EU Campaign race in V4 - political communication in social media before the 2024 EP elections

This research project seeks to address the complexities surrounding the use of social media platforms by political actors for campaigning within the Visegrad Group (V4) countries. The study aims to fill a critical gap in existing body of research, which predominantly reflects perspectives from the US and Western Europe. To address the scarcity of comparative research on political campaigning research in Central and Eastern Europe, we advocate for a comprehensive examination of social media posts by political parties in each included country, employing a unified research tool (codebook) to ensure parallel analysis. With a focus on understanding how political entities leverage social media for campaigns, our initiative will explore commonalities and distinctions across the V4 countries. We are particularly interested in deployment of social media for anti-democratic campaigning, given the prevalence of illiberal political actors in the V4. Thus, the project also intends to investigate how social media functions as a tool to amplify illiberal tendencies, emphasizing the potential adverse effects of negative campaigning.