Leiden University Student Repository

Miezītis, Ričards Alans (2020)

Do Political Parties Try to Win Elections on Social Media? A Case Study of Latvia’s Conservatives and Populists on Facebook

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

This thesis looked at how political parties utilize social media platforms as part of their electoral strategies. To that end, the research explored the case study of Latvia through the center-right populist party Kam pieder valsts [Who Owns the State] and center-right Jaunā konservatīvā partija [New Conservative Party] using content analysis methods on the parties’ pre-election Facebook entries. The research found that the two Latvian political parties utilized social media platforms predominantly to broadcast information, news, party stances/program, criticisms and attacks, and other content that does not utilize the interactive potential of social media. Furthermore, the populist party made extensive use of social media to advertise its on the ground activities, supplementing its offline strategy.

Facebook

social media

political parties

election campaign

Author

Miezītis, Ričards Alans

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Broad, Matthew

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en