https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5263-4812
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ABSTRACT
Political actors are adapting their communication styles to the network media logic of social media platforms with varying success. This study investigates the communication styles used during the Swiss national election 2015 and their success in triggering digital reactions. In a quantitative content analysis of the “top 20” most reacted to messages on Facebook (n = 2170) and Twitter (N = 1796) of 246 Swiss parliamentarians and 11 parties we analyzed the impact of a pseudo-discursive, mobilizing, emotional and entertaining communication style. Whereas the pseudo-discursive style is the most common on both platforms, it leads on Facebook to fewer interactions. The entertaining style fosters reactions on Facebook but not on Twitter. Though the emotional style is used the least, it is the most beneficial. The paper concludes by discussing how these four communication styles alter communication between political actors and citizens.
Acknowledgments
We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback and our three student coders Michelle Egli, Kristina Vilenica, and Lisa Widmer for their great work.
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Tobias R. Keller
Tobias R. Keller is a research and teaching assistant at the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research focuses on the spread and impact of political messages on political participation on social media platforms.
Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw
Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw is a professor for communication studies, digital communication, and sustainability at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on the transnationalization, fragmentation, and entertainization of political communication in the digital age. She has published about these topics in journals such as Journalism, Digital Journalism, the European Journal of Communication, and the Journal of Common Market Studies.