Movement parties’ interactions on social media: positioning and trajectories in the polity arena

ABSTRACT

This research explores interactions between traditional parties and movement parties on social media. The longitudinal analysis (2010–2021) is based on data from eighteen parties’ official social media accounts in six European countries. Conceptually bridging cycles of contention, social movement lifecycles, and party lifespans, this research identifies regularities in referencing patterns between traditional party families; and by adding a temporal layer, outlines three trajectories of movement parties in the polity arena. The results contribute to conceptualizing movement parties as hybrid organizations and suggest a common logic of movement in positioning in the polity arena as drivers of party-to-party interactions moderated by country-specific contextual factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Movement parties
• social media
• party lifecycles
• political communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See Annex Table A1 for parties’ Twitter and Facebook accounts.

2. Original: “Die Angst geht um in der CDU!” – AfD Facebook post from March 29, 2013.

3. Original: “Jobbik nem tekinthető demokratikus pártnak” – MSZP Facebook post from November 17, 2010.

4. At the time of writing, Alternativet polls around .5 to .9% of the vote share and has a single MP left.

5. Original: “Jobbik nem tekinthető demokratikus pártnak” – MSZP Facebook Post, November 17, 2010.

6. Orginal: “Azt állítja a képviselő úr és a Jobbikállítja a képviselő úr és a Jobbik frakciója, hogy az elmúlt hét évben Magyarországon nem nőttek a bérek és az emberek” – Fidesz Facebook Post, May 31, 2021.

7. Original: “Der Vorschlag der AfD ist nicht nur Unsinn, sondern brandgefährlich” – SPD Tweet, May 31, 2021.

8. See Appendix Figure A1 for a separate visualization of Lega and PD.

9. Note: Movement Party on the upper side of the y- axis, established parties on the lower side of the y-axis. Darker shading indicates that the respective group had a higher referencing ratio in a given month than the other group. Blue dot-dashed vertical lines mark national elections. Red dashed vertical lines mark European elections. Grey highlighting indicates times of government participation of movement party.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation [grant ID: 98144].

Notes on contributors

Matthias Hoffmann

Matthias Hoffmann is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on relational approaches to collective action and social movements, on political parties and protest, and on digital communication.

Christina Neumayer

Christina Neumayer is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on the role of digital media technologies, platforms and data for political contention, protest, activism, racism, social movements, and more broadly political communication.