The Relationship Between Topics, Negativity, and User Engagement in Election Campaigns on Facebook

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F24%3A00136380" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/24:00136380 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8098" target="_blank" >https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8098</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.8098" target="_blank" >10.17645/pag.8098</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Relationship Between Topics, Negativity, and User Engagement in Election Campaigns on Facebook

Original language description

Negativity is a common feature of current online political communication during elections. Previous studies on negativity and its impact on user engagement focused mainly on Western European countries. Considering the political particularities of the Central and Eastern European countries, the present study focused on Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, and Romania, where national election campaigns took place from 2020 to 2022. We aimed to investigate comparatively different topics prevalent in the negative messages and look at users’ engagement with negative communication. We applied manual content analysis of N = 4,095 Facebook posts published four weeks before the elections by political parties elected in the national parliament. Results showed significant differences across countries using negative messages and the associated topics. The posts’ highest rate of negative statements was identified in Czechia (52%), while the lowest was in Lithuania (17%). There are topics consistently associated with negative statements across most countries, such as corruption, economy and finance, foreign policy, labor, and social issues. However, given that those elections took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in Czechia, Lithuania, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova and, in Hungary, after Russia invaded Ukraine, we also identified contextual topics such as health, war, and conflicts with other countries and defense that were mainly associated with negative messages. Furthermore, negative posts generate more reactions and comments than posts containing no negative statements. Addressing foreign policy in negative posts generates significantly more reactions and comments.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication

Project

<a href="/en/project/LX22NPO5101" target="_blank" >LX22NPO5101: The National Institute for Research on the Socioeconomic Impact of Diseases and Systemic Risks</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Politics and Governance

ISSN

2183-2463

e-ISSN

2183-2463

Volume of the periodical

12

Issue of the periodical within the volume

July

Country of publishing house

PT - PORTUGAL

Number of pages

19

Pages from-to

1-19

UT code for WoS article

001262622900006

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85198549572