Campaigning on Facebook in the 2019 European Parliament Election

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Framework

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Campaigning for Strasbourg on Facebook: Introduction to a 12-Country Comparison on Parties’ Facebook Campaigns in the 2019 European Parliament Election

      • Vicente Fenoll, Jörg Haßler, Melanie Magin, Uta Russmann

      Pages 3-21

   3. Social Media as a Campaigning Tool in Elections: Theoretical Considerations and State of Research

      • Uta Russmann, Jörg Haßler, Vicente Fenoll, Melanie Magin

      Pages 23-39

   4. Analysing European Parliament Election Campaigns Across 12 Countries: A Computer-Enhanced Content Analysis Approach

      • Jörg Haßler, Anna-Katharina Wurst, Katharina Schlosser

      Pages 41-52

3. The European Election Campaign 2019 in 12 European Countries: Country Analyses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53

      PDF

   2. With Greetings from Ibiza: The 2019 EP Election in Austria

      • Uta Russmann

      Pages 55-68

   3. A Day Off During the 2019 Folketing Election Campaign: Political Parties’ Use of Facebook in the EP Election in Denmark

      • Melanie Magin, David Nicolas Hopmann

      Pages 69-85

   4. France: Parties’ Communication Strategies After the 2017 Earthquake

      • Peter Maurer, Sébastien Béllanger

      Pages 87-102

   5. European Issues, but National Campaigning of German Parties

      • Katharina Schlosser, Anna-Katharina Wurst, Jörg Haßler, Simon Kruschinski

      Pages 103-117

   6. Same Strategy, but Different Content. Hungarian Parties’ Facebook Campaign During the 2019 EP Election

      • Márton Bene, Xénia Farkas, Krisztina Burai

      Pages 119-134

   7. When Nothing Happened but Much Changed: How Political Parties in Ireland Used Facebook in the 2019 EP Election Campaign

      • Melanie Magin, Marius G. Vigen

      Pages 135-150

   8. The 2019 EP Election in Italy: A ‘Titanic’ Victory for Salvini’s League

      • Andrea Ceron, Margherita Bordignon, Giovanni Pagano

      Pages 151-168

   9. It Is Only a Drill: The 2019 EP Election Campaign on Facebook in Poland as a Testing Ground Before the Autumn Parliamentary Elections

      • Paweł Baranowski

      Pages 169-185

   10. Romania: Internal Affairs Set the Agenda of the 2019 EP Election Campaign

       • Delia Cristina Balaban, Mihnea S. Stoica, Meda Mucundorfeanu

       Pages 187-200

   11. Spain and Facebook in the 2019 EP Election Campaign

       • Vicente Fenoll

       Pages 201-215

   12. Sceptical Sweden: Right-Wingers Dominate, Traditional Campaigning Permeates During the 2019 EP Election

       • Anders Olof Larsson

       Pages 217-231

   13. The UK: The Post-Brexit, Ghost Election

       • Darren G. Lilleker, Daniel Jackson, Anastasia Veneti

       Pages 233-248

4. The European Election Campaign 2019 in 12 European Countries: Focused Analyses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 249-249

      PDF

   2. European Party Groups: Transnational Continuation or Complement of European National Parties?

      • Anna-Katharina Wurst, Katharina Schlosser, Jörg Haßler

      Pages 251-265

This book investigates how political 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.

• comparative research
• election campaigning
• European elections
• Facebook
• political parties
• social media campaigning

• Department of Media and Communication, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany

  Jörg Haßler

• Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

  Melanie Magin

• Department of Communication, FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication, Vienna, Austria

  Uta Russmann

• Department of Language Theory and Communication Science, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

  Vicente Fenoll

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.

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