Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of
divergent users'  engagement in Czechia

k 2022

Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia

MACKOVÁ, Alena, Martina NOVOTNÁ and Štěpán ŽÁDNÍK

Basic information

Original name

Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia

Authors

MACKOVÁ, Alena, Martina NOVOTNÁ and Štěpán ŽÁDNÍK

Edition

ECREA 2022 Pre-Conference: Digital Election Campaigning Worldwide, 2022

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Organization unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Keywords in English

Facebook, political communication, election campaign, attacks, acclaims, populist communication, emotions

Abstract

V originále

When it comes to campaigning on social networking sites, the political communication tends to be rather one-sided and only few political actors can attract significant attention of users. Research shows that populists politicians are particularly good in reaching broader audiences and stimulating engagement with the content. Research also shows that citizens pay more attention to negative content and tend to engage with such content more, because negative tonality, often used in populist communication, can trigger negative feelings, and thus increase users’ engagement. However, significantly less evidence is present about the effects of positive tonality and positive emotions on users’ engagement. Our study focuses on both negative (like negative tonality and attacking of opponents) and positive (like personalized communication, acclaiming statements) content elements in the political campaign during the Czech national elections in 2021 as the possible predictors of users’ engagement. Besides the content predictors, we also access the Facebook pages/profiles characteristics as the profile outreach and type, focusing on the distinctions among pages of leaders and parties. Additionally, we explore how different tonality of posts drives different types of users' engagement and reactions. To do so, we apply the content analysis method, and we analyse Facebook posts from seven political leaders and seven relevant parties (and coalition) collected during the 30 days before the elections via CrowdTangle (n = 1470). Our analysis will be completed by the time of conference.

Links

GA19-24724S, research and development project

Name: Politická polarizace v České republice: Případ vícestranického systému

Investor: Czech Science Foundation

MUNI/A/1503/2021, interní kód MU

Name: Současné problémy výzkumu médií a jejich publik II

Investor: Masaryk University

Citovat

MACKOVÁ, Alena, Martina NOVOTNÁ and Štěpán ŽÁDNÍK. Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia. In ECREA 2022 Pre-Conference: Digital Election Campaigning Worldwide. 2022.

@proceedings{2227257,
   author = {Macková, Alena and Novotná, Martina and Žádník, Štěpán},
   booktitle = {ECREA 2022 Pre-Conference: Digital Election Campaigning Worldwide},
   keywords = {Facebook, political communication, election campaign, attacks, acclaims, populist communication, emotions},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia},
   year = {2022}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 2227257
AU  - Macková, Alena - Novotná, Martina - Žádník, Štěpán
PY  - 2022
TI  - Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia
KW  - Facebook, political communication, election campaign, attacks, acclaims, populist communication, emotions
N2  - When it comes to campaigning on social networking sites, the political communication tends to be rather one-sided and only few political actors can attract significant attention of users. Research shows that populists politicians are particularly good in reaching broader audiences and stimulating engagement with the content. Research also shows that citizens pay more attention to negative content and tend to engage with such content more, because negative tonality, often used in populist communication, can trigger negative feelings, and thus increase users’ engagement. However, significantly less evidence is present about the effects of positive tonality and positive emotions on users’ engagement. Our study focuses on both negative (like negative tonality and attacking of opponents) and positive (like personalized communication, acclaiming statements) content elements in the political campaign during the Czech national elections in 2021 as the possible predictors of users’ engagement. Besides the content predictors, we also access the Facebook pages/profiles characteristics as the profile outreach and type, focusing on the distinctions among pages of leaders and parties. Additionally, we explore how different tonality of posts drives different types of users' engagement and reactions. To do so, we apply the content analysis method, and we analyse Facebook posts from seven political leaders and seven relevant parties (and coalition) collected during the 30 days before the elections via CrowdTangle (n = 1470). Our analysis will be completed by the time of conference.
ER  -

MACKOVÁ, Alena, Martina NOVOTNÁ and Štěpán ŽÁDNÍK. Tonality in campaign communication on Facebook as drivers of divergent users' engagement in Czechia. In \textit{ECREA 2022 Pre-Conference: Digital Election Campaigning Worldwide}. 2022.

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