#CeDEM13 Day3, PhD Colloquium, SE 3.5, Chair: Peter Parycek, Christina Hainzl

1. PhD
Colloquium
CeDEM
2013
Political communication in election campaigns for
the European Parliament
Comparison
na8onal
elec8on
campaigns
in
Austria
with
the
campaign
for
the
European
Parliament
focus
today:
Social
Media
in
elec2on
campaigns
using
the
example
of
regional
elec2ons
in
Lower
Austria
2013
Gerda
Füricht-­‐Fiegl,
MSc
24th
May
2013,
Donau-­‐Universität
Krems
1

2. Mo2va2on
• Disserta2on
at
the
Andrássy
University
Budapest
within
the
program
„future
of
democracies
in
EU-­‐rope“
in
coopera2on
with
netPOL
• Time:
February
2013
–
February
2016
• Frame
for
the
topic:
• Na2onal
elec2ons
in
Austria
–
September
2013
• Elec2ons
European
Parliament
(EP)
–
May
2014
2

3. Star2ng
posi2on
• Elec2on
campaigns
for
the
EP
are
seen
as
„elec2ons
of
second
choice“-­‐
poten2al
reasons
• Low
interest
on
EU
topics
within
the
popula2on
• Less
prominent
poli2cians
• Low
interest
of
the
par2es
thereselves
-­‐>
argumenta2on
in
circle:
Massmedia,
par2es,
voters
-­‐>
the
key:
Involvment
-­‐
European
public
• Chance
of
crises
–
further
EU-­‐integra2on?
• New
„rules“
aer
treaty
of
lissbon
3

4. Research
ques2on
„Which
mechanism
of
poli8cal
communica8on
at
na8onal
elec8on
campaigns
–
using
the
example
of
na8onal
elec8ons
in
Austria
–
are
applicable
for
elec8on
campaigns
for
the
European
Parliament
and
which
mechanism
are
just
used
on
a
European
level?“
Subques2on:
„Are
cross-­‐na2onal
lists
of
candidates
a
perspec2ve
in
poli2cal
communica2on?“
4

5. Fields
of
theory
• European
Public
• Advanced
Europeaniza2on
in
terms
of
economy
-­‐
less
concerning
European
Public
• reasons
and
consequences
for
EU-­‐communica2on
• Elec2on
research
• Michigan
School
–
social
pscychological
iden2fica2on
approach
–
focusing
on
individuum
and
personal
decision
• Poli8cal
Communica8on
–
focus
elec8on
campaigns
5

6. Poli2cal
Communica2on
at
elec2on
campaigns
•
Poli2cal
campaigns
–
in
comparison
to
PR-­‐campaigns
•
e.g.
Aims,
Strategies,
Targe2ng,
Messaging
•
Role
of
massmedia
•
Rela2onship
Media
–
Poli2cs
•
Journalist
as
a
Gatekeeper
–
Posi2on
is
changing?
•
Relevance
of
Social
Media
for
poli8cal
communica8on
in
general
and
specially
for
elec8on
campaigns
•
In
terms
of
EU-­‐level
•
Na2onal
or
regional
level
6

7. Example:
Social
media
(SOM)
at
a
regional
elec2on
campaign
Elec2on
campaign
for
the
regional
elec2on
in
Lower
Austria
(Niederösterreichische
Landtagswahlen)
on
3rd
March
2013
•
Ques8ons
•
Do
par2es
use
Social
Media
for
their
elec2on
campaign?
•
Which
Social
Media
/
channels
are
used
mainly?
•
How
do
they
use
the
Social
Media?
•
Details
•
Time:
15.2.2013
(=
official
beginning
of
campaign
from
ÖVP
and
Team
Stronach)
2ll
3.3.2013
(elec2on
day)
•
Analysed
par2es:
ÖVP,
SPÖ,
FPÖ,
Grüne,
Team
Stronach
•
Analysed
channels:
homepages,
facebook,
twiner,
flickr
7

8. criteria
ÖVP
SPÖ
FPÖ
Grüne
Team
Stronach
Using
SOM
x
x
Not
on
a
regional
level
x
x
Channels
all*
all
Only
Homepage
on
a
reg.
Level
all
all
Likes
on
f
(27.2.)
9.200
2.825
-­‐
577
8.198
Specials
just
in
SOM
Erwinize
me
Reime
für
Erwin
-­‐
-­‐
-­‐
Best
of
Frank
Personal-­‐
isa2on
x
–
Pröll
campaign
x
-­‐
x
X
(Frank
Stronach)
8
*all
means:
homepages,
f,
twiner,
flickr

9. Method
for
the
disserta2on
1. Theory
2. Secondary
analysis
3. Qualita2ve
Research
–
Interviews
with
experts
4. Quan2ta2ve
Research
–
telephone
survey
9

10. Research
Qualita8ve
research
–
Interviews
with
experts
• Interviewpartners
• Elec2on
campaign
manager
+
external
communica2on
experts
for
the
na2onal
campaign
as
well
as
the
EU-­‐campaign
• Poli2cians:
Austrian
MEP´s
+
Austrian
Poli2cians
Quan8ta8ve
research
–
telephone
survey
• Telephone
survey
with
500
or
1.000
voters
in
Austria
• Coopera2ons
need
to
be
checked
10

11.
Donau-­‐Universität
Krems:
+43
2732
893
2334
gerda.fuericht-­‐fiegl@donau-­‐uni.ac.at
Gerda
Füricht-­‐Fiegl,
MSc
Thank
you