Open AccessWhat is There in a ‘Like’? Political Content in Facebook and Instagram in The 2019 Valencian Regional Election
Author(s) -
Silvia Marcos-García,
Nadia Viounnikoff-Benet,
Andreu Casero-Ripollés
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
debats
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.128
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2530-3074
pISSN - 0212-0585
DOI - 10.28939/iam.debats-en.2020-5
Subject(s) - politics , political science , opposition (politics) , social media , public relations , government (linguistics) , general election , media studies , advertising , sociology , business , law , philosophy , linguistics
Over the last few years, social networks such as Facebook and Instagram have become the preferred places for political communication. On the one hand, politicians have incorporated them into their strategy as a channel through which they can share their messages. On the otherhand, users have a space where they can take part and show their interest in political issues. This paper examines posts on Facebook and Instagram by the main Valencian political parties and their respective leaders in the election campaign. We analysed the nature of the content and users’ ‘likes’ to reveal the functions and themes of the most popular posts and the use made of visual resources and interaction tools. The results show that the positioning taken by politicians influences the content getting the most ‘likes’. While supporters of opposition parties are most pleased by critical messages, followers of pro-government parties prefer messages that focus on management success. At the same time, items focusing on social policies and election campaign issues are those that generate the most ‘likes’ among the public. Visual aids (such as photographs and videos) and hash tags and links help boost users’ approval.