Search results

Social media platforms are highly visible platforms, so politicians try to maximize their benefits from their use, especially during election campaigns. On the other side, people express their views and sentiments toward politicians and political issues on social media, thus enabling them to observe their online political behavior. Therefore, this study aims to investigate user reactions on social media during the 2016 US presidential campaign to decide which candidate invoked stronger emotions on social media.

For testing the proposed hypotheses regarding emotional reactions to social media content during the 2016 presidential campaign, regression analysis was used to analyze a data set that consists of Trump’s 996 posts and Clinton’s 1,253 posts on Facebook. The proposed regression models are based on viral (likes, shares, comments) and emotional Facebook reactions (Angry, Haha, Sad, Surprise, Wow) as well as Russell’s valence, arousal, dominance (VAD) circumplex model for valence, arousal and dominance.

The results of regression analysis indicate how Facebook users felt about both presidential candidates. For Clinton’s page, both positive and negative content are equally liked, while Trump’s followers prefer funny and positive emotions. For both candidates, positive and negative content influences the number of comments. Trump’s followers mostly share positive content and the content that makes them angry, while Clinton’s followers share any content that does not make them angry. Based on VAD analysis, less dominant content, with high arousal and more positive emotions, is more liked on Trump’s page, where valence is a significant predictor for commenting and sharing. More positive content is more liked on Clinton’s page, where both positive and negative emotions with low arousal are correlated to commenting and sharing of posts.

Building on an empirical data set from Facebook, this study shows how differently the presidential candidates communicated on social media during the 2016 election campaign. According to the findings, Trump used a hard campaign strategy, while Clinton used a soft strategy.

This study aims to examine the perceptions of political figures and campaign strategists in Kuwait regarding the adoption of virtual political campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using an enhanced version of the technology acceptance model (TAM), it seeks to understand and quantify their attitudes toward these digital campaign methods. This study can be considered as a bold contribution to the discussion on digital transformation of virtual channels for the promotion of bold innovation and social impact in Kuwait.

Data was gathered from 82 participants, comprising 47 politicians and 35 campaign managers in Kuwait. A comprehensive method involving both questionnaires and face-to-face interactions was implemented to ensure a thorough collection of relevant data, aiming to support the research’s objectives effectively.

The results underscore the significant influence of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and the newly integrated factor of perceived convenience on the attitudes toward virtual political campaigns. These factors collectively shape the willingness and approach of political entities in embracing digital campaigning avenues. The findings also indicate that digital transformation in the design and implementation of virtual campaigns can be grounded on positive attitudes and perceptions.

The research fills a critical gap in existing literature by examining large-scale attitudes toward virtual political campaigns in Kuwait’s unique context. It offers novel understandings of how political figures and campaign managers perceive and adapt to technological advancements in campaign strategies, mainly during unprecedented crisis times like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to academic discourse and has practical implications for the evolution of political campaigning strategies in a digital age. A direct implication of our study is also the need to promote further future research on the capacity of digitally transformed channels for political campaigns to be venues of bold innovation. It also highlights the need to provide citizens with training and awareness for this new era of prompt responses to their requirements toward sustainable development and innovation.

Social media has become an indispensable part of modern politics. Its rise in the political arena has coincided with the decline in trust toward mainstream media. Today, more than half of the population gets their political news and information through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Social media offers a great marketing opportunity to politicians as they allow them to bypass traditional media and communicate directly with voters, engage citizens during campaign and noncampaign periods, and create a brand image. As social media's influence in politics grows, so has the research devoted to political marketing on social media. It is against this backdrop that this chapter is written, which provides readers with an overview of the academic domain and the current state of literature. The chapter highlights the various research areas that have been explored in the literature and the implications of social media for political marketing strategy, along with the domain's current limitations and possible avenues of further research.

This chapter demonstrates a parallel between the presidential campaigns of Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil, 2018) and Donald Trump (United States, 2016) regarding their use of social media. Specifically, tweets from the former candidates on the social network sites were analyzed during a one-month timeframe before their respective presidential elections. Tweets were selected for analysis based on the fact that Twitter was the main platform used by both former presidential candidates. The analysis of the data reveals considerable similarities between the communication strategies of the two candidates. This research enlists McCombs and Shaw (1972) agenda setting theory based on their study of media during North American presidential campaigns in 1968 and Lippmann’s (2008) concept of public opinion. The methodology employed is based on Bardin (2011).