Societal interest of the project
The European election is one of the most important political processes in the European political system, attracting a great deal of interest from the media and the general public. This research will help addressing some of the most pressing issues on the political scene in recent years: distrust of national and European political actors and institutions, the rise in abstention, the electoral effects of the social upheavals caused for example by the health crisis, the influence of political campaigns, the relationship between voting and protest practices, and the upheavals brought about by the Internet in terms of political participation.
Moreover, the use of digital devices by political parties and movements both in election campaigns and in terms of party organization and mobilization has substantially spread during the last years. From the citizen's point of view, social networks and digital media have transformed the way in which people inform themselves, socialize, acquire knowledge, and express themselves politically. This growing hybridization between digital technologies and politics calls for a reconsideration of routinised practices of electoral participation and opinion formation. This has not been done so far due to lack of appropriate comparative data including information on both digital information and participation practices, attitudes and electoral participation.
Project Description
Against the backdrop of various crises (democratic, security, immigration, and climate change) marked by a continuing high level of mistrust of politics and the traditional media, are digital tools - particularly social networks - gaining in importance and influence during elections? Against the backdrop of a fast-changing online campaigning environment, increased mis/dis-information and AI generated content, this project explores the influence of digital and legacy media on the attitudes and electoral behavior of the citizenry in the 2024 European Parliamentary Elections across eight European countries.
To do so, the project conducts an online post-election survey examining the persistent role and importance of traditional drivers of electoral participation and choice (age, socio-professional category, gender, level of education, wealth, relationship to religion). It also looks at the influence of the (digital and legacy) media and digital campaign on the political efficacy and voting behavior of citizens. In order to answer these questions, an online survey was carried out among a representative sample of the population in seven European countries in the weeks following the election (10/06/2024 onwards). This post-election national survey will be used for both scientific publications and popular dissemination, particularly in the media. Once the main outputs have been published, the research data will then be made available to the scientific community via a data warehouse that complies with FAIR principles, as part of an open science approach.
Scientific interest of the project
The project will contribute to the collection of data and research on the transformation of elections, parties, campaigns and voters by digital technology. This research strand has mostly focused on both the increasing use of digital decision-making and communication methods in traditional parties and on the growing use of digital political participation methods by party members and citizens. Comparative survey data on media consumption during election campaigns and data on digital political participation are therefore an integral part of the fieldwork for work in this area. Here the 2024 EP election is a unique opportunity to collect such data.
In order to have an appropriate research design, we have identified seven countries for the empirical study: France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Case selection was based on variation in our main control variable, the degree of digitalization of the economy and society at national level. Other macroeconomic variables were also taken into account in the selection: the geographical region within Europe; the political system (effective number of parties and political polarization, perception of corruption, turnout at the last general and European elections); the economy (DESI and GDP indices); and parameters linked to digital inequalities (internet penetration rate, median age, Facebook users and Facebook users in relation to the size of the population).
The survey addresses the relevance of digital media consumption and online political participation. It was conducted online (respondents were able to respond via smartphone or computer) in early June 2024 in all countries simultaneously via a professional survey company. In collaboration with and the advice of a subcontractor, we surveyed, for each country, a representative sample of around 1,500 members of the national population aged 18 and older who were registered to vote. The sample is using the quota method (gender, age, socio-professional category, conurbation category, region). If necessary, post-stratification weightings will be considered.
The use of surveys has two advantages over the collection of digital data online. Unlike digital data, it provides an accurate and exhaustive picture of the social profile of citizens who are politically active online. It also allows for comparisons with those who are not politically active or who are not registered on social media platforms. On the other hand, the use of a survey makes it possible to cover a wide range of practices on a variety of media and to measure more passive practices (accessing, viewing) which often leave few digital traces, and which are crucial in this context. The latter is very important because during election campaigns social media are mainly used to simply access information.
The data will be analyzed by the members of the project in the second half of 2024. Multivariate statistical techniques (regressions, geometric data analysis, latent class analysis, etc.) will be used to identify the groups most vulnerable to political disinformation practices and to assess the main consequences of these phenomena on their (digital) political participation and electoral behavior. The collective results will be presented at several international academic conferences (see international dimension).
For any questions, please contact DPPRN@uni-mainz.de
Researchers and Institutions involved
Felix-Christopher von Nostitz, ESPOL Lille, France
Oscar Barberà, Universitat de Valencia
Adrian Megias, Universidad de Almeria
Carolina Colodro, Universidad de Salamanca
Marco Lisi, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
Ioannis Andreadis, Aristotle University Thessaloniki
Antonella Seddone, Universita di Turino
Michal Jacunski, Uniwersytet Wroclawski
Financial support: