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Early information technology scholarship centered on the internet’s potential to be a democratizing force was often framed using an equalization/normalization lens arguing that either the internet was going to be an equalizing force bringing power to the masses, or it was going to be normalized into the existing power structure. The purpose of this paper is to argue that considered over time the equalization/normalization lens still sheds light on our understanding of how social media (SM) strategy can shape electoral success asking if SM are an equalizing force balancing the resource gap between candidates or are being normalized into the modern campaign.

SM metrics and electoral data were collected for US congressional candidates in 2012 and 2016. A series of additive and interactive models are employed to test whether the effects of SM reach on electoral success are conditional on levels of campaign spending.

The results suggest that those candidates who spend more actually get more utility for their SM campaign than those who spend less in 2012. However, by 2016, spending inversely correlates with SM campaign utility.

The findings indicate that SM appeared to be normalizing into the modern congressional campaign in 2012. However, with higher rates of penetration and greater levels of usage in 2016, the SM campaign utility was not a result of higher spending. SM may be a greater equalizing force now.

Campaigns that initially integrate digital and traditional strategies increase the effectiveness of the SM campaign because the non-digital strategy both complements and draws attention to the SM campaign. However, by 2016 the SM campaign was not driven by its relation to traditional campaign spending.

This is the first large N study to examine the interactive effects of SM reach and campaign spending on electoral success.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize the heightened exposure to information via the internet can lead citizens to be more critical about political conditions in their countries because using social media increases the likelihood of being exposed to dissident information. Further, the authors argue that the degree to which information is restricted, or internet access is limited, across countries can decrease this effect simply because the likelihood of exposure to a dissident flow is diminished.

The authors used survey data from the 2010 Latino Barometer to estimate a series of multilevel models to test whether citizens’ attitudes about the political conditions and about democracy in their respective countries worsen, and whether this effect is stronger in countries with higher internet freedom.

The results confirm that social media use has a negative influence on citizens’ attitudes about their national political conditions. In addition, respondents from those countries with more internet freedom tended to have more positive attitudes about their democracy and political conditions, generally. However, as a result of more internet freedom, the negative effects of internet and social media use on these attitudes was more pronounced in countries with more internet freedom.

These results suggest that the flow of information via the internet has substantial effect on how people feel about their government. This could be consequential for political stability, particularly in countries the conditions are not favorable. That said, these results also suggest that governments can actively decrease the odds of this dissidence building by controlling the flow of information.

The article examines how the two Cypriot leaders – the Greek-Cypriot community leader Nicos Anastasiades and the Turkish-Cypriot community leader Mustafa Akinci – have used their Twitter accounts during the period leading to the intensification of the Cyprus peace process between 30 April 2015 and 31 October 2016.

This article presents, using descriptive analysis and thematic analysis, how the two leaders have used Twitter in the negotiations' period.

The analysis shows that the leaders, during the time frame examined, developed both pro-peace discourses around the Cyprus problem and para-social and vicarious intergroup contact that contributed in what Hogg (2015) defines an intergroup relational identity that is an effective form of “bridging” leadership across communities.

The article argues that Twitter is a tool that, in the hands of political leaders in segregated public spheres caused by yet unresolved ethnic conflicts, can become a useful tool for constructing both a positive meaning around issues concerning the rival sides and transforming opposing social identities in the formation of an “extended sense of self that includes the collaboration partner” (Hogg, 2015, p. 191).

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2022-0161