Social media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe

227 Pages·2018·4.262 MB·English

by  Stetka, Václav, Surowiec, Paweł

Social Media and Politics in Central and
Eastern Europe
Social media are increasingly revolutionising the ways in which political
communication works, and their importance for engaging citizens in politics
and public affairs is well understood by political actors. This book surveys
current developments in social media and politics in a range of Central and
Eastern European countries, including Ukraine and Russia. It explores the
processofadoptionofsocialmediabypoliticians,journalistsandcivicactivists,
examines the impact of the different social and cultural backgrounds of the
countries studied, and discusses specific political situations, such as the 2012
protests in Moscow and the 2014 EuroMaidan events in Ukraine, where
social media played an important role. The book concludes by addressing
how the relationship between social media and politics is likely to develop
and how it might affect the still relatively new democracies in the region.
Paweł Surowiec is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Media and
Communication at Bournemouth University, UK.
Václav Šteˇtka is Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at
Loughborough University, UK.
‘The volume by Paweł Surowiec and Václav Šteˇtka fills an important gap in
the growing body of literature on the role of digital media in political life. In
this literature, the experience of Central and Eastern Europe is largely miss-
ing. The contributions of this book provide fascinating insights into how
political parties and social movements use social media in a world of insti-
tutional instability and the return of authoritarianism. The book highlights
the importance of context for the understanding of online politics and is a
must-read for everybody who seeks to explore the politics of social media
outside the Western world. It’s the similarities, not the expected differences,
with the established democracies of the West that will surprise the reader.’
Katrin Voltmer, Professor of Communication and Democracy,
University of Leeds
‘This book is a very timely and telling investigation of a convoluted and
potentially troubling relation between democracy and practices of social
media use in political processes. Shedding light on what is still largely and
regretfully uncharted territory of political social media use in post-transitional
Central and Eastern Europe, the volume highlights both the mobilisation
potential of social media in political processes as well as the danger of pro-
clamationoftheiruniformeffects.Asninecasestudiesfromtheregionclearly
demonstrate, adoption of new digitalised communication environments into
the sphere ofpoliticsis bestunderstoodasa struggle – not onlywithpolitical
opponents, but also with technological affordances – a struggle as diverse as
the political actors using them, and the region where they come from.’
Ilija Tomanic´ Trivundža, President of European Communication
Research and Education Association ECREA
‘The rise of social media has changed patterns of political communication,
and new patterns of political communication have altered the nature of
political systems. Among other things, leaders can directly communicate
with voters, undermining thereby the mediating role of traditional political
parties. However, while social media are often seen as a means of maintain-
ing the status quo and favouring incumbent political actors, they also are a
potential means of mobilisation in support of newcomers and hence may
challenge established actors. This excellent volume of collected studies by
various authors looks into the uses of social media by political actors in
someoftheformercommunistcountriesandattemptstoidentifydifferences
as well as recurring patterns across the region.’
Péter Bajomi-Lázár, Budapest Business School
BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European
Studies
For a full list of available titles please visit: https://www.routledge.com/BASEES-Routle-
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Serieseditor:
RichardSakwa,DepartmentofPoliticsandInternationalRelations,UniversityofKent
Editorial Committee:
RoyAllison,StAntony’sCollege, Oxford
BirgitBeumers, Department ofTheatre,Film andTelevisionStudies,
Universityof Aberystwyth
Richard Connolly,CentreforRussianandEastEuropean Studies,
Universityof Birmingham
TerryCox,DepartmentofCentralandEastEuropeanStudies,UniversityofGlasgow
Peter Duncan, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College
London
ZoeKnox,SchoolofHistory, UniversityofLeicester
Rosalind Marsh, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, Uni-
versityofBath
DavidMoon,Department ofHistory,University ofYork
Hilary Pilkington, Departmentof Sociology,UniversityofManchester
GrahamTimmins,Department ofPolitics, University ofBirmingham
Stephen White,Department ofPolitics, Universityof Glasgow
FoundingEditorial Committee Member:
GeorgeBlazyca, CentreforContemporary European Studies,Universityof Paisley
ThisseriesispublishedonbehalfofBASEES(theBritishAssociationforSlavonicandEast
EuropeanStudies).Theseriescomprisesoriginal,high-quality,research-levelworkbyboth
newandestablishedscholarsonallaspectsofRussian,Soviet,post-SovietandEastEur-
opeanStudiesinhumanitiesandsocialsciencesubjects.
110PoliticalCatholicism andEuroscepticism
TheDeviant Caseof PolandinComparative Perspective
Bartosz Napieralski
111Russian EnvironmentalPolitics
State, IndustryandPolicymaking
EllieMartus
112SovietPostcolonial Studies
AView fromtheWestern Borderlands
EppAnnus
113SocialMediaand PoliticsinCentral andEasternEurope
EditedbyPawełSurowiec andVáclavŠteˇtka
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Social Media and Politics in
Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by
ł Š ˇ
Pawe Surowiec and Václav tetka
Firstpublished2018
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byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations ix
List of contributors xi
Foreword xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction: social media, politics and democracy in post-transition
Central and Eastern Europe 1
PAWEŁSUROWIECANDVÁCLAVŠTEˇTKA
PARTI
Political parties, actors and social media 21
1 Who is afraid of the platforms? Adoption of and strategies for
use of social media by politicians in the Czech Republic 23
ALENAMACKOVÁ,VÁCLAVŠTEˇTKA,JANZÁPOTOCKÝANDRADIMHLADÍK
2 The 2014 presidential elections campaign in Romania:
connecting with civic-ness on Facebook 45
˘
MONICAPATRUT¸
3 Towards self-mediatization of politics: parliamentarians’ use of
Facebook and Twitter in Croatia and Hungary 64
NORBERTMERKOVITY
4 Personalization of political communication in social media: the
2014 Slovenian national election campaign 81
TOMAŽDEŽELAN,ALEMMAKSUTIANDJERNEJPRODNIK
5 Professionalization and intentional disengagement: Facebook
campaigning in the Bulgarian local elections in 2015 101
OGNYANSEIZOV
viii Contents
PARTII
Social movements, interest and professional groups and
social media 121
6 We have been to Bolotnaya: Russian protests, the online public
sphere and the discourse of division 123
ALINARYABOVOLOVA
7 The networked public sphere and Ukrainian journalists 142
DMYTROHUBENKOANDMELISSAWALL
8 Branding Poland online: propagating and resisting nation
branding on Facebook 160
PAWEŁSUROWIECANDMAGDALENAKANIA-LUNDHOLM
9 The dilemmas of social media-enabled civic activism: the case of
sexual minorities in Lithuania 182
GALINAMIAZHEVICH
Conclusions 198
VÁCLAVŠTEˇTKAANDPAWEŁSUROWIEC
Index 205
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 SNSs adoption by candidates in Parliamentary elections, 2013 28
1.2 Facebook adoption by candidates for main political parties
during campaigning for the Czech Parliamentary elections in
2013 29
1.3 Share of MPs who had an active Facebook or Twitter account
one month before the 2013 Parliamentary elections, by political
parties (v per cent) 30
3.1 The distribution of Facebook categories in Croatia 71
3.2 The distribution of Facebook categories in Hungary 72
4.1 Political leaders on the Facebook profiles of four Slovenian
parties during the 2014 parliamentary election campaign 86
4.2 Number of tweets posted by parties and type of communication 91
6.1 Illustration of the types of pronouns emerging on social media 131
8.1 ‘Polska.Springintonew.Youdecide!’Thethreelogosofthered
spring representing Poland 169
8.2 Visualization of nodes and edges on the ‘Logo for Poland’
Facebook fanpage used by nation branders 172
Tables
0.1 Levels of democratisation among states discussed in this volume 6
0.2 News source consumption 11
2.1 Number of Facebook users in Romania 47
2.2 Groups on Facebook during the 2012 referendum in Romania 49
2.3 Comparing Ponta’s and Iohannis’ Facebook campaigns (2–16
November, 2014) 52
2.4 Distribution of the number of votes and levels of support 54
3.1 Means of Facebook categories 69
3.2 Independent t-test for equality of means 73
3.3 Means of categories analysed 75
4.1 Social media features used in party communication on Twitter 94