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Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?

The integration of social media in political communication has expanded significantly over recent years. This article focuses on how politicians are using Facebook in electoral campaigns. The main objective is to analyse the different functions ascribed to this digital platform in electoral comm...

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Main Author: Zebib, Chirinne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/1/47727-186943-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/issue/view/1527
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spelling my-ukm.journal.203802022-11-04T03:11:15Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/ Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns? Zebib, Chirinne The integration of social media in political communication has expanded significantly over recent years. This article focuses on how politicians are using Facebook in electoral campaigns. The main objective is to analyse the different functions ascribed to this digital platform in electoral communication. The present research studies the usage of Facebook by political parties in Lebanon during the parliamentary election of 2018 based on quantitative content analysis. All Facebook posts of three major political parties published during the electoral campaign were collected and examined. The results of the study reveal first that most parties were using Facebook in a unidirectional way; that is, only to disseminate information without giving any real value to users’ feedback. A prime example of this was how the Future Movement, a popular political party, made significant use of external links, and effective forms of controlled Facebook tools. This demonstrated how politicians aimed to contain and direct users to their preferred information flow. Second, emerging parties from the opposition tended to publish more negative and attack posts than incumbents. Third, the interactive tools of Facebook were used poorly. Fourth, there was, however, a relative difference with regards to political groups outside the formal institution of power, such as the Political Alliance “Kollouna Watani” who made better use of the interactive function. The main factors that could explain the findings are the historical background and path of the political parties as well as their position in or outside the government, the partisan and costly coverage of traditional media outlets, and the hybridisation of political communication. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/1/47727-186943-1-PB.pdf Zebib, Chirinne (2022) Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns? Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian Journal of Communication, 38 (2). pp. 87-106. ISSN 0128-1496 https://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/issue/view/1527
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description The integration of social media in political communication has expanded significantly over recent years. This article focuses on how politicians are using Facebook in electoral campaigns. The main objective is to analyse the different functions ascribed to this digital platform in electoral communication. The present research studies the usage of Facebook by political parties in Lebanon during the parliamentary election of 2018 based on quantitative content analysis. All Facebook posts of three major political parties published during the electoral campaign were collected and examined. The results of the study reveal first that most parties were using Facebook in a unidirectional way; that is, only to disseminate information without giving any real value to users’ feedback. A prime example of this was how the Future Movement, a popular political party, made significant use of external links, and effective forms of controlled Facebook tools. This demonstrated how politicians aimed to contain and direct users to their preferred information flow. Second, emerging parties from the opposition tended to publish more negative and attack posts than incumbents. Third, the interactive tools of Facebook were used poorly. Fourth, there was, however, a relative difference with regards to political groups outside the formal institution of power, such as the Political Alliance “Kollouna Watani” who made better use of the interactive function. The main factors that could explain the findings are the historical background and path of the political parties as well as their position in or outside the government, the partisan and costly coverage of traditional media outlets, and the hybridisation of political communication.
format Article
author Zebib, Chirinne
spellingShingle Zebib, Chirinne
Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
author_facet Zebib, Chirinne
author_sort Zebib, Chirinne
title Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
title_short Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
title_full Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
title_fullStr Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
title_full_unstemmed Political communication through the prism of social media : how are Lebanese political parties using Facebook in electoral campaigns?
title_sort political communication through the prism of social media : how are lebanese political parties using facebook in electoral campaigns?
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2022
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/1/47727-186943-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20380/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/issue/view/1527
_version_ 1751537454186233856
score 13.211869

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