The Malta general election of 2013 : the candidates’ use of Facebook throughout the campaign

Abstract

This research aims to discover the means by which the candidates who contested the Malta general election of 2013 used the social-networking site, Facebook, as a means of campaigning. The research is based on semi-structured interviews carried out with eight candidates, deriving from the two main political parties in Malta; the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party. One of the scopes of the study is to understand, amongst other factors, whether the candidates made use of Facebook more, as much, or less than the traditional means of political campaigning such as the distribution of pamphlets, the employment of housevisits, or television and radio communication to spread their political messages. Also, the study aims to gain a better understanding as to how the candidates interacted with their prospective electorate through Facebook, and whether the candidates’ age, sex, or political allegiance had any influence in this regard. From this research, one can conclude that social media websites, such as Facebook, are increasingly being used as a platform for political campaigning in Malta. However, the candidates were quick to point out that the traditional mediums for campaigning were, and will continue to be, an important aspect to political campaigning.