The use of social media in political campaigning : a comparative study focusing on the incumbent and the challenging candidate during the 2019 European Parliament elections in Malta

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to analyse the social media differences between the incumbent and the new candidates during the 2019 European Parliament Elections in Malta. Although the use of social media in political campaigning has been studied widely, particularly in the US, limited research on the subject exists in the local Maltese context. This study draws onto several research approaches in its data collection, including semi-structured netnographical interviews, social media meta-data collection and social media qualitative analysis. In a bid to reduce potential bias, comparative studies were used by including two political parties in the focus of this research.

Results have shown that social media offers an even platform for all Maltese political candidates. Both Facebook and Instagram were used to target different age groups, paid adverts did not guarantee a better performance at the polls. While challenging candidates were seen to be more active with a higher degree of interaction amongst their followers, incumbency advantages work in favour of the candidates if they prove their ability to hold on to the seat. Moreover, current political debates may have affected the outcomes of the results. Research limitations of this study included the issue of timing, where one was not able to harness all of the social media data due to the timeframe the dissertation was undertaken in.