Equalization versus Normalization: Facebook and the 2013 Israeli Elections

Abstract

The question of whether social media grant challengers a fair opportunity to compete with incumbents, thus promoting equalization rather than normalization, is a key issue in studies of the web’s contribution to democratic systems. To contribute to the current debate, whose evidence so far strongly supports the normalization hypothesis, we examined the ability of the five leading political candidates in Israel popularity to promote engagement to their messages on social media by measuring Likes and Shares on their Facebook posts during the 2013 election campaign. Surprisingly, we found that first-time candidate, Naftali Bennett, achieved statistically similar engagement levels as achieved by PM Netanyahu, measured by the two Facebook measures mentioned above, and attracted dramatically more Likes than Netanyahu during the campaign. Similarly, first-time contender Yair Lapid’s messages promoted equal levels of engagement as did the messages of opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich. The study indicates the ability of challengers to generate similar engagement levels as incumbents through social media campaigns, an encouraging result that illustrates the democratizing potential of social media.

New medium, old strategies? Comparing online and traditional campaign posters for German Bundestag elections, 2013–2017

“…Consequently, political parties are more likely to go negative, as negative campaigning does not alienate supporters as much as it alienates voters in general (Druckman et al, 2010). Due to the fact that negative campaigning in social media is highly engaging, it is used to mobilise adherents (Ceron and d’Adda, 2016; Samuel-Azran et al, 2015). By relying on the strategy of negative campaigning, political parties attempt to go viral among their followers.…”

“…In line with this approach, recent research indicates that social media platforms allow political parties to react quickly to their opponents at a low cost and therefore offer ideal opportunities for negative campaigning (Auter and Fine, 2016). Furthermore, targeting their followers, political parties can make use of the engaging and mobilising potential of negative campaigning towards partisans (Ceron and d'Adda, 2016;Samuel-Azran et al, 2015), while avoiding to alienate undecided voters (Druckman et al, 2010). In contrast to negative campaigning as a characteristic feature of OCPs, personalisation was a widely used communication strategy on both OCPs and TCPs.…”

Followers, Spread the Message! Predicting the Success of Swiss Politicians on Facebook and Twitter

“…In Norway, the leaders of the three largest parties received by far the most reactions on Facebook (Larsson, 2016), indicating a normalization tendency that we also found for Facebook in Switzerland. Yet, Samuel-Azran, Yarchi, and Wolfsfeld (2015) who compared challengers with incumbent political leaders from Israel found equally large followerships on Facebook indicating equalization opportunities. In sum, the country-specific aspects of the political system and the adoption and use of social media must be a central element of comparing political actors’ social media success in different countries: While the possible beneficial outcomes of social media might be similar, the platforms’ roles in a country might not be.…”

A close-up on ‘top tweeters’ in Finland: Relevance of the national context in political Twitter campaigning

“…This article offers a valuable contribution to the normalization vs. equalization debate (Margolis, Resnick and Levy 2003, p. 65-67;Samuel-Azran, Yarchi and Wolfsfeld 2015) by giving more nuanced information on who are the politicians who see the use of Twitter advantageous. The working hypothesis is that the normalization vs. equalization debate should no longer be examined at a general level, but rather in a more detailed manner, asking when does an effort to equalize the election campaign work and under what circumstances, and conversely, when does it not.…”

“…According to the normalization hypothesis, with time the patterns of socioeconomic and political relationships online come to resemble those of the off-line world. The debate over normalization is ongoing in studies about online campaigning (Larsson 2016;Nelimarkka et al 2016;Samuel-Azran, Yarchi and Wolfsfeld 2015;Lilleker and Jackson 2010;Anduiza, Cantijoch and Gallego 2009). According to the equalisation thesis (Ward, Gibson and Nixon 2003, p. 22-23), small or fringe parties might by exploiting the low cost and other advantages of online campaigning to gain a more equal position when compared with major parties.…”