IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v12y2024a8487.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Data-Campaigning on Facebook: Do Metrics of User Engagement Drive French Political Parties’ Publications?

Author

Listed:
  • Julien Figeac

    (National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), University of Toulouse, France)

  • Marie Neihouser

    (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France)

  • Ferdinand Le Coz

    (University of Toulouse, France)

Abstract

Research on data-driven campaigning has mostly focused on the strategies of central campaign teams. However, there is a lack of evidence explaining how parties and supporters use data-driven campaigning techniques to organise their social media campaigning. Do user engagement metrics influence the choice of campaign themes by encouraging political parties to concentrate their communication on issues that are most liked, commented on, and shared? Our study focuses on the use of Facebook by French political parties and their supporters during the 2022 presidential election campaign. We conducted a supervised content analysis based on machine learning to examine their Facebook posts ( n = 17,060). Our results show that the issues prioritized by parties on Facebook may be different from those that are most prominent in their broader communications. In most cases, however, these themes are not chosen based on user engagement, even for parties that claim to have developed their base through digital channels. Instead, the choice of themes seems influenced by more traditional campaign strategies, such as the desire to capture the electorate of their closest rival. In our conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for the adoption of data-driven campaigning in digital election communication across Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Julien Figeac & Marie Neihouser & Ferdinand Le Coz, 2024. "Data-Campaigning on Facebook: Do Metrics of User Engagement Drive French Political Parties’ Publications?," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8487
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.8487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8487
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/mac.8487?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Burkell, Jacquelyn & Regan, Priscilla M., 2019. "Voter preferences, voter manipulation, voter analytics: policy options for less surveillance and more autonomy," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 8(4), pages 1-24.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephanie Luke & Esmeralda Bon & Katharine Dommett & Rachel Gibson & Sophie Lecheler & Sanne Kruikemeier, 2024. "Editorial: Data-Driven Campaigning in a Comparative Context—Toward a 4th Era of Political Communication?," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    2. Eric K. Clemons & Ravi V. Waran & Sebastian Hermes & Maximilian Schreieck & Helmut Krcmar, 2022. "Computing and Social Welfare," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(2), pages 417-436, June.
    3. N. Helberger & M. Sax & J. Strycharz & H.-W. Micklitz, 2022. "Choice Architectures in the Digital Economy: Towards a New Understanding of Digital Vulnerability," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 175-200, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8487. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.