Abstract
To extend their reach to supporters and voters, three election campaign functions are key to political actors: information, interaction and mobilisation. We argue that these three functions are interrelated and function most successfully through interrelationship. Thus, the distinction between top-down and bottom-up communication appears to be rather artificial in the context of online campaigns. In campaign practice, both directions are rather closely linked. Our theoretical framework shows how Facebook can be used specifically to realise the three key functions and provides the background for the following chapters for analysing how political parties actually use Facebook in European Parliament (EP) election campaigns. The state of research shows that Facebook has been neglected in previous research on social media use in EP elections.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
For Facebook, the Facebook Ad Library (https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/) provides information on ads, for example, about the range of spending on an ad and its reach across multiple targets.
References
Ansolabehere, S., & Iyengar, S. (1994). Riding the wave and claiming ownership over issues. Public Opinion Quarterly, 58, 335–357. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2749726
Bicchi, F., Blondel, J., & Svensson, P. (2003). The European Parliament campaign (Working Paper). http://www.ucd.ie/dempart/workingpapers/campaign.pdf
Bieber, C., & Schwöbel, C. (2011). Politische Online-Kommunikation im Spannungsfeld zwischen Europa- und Bundestagswahl. In J. Tenscher (Ed.), Superwahljahr 2009. Vergleichende Analysen aus Anlass der Wahlen zum Deutschen Bundestag und zum Europäischen Parlament (pp. 223–244). VS Verlag.
Blaemire, R. (2003). Targeting: Getting the most out of what you have. In R. A. Faucheux (Ed.), Winning elections. Political campaign management, strategy & tactics (pp. 224–228). M. Evans and Company.
Blumler, J. G. (2016). The fourth age of political communication. Politiques de Communication, 6(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.3917/pdc.006.0019
Blumler, J. G., & Kavanagh, D. (1999). The third age of political communication. Political Communication, 16(3), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/105846099198596
Christenson, D. P., Smidt, C. D., & Panagopoulos, C. (2014). Deus ex Machina: Candidate web presence and the presidential nomination campaign. Political Research Quarterly, 67(1), 108–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912913494017
Craig, S. C., Kane, J. G., & Gainous, J. (2005). Issue-related learning in a gubernatorial campaign: A panel study. Political Communication, 22(4), 483–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600500311501
Dalton, R. J., & Wattenberg, M. P. (Eds.). (2002). Parties without partisans: Political change in advanced industrial democracies. Oxford University Press.
Foot, K. A., Schneider, S. M., Xenos, M., & Dougherty, M. (2009). Candidates’ web practices in the 2002 U.S. House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections. Journal of Political Marketing, 8(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377850902813519
Gibson, R. K., & Römmele, A. (2001). A party-centered theory of professionalized campaigning. Press/Politics, 6(4), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/108118001129172323
Hermans, L., & Vergeer, M. (2012). Personalization in e-campaigning: A crossnational comparison of personalization strategies used on candidate websites of 17 countries in EP elections 2009. New Media & Society, 15(1), 72–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812457333
Holtz-Bacha, C. (2005). Massenmedien und Europawahlen: low key campaigns—Low key response. In C. Holtz-Bacha (Ed.), Europawahl 2004. Die Massenmedien im Europawahlkampf (pp. 7–34). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Koc-Michalska, K., Lilleker, D. G., Michalski, T., Gibson, R., & Zajac, J. M. (2020). Facebook affordances and citizen engagement during elections: European political parties and their benefit from online strategies? Journal of Information Technology & Politics. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2020.1837707
Lilleker, D. G., Koc-Michalska, K., Schweitzer, E. J., Jacunski, M., Jackson, N., & Vedel, T. (2011). Informing, engaging, mobilising or interacting: Searching for a European model of web campaigning. European Journal of Communication, 26(3), 195–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323111416182
Lusoli, W., & Ward, J. (2005). “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” The Internet and the 2004 European Parliament election in Britain. Press/Politics, 10(4), 71–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X05281029
Magin, M., Podschuweit, N., Haßler, J., & Russmann, U. (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. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1254269
Margolis, M., & Resnick, D. (2000). Politics as usual: The cyberspace revolution. Sage Publications.
Margolis, M., Resnick, D., & Wolfe, J. D. (1999). Party competition on the Internet in the United States and Britain. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 4(4), 24–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X9900400403
Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Schulz, A., Andı, S., & Nielsen, R. K. (2020). Reuters Institute digital news report 2020. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/
Obholzer, L., & Daniel, W. T. (2016). An online electoral connection? How electoral systems condition representatives’ social media use. European Union Politics, 17(3), 387–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116516630149
Petithomme, M. (2012). Second-order elections, but also ‘low-cost’ campaigns? National parties and campaign spending in European elections: A comparative analysis. Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 13(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705854.2012.675650
Petrocik, J. R. (1996). Issue ownership and presidential elections. American Journal of Political Science, 40(8), 25–50.
Ramos-Serrano, M., Fernández Gómez, J. D., & Pineda, A. (2018). ‘Follow the closing of the campaign on streaming’: The use of Twitter by Spanish political parties during the 2014 European elections. New Media & Society, 20(1), 122–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816660730
Reif, K., & Schmitt, H. (1980). Nine second-order national elections—A conceptual framework for the analysis of European election results. European Journal of Political Research, 8(1), 3–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.1980.tb00737.x
Roemmele, A., & Gibson, R. (2020). Scientific and subversive: The two faces of the fourth era of political campaigning. New Media & Society, 22(4), 595–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819893979
Russmann, U. (2016). Webkampagnen im Vergleich von Bundestags- und Europawahlkämpfen. Ein Vergleich der Wahlen von 2009 und 2013/14 [Comparison of Web campaigns in German Federal and EU elections. A comparison of the elections in 2009 and 2013/14]. In J. Tenscher & U. Russmann (Eds.), Vergleichende Wahlkampfforschung. Studien anlässlich der Bundestags- und Europawahlen 2013 und 2014 (pp. 55–74). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-12977-4_4
Russmann, U. (2020). Voter targeting online in comparative perspectives: Political party websites in the 2008/2009 and 2013 Austrian and German Election campaigns. Journal of Political Marketing, 19(3), 177–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2016.1179241
Russmann, U. (forthcoming). Social media as strategic campaign tool: Austrian political parties’ use of social media over time. In D. Taras & R. Davies (Eds.), Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics. Michigan University Press.
Schweitzer, E. J. (2009). Europeanisation on the Internet? The role of German party websites in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections. Observatorio (OBS*) Journal, 10, 20–40. https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS332009262
Semetko, H. A., De Vreese, C., & Peter, J. (2000). Europeanised politics—Europeanised media? European integration and political communication. Western European Politics, 23(4), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380008425403
Stark, B., Stegmann, D., Magin, M., & Jürgens, P. (2020). Are algorithms a threat to democracy? The rise of intermediaries: A challenge for public discourse. AlgorithmWatch. https://algorithmwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Governing-Platforms-communications-study-Stark-May-2020-AlgorithmWatch.pdf
Stier, S., Froio, C., & Schünemann, W. J. (2020). Going transnational? Candidates’ transnational linkages on Twitter during the 2019 European Parliament elections. West European Politic. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2020.1812267
Strömbäck, J., & Kiousis, S. (2014). Strategic political communication in election campaigns. In C. Reinemann (Ed.), Political communication. Vol 18 (pp. 109–128). Walter de Gruyter.
Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Cunha, C. (2012). Web campaigning in the 2009 European Parliament elections: A cross-national comparative analysis. New Media & Society, 15(1), 128–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812457337
Vesnic-Alujevic, L., & Van Bauwel, S. (2014). YouTube: A political advertising tool? A case study of the use of YouTube in the campaign for the European Parliament elections. Journal of Political Marketing, 13(3), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2014.929886
Walgrave, S., & De Swert, K. (2007). Where does issue ownership come from? From the party or from the media? Issue-party identifications in Belgium, 1991–2005. International Journal of Press/Politics, 12, 37–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X06297572
Weber, T. (2007). Campaign effects and second-order cycles. A top-down approach to European Parliament Elections. European Union Politics, 8, 509–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116507082812
Wilke, J., & Leidecker, M. (2013). Regional—national—supranational. How the German press covers election campaigns on different levels of the political system. Central European Journal of Communication, 6, 122–143.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Russmann, U., Haßler, J., Fenoll, V., Magin, M. (2021). Social Media as a Campaigning Tool in Elections: Theoretical Considerations and State of Research. In: Haßler, J., Magin, M., Russmann, U., Fenoll, V. (eds) Campaigning on Facebook in the 2019 European Parliament Election. Political Campaigning and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73851-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73851-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-73850-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-73851-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)