Do we have a common interest? : Cultivating relationships or spreading information; a study of Strategic Political Communication on Facebook.

Sammanfattning:

Title: Do we have a common interest? - Cultivating relationships or spreading information; a study of Strategic Political Communication on Facebook.

Authors: Amanda Gibbs Sjödin & Sean Rembe Mc Hugh

Course: Medie- och Kommunikationsvetenskap C, Bachelor Thesis Paper, 15hp, HT 2014.

Words: 16 027

This essay aims to examine the level of relationship cultivation strategies in Swedish campaign communication. The progress in political communication emphasizes aspects of public relations such as relationship marketing . We will combine theories regarding relationship marketing with the new possibilities created for campaign communication by the emergence of web 2.0. The popular social media platforms which exist within web 2.0 give campaigns well suited means to easily facilitate input, inspire dialogue and cultivate relationships.

We aim to answer the following question;

Which strategic components do the parties apply in their Facebook communication?

Do the parties differ in their use of communicative tools?

In order to answer this question we have operationalized theories in political communication, reputation management and relationship marketing. This operationalizing resulted in eight variables. We conducted a quantitative content analysis by measuring the presence of our variables in each Facebook post made by each party on their Facebook page during the final month of the 2014 election.. The results show that both parties utilize these strategies and in a similar way but that there is a difference in how much. The Feminist Initiative had a higher overall usage but the strategy common interest was used to a high level by both parties, this shows that the parties mainly stress shared values and ideology in their communication.