engleski

CROATIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES AND THE SOCIAL MEDIA

For a long time, newspapers and television have been the dominant media for introducing the electorate with candidates' program, as well as with their image, beliefs and opinions. At the end of the 20th century they were slowly replaced by content on the Internet, known as 'digital era', followed by the 'era of social media' that started from 2010s onwards (Gunn, 2017). Social media has become an increasingly important source not only of news in general, but of political news in particular. It has facilitated sharing and diffusion of information, allowing the candidates to directly communicate with potential voters without using the previously mandatory editorial media. This paper will analyze posts and tweets used by the prospective front- runners for presidential candidates on social media during their presidential runs. The analysis will include the current president Kolinda Grabar- Kitarović, as well as the candidates Zoran Milanović, Miroslav Škoro and Mislav Kolakušić. The coding scheme for their use of social media will be based on Gunn's (2017) traditional (professionalized and in line with the established stylistic standards for posts on social media) versus non- traditional (amateurish) and neutral categories. Furthermore, we will analyze the contents of their posts/tweets, as well as discuss their rhetorical strength. By rhetorical strength we mean comments on post, forwards and retweets of candidates' posts/tweets that can potentially show a sign of trending. Trending implicitly signifies popularity and influence through more visibility, whereas visibility hopefully leads to election victory. So far, five dominant trends in presidential candidates' social media accounts have emerged: political messages, emotional messages (to thank, compliment, or commiserate with the voters), critical (of their opponents, usually by attacking them), motivating (to vote for this particular candidate) or humorous messages. President K. Grabar-Kitarović is the most active on social media, has the largest number of followers and is using social media mostly in traditional way. Just like M. Škoro, she is primarily focused on Facebook, but unlike Grabar- Kitarović, M. Škoro has much more untraditional posts. M. Kolakušić left almost all of his digital campaign to be led by his supporters, and similarly like M. Škoro, focused on his followers to promote him. Z. Milanović is the least active of all the candidates, but is using Facebook, Instagram and Youtube channel in a very productive way, trying to depict himself as a 'normal' candidate, which is his campaign's slogan.

social media, election campaigns, Croatian presidential candidates

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