DigiWorld is a scientific collaboration network that builts upon the work of DigiDeMo and CamforS and aims at international comparisons of election campaign strategies in digital communication channels. The long-term goals of DigiWorld include building a continuous research network dealing with digital campaigning, user engagement, and factors influencing it. Building upon the experiences of CamforS, the project further develops innovative tools for analyzing digital campaigns.
Call for Papers (deadline for submission: 1 May 2022)
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Aarhus (Denmark)
The ECREA pre-conference is organized by DigiWorld (https://digidemo.ifkw.lmu.de/digiworld/), a scientific collaboration network of scholars that aims at international comparisons of election campaign strategies in digital communication channels, which currently is bringing together researchers from 17 countries. The long-term goals of DigiWorld include building a continuous research network dealing with digital campaigning, user engagement, and factors influencing it. The pre-conference, however, is open to researchers both from and beyond the DigiWorld network.
The health of digital democracy has become under attack from political actors who actively use social media to spread disinformation and hate speech. To what extent are these (digital) propaganda techniques used in democracies during election times? How do they affect democratic processes and participation? We want to answer these questions by revealing and comparing the online communication of parties and politicians across the political spectrum on social media during national elections in various democracies.
To discuss the use of communication strategies of party and candidate accounts on social media platforms during national elections, we are particularly interested in bringing together scholars who explore the use of such platforms in the local and international arena from both the global north and the global south. It especially welcomes contributions that explore this phenomenon from a comparative perspective between social and cultural groups.
The pre-conference welcomes contributions on, but is not limited to:
Digital propaganda, campaigning, and democracy
Social media and disinformation in election campaigns
Elections and online hate speech
Methodological issues in research of elections and social network sites
Ethical dilemmas in research of elections and social network sites
Comparative approaches for studying digital propaganda, campaigning, and online hate speech
The pre-conference will take place in person in Aarhus (Denmark) on October 19th, 9 to 15 (CEST).
Timeline:
Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 1st, 2022
Notification of acceptance: June 1st, 2022
Deadline for registrations: September 1st, 2022
Pre-conference: October 19th, 2022, 9-15 (CEST)
The 2020 New Zealand election campaign
#NZvotes – live Blog and podcast on the election
Over the last four weeks of the 2020 New Zealand general election campaign, the New Zealand subteam of the DigiWorld project („New Zealand Social Media Study (NZSMS)”), led by Dr Mona Krewel and Professor Jack Vowles, has live coded the Facebook campaigns of the parties and candidates in the New Zealand election and published their preliminary results in weekly blog posts and a podcast to inform New Zealand’s voters about what has been going on the social media campaigns of the parties and the candidates. Their blogposts among many other aspects of the campaign covered the political issues thematized in the New Zealand election, the use of dirty campaign techniques such as negative campaigning, fake news and half-truth by the parties and candidates, their use of populist language, voter mobilization attempts by the parties, the informational value of the campaigns for voters, and many other topics.
See links to their blog posts and the podcast below.
Boulianne, S., & Larsson, A.O. (2022, May 8-11). Digital Campaigning in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. Digital Campaigning in Dissonant Public Spheres, Villa Collina, Italy.
Krewel, M. (2020). “#nzvotes: The dynamics of campaign communication on Facebook in the 2020 New Zealand election”. New Zealand Political Science Association (NZPSA), Political Communication Network Workshop, Nov 26-27, 2020).
Krewel, M. (2020). “#nzvotes: The dynamics of campaign communication on Facebook in the 2020 New Zealand election” (Invited Talk, Free University of Berlin, Dec 10, 2020)
