Social Media and Politics - Negative Campaigning on Facebook in EU Elections, Cross-Platform Extremism, and Dissonant Public Spheres, with Prof. Ulrike Klinger

Negative Campaigning on Facebook in EU Elections, Cross-Platform Extremism, and Dissonant Public Spheres, with Prof. Ulrike Klinger

07/02/23 • 48 min

Prof. Ulrike Klinger, Professor for Digital Democracy at the European New School for Digital Studies at European University Viadrina, shares her latest research on negative campaigning on social media. We discuss some of the challenges in studying digital communication in the EU, as well as what explains a rise in negative campaigning across two European Parliament elections. Prof. Klinger also shares her research on the UN Global Compact for Migration, where extremist ideas from the Identitarian movement were picked up by the mainstream media. Lastly, we discuss Prof. Klinger's suggestions for increasing researcher data access ahead of the Digital Services Act.
Here are links to the studies discussed in the episode:

Previous Episode

Connecting Social Media Influencers with Political Campaigns, with Zach Fang

Zach Fang, Head of Sales and Business Development at Vocal Media, shares how the start-up is building a database of social media influencers to connect with political campaigns and organizations. We discuss what makes TikTok influencers a different type of political advertising and how their costs stack up to traditional broadcast and social media. Zach also shares what's happening with influencers on Twitch, Discord, and YouTube shorts, and how influencers may turn from awareness raising to organizing.

Here's a link to the study mentioned in the episode.

Next Episode

Cross-Cutting Expression on Social Media: Brexit on Facebook, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Associate Professor in Strategic Communication at Lund University, joins a discussion of cross-cutting expression and its implications for digital campaigning on Facebook. On the theory side, we discuss concepts of online self-expression and cross-pressures. We also discuss how political ideology can be inferred from Facebook reactions such as 'likes' and 'loves'. Finally, we discuss what topic models of the Brexit debate around Facebook can reveal about how and what Facebook users discussed around the referendum.
Links to the paper and supplementary material:
Reconceptualizing Cross-Cutting Political Expression on Social Media: A Case Study of Facebook Comments During the 2016 Brexit Referendum (2023)

Supplementary Material