Romanians” in Romania. The gap I was able to identify in the literature refers to Romanian political parties and their rate of pledge fulfillment. The thesis I illustrate an answer in this paper is” Why does (or does not) the party AUR keep its electoral promises?”. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether or not the party AUR has fulfilled its electoral promises (and in what percentage) and what are the main causes that have influenced the fulfillment of these promises. The data collected come from online sources, more specifically all the AUR party posts on social portals and legislative initiatives, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, and the method used for data analysis is process tracing. My results are represented by a small rate of fulfilling electoral pledges (17,64%) and 6 specific causes that affected this rate (one of them didn’t go through, four of them showed why these percentage is so low and the last of them showed why the percentage is not 0%).

This article develops a reputational theory of political falsehoods. Politicians are motivated by the desire to build a positive reputation, therefore, they will be more likely to deliver false statements (incurring the risk of being fact-checked) when the potential benefit outweighs the cost. This happens as new elections come closer, since the electoral benefit of falsehoods increases along with the probability of being checked too late (after the election day). Politicians are less likely to issue falsehoods in detailed statements and in scripted communication, since the reputational cost is higher because such falsehoods would be considered intentional. Conversely, the stronger trust that voters attribute to politicians on issues they own, allows politicians to lie on such topics. Statistical analysis of almost 8000 statements released by politicians and assessed by fact-checkers, in the United States and Italy (2007–2018), supports the hypotheses. The results hold irrespective of party affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adopting a political communication perspective, this article describes the Italian electoral campaign of 2022. First, we reconstruct the coalition formation phase and discuss the issues at the center of the electoral campaign. Second, we describe the communicative macro-frames at the heart of the political strategies of Italian political actors and how these macro-frames are used to campaign on more specific issues. Third, we delve into the hybrid communication strategies of Italian politicians. To do so, we integrate the analysis of legacy media, showing their enduring centrality, and that of social media. We conclude that the 2022 election was marked by many novelties, such as the unusual national summer campaign, the massive use of Instagram, and the introduction of TikTok in the parties' communication strategies. At the same time, elements of continuity were present, such as leaders' reliance on traditional media and the high political instability forcing the Italian political system to intense and hurried electoral campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how political activities affect the political efficiency and political participation in real life among the citizens of the city of Durrës, Albania. Focusing on the parliamentary election campaign of April 25, 2021, this article analyzes the basic concepts of addressing the most important topics for the mass audience and to what extent the data influences voters in the way they vote. This article analyzes how the voter follows the election campaign of political parties and candidates through various forms, face to face, television, online, etc. and the level of issues addressed during the election campaign, how much the demographic context of the voter influences the electoral campaign follow-up, etc. Based on a poll voters conducted after the election, we interpreted these factors to finally identify which of them reflects the greatest weight. For this we examine the candidate’s social media messages and how they are understood by the direct audience. In addition, this study sheds light on the relationship between political activities and political awareness. We conducted a survey with (N = 300). To answer the research questions, regression and correlation models were constructed, laminating the impact of various factors on voter campaign attendance. To complete the analysis framework, the latter is also analyzed in the context of the independent variable. The analysis further includes testing the impact of the new media, political messages, on voter perception and their connection to election campaign follow-up. In addition, social media is a vital platform for network users to participate in real-life political activities. In conclusion, the study findings suggest that online political activities are strongly related to political awareness and political participation. The analysis also shows that politicians use new media for different purposes. The article concludes on the ways in which the political message influences voter behavior by exploiting the effects of social media and how new media has changed the campaigns of political parties.

This paper studies the strategic adoption of populist rhetoric in electoral campaigns – i.e., the supply side of populism. We build on existing studies to argue that populist campaigning is more likely to be chosen by politicians who face an electorate characterized by high economic insecurity. We add that two other factors are crucial determinants of the choice of a populist campaign strategy, namely the closeness of the election and the candidate's outsider status. We apply automated text analysis to campaign websites for the 2018 and 2020 congressional elections and construct a continuous index of populism in campaign documents. We provide evidence that indeed outsider candidates in competitive races resort to more populism in response to higher economic insecurity. Drawing connections between theories of voter mobilization and populist discourse, this paper sheds light on how local economic and political conditions are key to understanding the strategic supply of populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the use of search engine optimization (SEO) by political and non-political actors to amplify the visibility of search engine results. While there has been much theoretical speculation around the role of SEO techniques in boosting the ranking appearance of a website, few empirical studies have been undertaken to understand the extent to which SEO techniques are used to promote visibility online. This study takes Italy as a case study to map the information landscape around nine highly controversial issues during the Italian electoral campaign of 2022. Using a combination of digital methods and a tool detecting optimization in websites, our article aims at examining which actors employ SEO techniques to foster the circulation of their ideas and agendas around hot topics. Our analysis reveals that information channels, institutions, and companies are predominant, while political actors remain in the background. Contextually, data indicate that SEO techniques are employed by several recurrent editorial groups, company owners, and institutions. Ultimately, we discuss the impact of SEO techniques on the circulation and visibility of information around relevant policy issues, contributing to shaping and influencing public debate and opinion.

In an electoral competition, campaign teams choose strategies that can most easily decide their own candidate's victory. The present study aims at an incursion into the field of negative campaigns, having two components: the debates of specialists in political science on the subject and the way in which this direction was reflected in the electoral campaigns in Romania during 1990–2000. The article diachronically follows the evolution of Ion Iliescu during the four electoral rounds, highlighting the degree to which the negative campaign was imposed as the main strategy, against whom it was carried out, what topics were promoted, and to what extent it determined the success or failure of the candidate. In the analysis, the first part presents the views of sociologists, historians, and specialists in communication and political science, whereas the case study on the Romanian political environment is based on the written press of the period and the statements of politicians, reflected through the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates dyadic representation, that is, the link between the policy preferences of the constituencies and their representatives in the Japanese Lower House (LH). More specifically, this study examines how the within-party variation in policy positions among party candidates corresponds with that across their districts. By examining a series of candidate surveys conducted between 2003 and 2012 as well as the local employment structure, this study maps the association between the policy preferences of constituencies and those of their district candidates for two major parties. Specifically, candidates were found to take more rural-oriented positions on economic policies when running in districts with rural employment structures, while there remained a clear difference between parties. Moreover, this study demonstrates that constituencies accord more votes to candidates who better represent their preferences, strengthening the link by electing those who fulfill the responsibility beyond their party label. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile instant messaging platforms has increased in recent years in political communication given the private nature of this form of communication, a trend which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this research is to know the Telegram usage done by the main political parties within the election campaign. For this purpose, the Catalan election of the 14th of February 2021 are studied with a quantitative content analysis on a sample composed of 600 messages published by five political parties (PSC, Vox Barcelona, ERC, Junts per Catalunya, CUP and En Comú Podem). Results show that one of the most important functions of this platforms is the information and dissemination of its electoral programme. Regarding the main topics, the organization and functioning of the campaign and the political wrangling predominate. Our findings show that the position of the different parties regarding the independence of Catalonia, their political trajectory and their position within the government/opposition axis are conditioning factors of their communication strategy on this platform. Finally, the analysis of the public impact of the published messages reveals the disconnection between the parties and the citizens. In addition, a "more is more" effect which determines that the more messages are broadcast on this platform, the greater the number of views by users is, is detected. These data reveal new evidence on how Telegram is being used in the election campaign by political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile instant messaging platforms has increased in recent years in political communication given the private nature of this form of communication, a trend which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this research is to know the Telegram usage done by the main political parties within the election campaign. For this purpose, the Catalan election of the 14th of February 2021 are studied with a quantitative content analysis on a sample composed of 600 messages published by five political parties (PSC, Vox Barcelona, ERC, Junts per Catalunya, CUP and En Comú Podem). Results show that one of the most important functions of this platforms is the information and dissemination of its electoral programme. Regarding the main topics, the organization and functioning of the campaign and the political wrangling predominate. Our findings show that the position of the different parties regarding the independence of Catalonia, their political trajectory and their position within the government/opposition axis are conditioning factors of their communication strategy on this platform. Finally, the analysis of the public impact of the published messages reveals the disconnection between the parties and the citizens. In addition, a “more is more” effect which determines that the more messages are broadcast on this platform, the greater the number of views by users is, is detected. These data reveal new evidence on how Telegram is being used in the election campaign by political actors.

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The article uses the methods of unit economics to analyze inter-party competition in the Russian Federation on the example of the 2016 elections to the State Duma. The author concludes limited applicability of unit economics for the analysis of electoral strategies and prospects of both parliamentary and new parties. The current mechanism of state financing of political parties encourages them to drift in the direction of market or rental strategies.

Copyright of ESPOCH Congresses: The Ecuadorian Journal of S.T.E.A.M. is the property of Knowledge E DMCC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The cultural dimension of politics is not secondary but rather a constitutive element of its social dynamics and of the logic of power, which must be visualized to be effective. Some authors, including Jeffrey Alexander and Randall Collins, have elaborated upon this dimension: the former with the concept of political performance, and the latter with rituals and social domination. The combination of the two perspectives is useful for us to look at the use of the inaugurations of momentous events and festivities with a new light – as a privileged instrument to legitimize a narrative of power and to create symbols of dominance embodied by political figures. This fabrication of narrative charisma in politics could be observed in Valencia (Spain) between 1991 and 2015, during the long political domination of conservative regionalism. Likewise, this case is a clear example of how almost absolute political dominance can fall apart, partly because of deficient performances and failed political rituals. This fact highlights the fragility, contingency of power and dependence on its symbolic performativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeszyty Prawnicze Biuro Analiz Sejmowej is the property of Kancelaria Sejmu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article highlights a new trend in brand behavior, especially global ones: brand activism. Brand activism involves brands taking public positions on social and political issues. They are addressed to society as a whole and not just to a commercial target. Brands take positions despite the risks they face. This type of stance emerged in the context of the crisis of legitimacy of heteronomous discourse (especially in the United States), being at the same time a defensive reaction and an opportunity for brands to occupy new discursive territories. In the first part, I presented the main features of brand activism, insisting on political activism. The second part is, in fact, a hermeneutic analysis of the discourse transmitted through the brand campaign of eMAG, especially through the advertising clip "Freedom every day" from October 2019. I showed that, in reality, this was a campaign of brand activism, overlapping with part of the 2019 presidential election campaign and trying to stimulate the #resist movement. The association of two different campaigns (brand campaign and brand activism campaign) as well as the inconsistent mix of communicated values, especially through the advertising clip, but also through the entire campaign, made the reception to be predominantly negative. Finally, the brand activism cannot reached its target.

Electoral campaigns are one of the key moments in political life. Yet, there is little Canadian work on this subject when it comes to municipal elections. However, the international literature on campaigning provides an opportunity for useful questions on the transformations of this aspect of local political life by bringing together political sociology and electoral sociology. That being said in this context, we present the results of an exploratory case study of campaigning in a municipal political party in a Canadian city, more specifically situated in the Province of Quebec. Municipal political parties are usually considered as electoral machines. It is therefore important to study in detail the way these organizations conduct election campaigns. More specifically, we are looking to explore how municipal political parties influence the campaign by providing electoral techniques. To achieve this, we closely examine the door to door canvassing strategy, which hints at what the party considers a “good campaigning” standard and helps us observe the behaviours of candidates and the different ways they fulfill the party’s requirements. It is therefore not a question of measuring the effectiveness of partisan electoral devices but of understanding how the party produces campaigning norms and puts them to work. The results presented here offer an original insight into the internal workings of a municipal political party—something that has never before been documented in the Canadian context. First, they help to open the black box that is municipal political parties and to better understand their internal modus operandi. Second, the results illustrate that election campaigning is still fundamentally based on one-on-one encounters.

This paper studies the relationship between politicians' pay and the campaign spending of candidates running in the French municipal elections. For that purpose, I construct a dataset containing the campaign records of all lists running in the 2008 and 2014 elections in municipalities of more than 9000 inhabitants. I implement a regression discontinuity design exploiting a population threshold in elected officials' pay. The results show that, around the 20,000-inhabitant threshold, the pay level negatively impacts candidates' spending. That puzzling result is not only statistically significant, but also economically sizeable: the amounts spent by lists running in municipalities just above the threshold are up to 35% less than those of lists running just below the population threshold. The result combines with an important reduction in the intensity of political competition, favoring an incumbent's reelection. I also provide some evidence of a decline in mayoral quality. The results suggest that politicians' pay does shape their incentives, but higher pay can favor the persistence of low-quality mayors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dixit. Comunicación, Profesión, Conocimiento is the property of Universidad Catolica del Uruguay Damaso Antonio Larranaga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The elections that took place in 2016 in Benin are very significant in defining the new framework of the French-African relations per se. The so-called candidate of Françafrique, Lionel Zinsou, lost the elections mainly because he promoted during the electoral campaign a vision still devoted to maintaining close connections with the former colonial power, France. On the other side, Patrice Talon fiercely advocated for a new and strong position both in what regards the domestic affairs as well as externally, portraying himself as «le candidat de la rupture». In the end, this way of positioning during the electoral campaign brought him the victory in elections, besides France's support towards the other candidate. Taking into consideration all these elements, the main purpose of the paper is that of analysing the impact of the 2016 elections 'result on redefining and maybe even ending the French-African relations, long time known as Françafrique. In this approach, the analysis will mainly focus on the electoral campaign itself and especially on the way in which the colonial past and the reference to France have been used by the candidates as means of winning votes from the electorate and to positioning to one another during that period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the election campaign, the media considerably expands its audience. Reported to the press, the main tools used in the election campaign are: election advertising, debates, opinion polls and election news. Of these, the election news represents the favourite of the online press. During the election period, the news is very important, because through it the electorate is informed about the activity of politicians, their behaviour is monitored, some political subjects are slandered and others are brought to light. In the Republic of Moldova, the ethical-legal basis is very vulnerable, compared to this media segment, because there are no legal provisions for this type of media activity. It is this “vulnerability” which, unhindered by anyone, can play the game of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of social networks has gone beyond individuals' social affairs to influencing their various kinds of economic, political and practical life affairs. These networks have become closely linked to political, social and commercial promotion and marketing. They have an important place for disseminating ideas and exchanging opinions and information (1) especially in controversial or pluralistic issues of opinion such as the parliamentary elections, which has competitive in nature.Today, social media networks are used in a way that exceeds the media (2), and it has an exceptional presence in campaigns and electoral fields, as well as the candidates in many countries use it as a place for their propaganda and electoral programs due to the intensity of its use. The speed of its spread among the people, with its influence that exceeds the traditional means of propaganda, and its ability to influence on individuals and forming public opinion and supporting it. Jordanian woman found what she wanted in her electoral campaign. Social networks have contributed to covering the gap between her and the parliamentary elections that need constant communication, activity and very intense meetings that women in our eastern society may not be able to do, which is governed by some social restrictions in conservative societies that restrict women, while men exercise their freedom of movement and communication with voters at all times. The role of social media networks is important for women to help them in electoral competition in light of a very uncomfortable atmosphere for movement within the mass base and also in light of the Corona pandemic that limits meetings, and therefore these networks are an important option for communication in light of the widespread use of their use in the Jordanian society, which has a number of accounts in these networks are 10.9 million accounts, while the population is approximately 10 and a half million. These accounts are distributed among Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Linked In. (3) Therefore, the role of social networks in the electoral campaign for Jordanian women raises many of the ideas discussed in this research in its four chapters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic premise of free and fair elections is equal participation and representation of all candidates and candidate lists. Media are crucial in this process, taking into account they go hand in hand with modern democracies. As such, the role of media in promotional activities is regulated by law. The existing legal framework regulating election campaigns requires further improvements, especially in regard to participation of public officials in election campaigns and the use of public resources for these purposes. The engagement of public officials in election campaigns, or promotion, is defined as a "functionary campaign". The year 2012 was a turning point for Serbia in terms of having functionary campaigns and consequently preventing free and fair elections. Until today multiple examples of usage of official capacities for campaign purposes have been reported. This paper defines functionary campaigns and analyses the existing legal provisions related to functionary campaigns in Serbia. While the legal framework requires further improvements what is worrisome is the poor implementation of the provisions in place. This paper also analyses the Government solutions proposed to the National Assembly of Serbia in 2019.

This paper examines how Facebook is used by political parties during elections to extend or accelerate their reach within the electorate and how successful these efforts are. Specifically, we compare the content and style of parties' Facebook posts during the 2014 European parliament elections, and how this affects followers' responses in terms of liking, sharing and commenting on the posts. Our findings reveal while that the timing and visual content of posts are important in increasing voters' attention, interactivity matters most. Responsive party posts on Facebooks are significantly more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on by users. Given that follower reactions, particularly sharing, helps to increase the visibility of party communication through indirect or two-step flow communication (online and offline), these findings are important in advancing our understanding of how and why social media campaigns are able to influence voters and thus affect election outcomes. For parties themselves the results provide some useful insights into what makes for an 'effective' Facebook campaign in terms of how they can accelerate the reach of their communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the literature, the present study analyzes the electoral campaign and political communication through social media and highlights the capacity of the Internet to transform the way of action of politicians, political parties, governmental organizations, the media and last but not least, of the citizen / voter. New media is at the moment the concept that has succeeded in transforming the understanding of mass communication, causing radical changes in the communication manner, in the strategies and conduct of the electoral campaign. Virtual / social space exploits communication in all its forms, and politics benefits from these advantages, with the Internet providing the opportunity for politicians to interact directly with voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On April 25, 2021, Albania will hold the parliamentary elections in the context of COVID-19 and like many countries in the world, sending the political message to the electorate will be a real challenge for candidates and political parties during the election campaign. The implementation of the recommendations and restrictive measures of the health authorities to avoid contacts and gatherings with the electorate, will increasingly condition the electoral subjects to redimensioned their relations with the electorate and it is logically expected, taking into account the experiences of the countries that have held election in pandemic times, to move the election campaign on digital communication platforms and television and radio broadcasting. The object of these research paper is to analyze whether the use of these mediums can meet the essential condition of political communication, to transmit the message to the recipent taking into account the level of use of Informative and Communication Technology of citizens in Albania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Geopolitica(s): Revista de Estudios Sobre Espacio y Poder is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The year 2017 was an intense electoral year in Chile, both parliamentary and presidential. In this context, by using computer intelligence, an interdisciplinary team conducted a collection and volumetric analysis of over 3 million Twitter messages belonging to users that mentioned, at least once, any of the presidential candidates, both in the first and second voting round. Our goal was focused on analyzing the relationship between traditional media (radio and television) and Twitter, probing user interactions during the broadcast of live political shows, with emphasis on presidential debates. For this purpose, we carried out a volumetric analysis of all mentions in social media during the broadcast of live political shows to characterize the digital attention of the audience, under different parameters. Our results show that there is high user interest in the digital debate regarding presidential debates, a positive correlation between traditional media and Twitter during the broadcast of live political shows, and that, also, the latter trigger social media; furthermore, we verify the double screen phenomenon made possible by mobile platforms.

Who and how takes part in a typical Twitter discussion about political elections? In what degree? In our study we try to shed some light on these questions by examining the case of Italian 2018 national election. Starting from the database that we collected during the latest general campaign, we analyse all the users who participated in the discussion unfolding in the two months preceding the vote. To do that, we exploit the concept of super-participants isolating the 1% of users who generate large part of the discussion. We study them identifying the two main participation flows in the Twittersphere generated by tweets and retweets, discovering that participation curves are very skewed. To address issues of centrality and inclusiveness in online communication, we look at who the super-participants are in the broader society, finding that many of them are citizens. To inquire if participation draws attention, we identify a set of super-echoed users discovering that, belonging to élite categories is still an advantage given that starting popularity is often more important to be shared than participation. In fact, citizens’ super-participation is not mirrored by an equally consistent received attention. Notwithstanding, political supporters and satirical blogs emerge to be two very interesting categories.

Copyright of Journal of Iberian & Latin American Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 2019 Austrian snap election, held on 29 September 2019, was preceded by a series of scandals. Most prominent among them was the so-called 'Ibizagate' involving the former Vice-Chancellor and FPÖ party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache. The scandal eventually led to the collapse of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition in May 2019 and the formation of a caretaker government. The election day in September brought a clear victory for the ÖVP with an increase of almost six percentage points, compared to its vote share in the 2017 election. The second big winner was the Green party which scored the best result in the party history with 13.9 per cent of the vote. Amid scandals, the FPÖ saw its support fall to only 16.2 per cent; the election also resulted in an all-time low for the SPÖ achieving only 21.2 per cent. The article presents the background, the election campaign and the results of the 2019 Austrian election, discussing the wide range of 'firsts' that characterized them, including the formation of the first ÖVP-Green coalition government in Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]