Campaigning on Facebook in the 2019 European Parliament Election

“This remarkable book is the outcome of an international collaborative endeavour. It clearly shows that social networks have finally become an integral part of European election campaigns. With its careful methodological design, the study impressively demonstrates the particular value of cross-border comparisons and the need for research to take the national context into account.”—Christina Holtz-Bacha, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
 “A timely and stimulating book covering recent European Parliament elections in twelve nations. The common methodological background produces sound and comparable results, and its comprehensive language and broad scope of cases make this book a perfect fit for researchers, policymakers and citizens attentive to social media’s role in elections.”—Karolina Koc-Michalska, Audencia Business School, France
This book investigates howpolitical parties from 12 European countries used Facebook to inform, interact with and mobilise voters at the 2019 European Parliament election. Following a joint theoretical framework and method, the results of a content analysis of more than 14,000 Facebook posts are presented. Country specific chapters are followed by analyses of European parties’ Facebook campaigning, the spread of populism and the use of Facebook ads by the parties. The final chapter compares all countries showing that campaigns are more strongly shaped by the national than by the European political context. Facebook is used for campaigning as usual; parties inform and persuade but neglect the platform’s mobilisation and particularly interactive affordances.
Jörg Haßler is Head of the junior research group “Digital Democratic Mobilization in Hybrid Media Systems” at LMU Munich, Germany.
Melanie Magin is Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
Uta Russmann is Professor at the FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences of Management & Communication, Austria.
Vicente Fenoll is Associate Professor at the University of Valencia, Spain.