Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/311277 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Citation: 
[Journal:] British Journal of Political Science [ISSN:] 1469-2112 [Volume:] 54 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] Cambridge University Press [Place:] Cambridge [Year:] 2024 [Pages:] 339-354
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Abstract: 
It is well known that politicians speak differently when campaigning. The shadow of elections may affect candidates' change in tone during campaigns. However, to date, we lack a systematic study of the changes in communication patterns between campaign and non-campaign periods. In this study, we examine the sentiment expressed in 4.3 million tweets posted by members of national parliaments in the EU27 from 2018 to 2020. Our results show that (1) the opposition, even populists and Eurosceptics, send more positive messages during campaigns, (2) parties trailing in the polls communicate more negatively, and (3) that the changes are similar in national and European elections. These findings show the need to look beyond campaign times to understand parties' appeals and highlight the promises of social media data to move beyond traditional analyses of manifestos and speeches.
Subjects: 
European politics
text analysis
social media
legislative behaviour
sentiment analysis
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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