Social Media Uses by Populist Political Leaders

Up next in this ICA 2018 session is Augusto Valeriani, who undertook a study of the popularisation of political communication, examining the social media activities of 51 leaders across 18 Western democracies. Ordinary users may encounter such activities both through directly following these leaders (bond engagement) or through more accidental exposure (bridge engagement); to reach the latter, politicians will need to generate information cascades.

Making politics popular can happen through intimate politics, celebrity politics (appearing as celebrities), or lifestyle politics (appearing as ordinary people). Popularised styles of politics may then engender more bond engagement, while more informative political content could generate more on-sharing (i.e. bridge engagement). At the same time, more emotional content could also encourage bond engagers to share on and thereby facilitate further bridge engagement.

Social media might in fact favour populist actors as they enable the circumvention of mainstream media, a close connection with ordinary people, and the targetting of specific groups. Additionally, several recently emerging political parties have styled themselves as cyber-parties that specifically target such benefits.

The study examined the posts of some 52 populist leaders in all 18 Western countries that had a vote between 2013 and 2017, in each case posted in the sixty days before election day. The study coded up to 100 posts by each leader. It counted likes as bond engagement, and shares as bridge engagement, and sorted leaders as pursuing intimate, celebrity, or lifestyle politics.

This finds that popularisation boosts bond engagement, while it reduces bridge engagement. At the same time, non-populist leaders also gain from a popularisation of their messages.