The document discusses political communication trends in Europe, including: 1) Political institutions and media have become increasingly interdependent, with politicians and media negotiating coverage in exchange for access and publicity. 2) Citizens have become more disengaged from traditional politics and more likely to engage in protest or online political communities. 3) European politicians have started adopting social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, to build communities and engage citizens, though individual strategies vary. 4) Case studies show that while some politicians have effectively used social media to engage supporters and spread their message, others have taken a more top-down approach without integrating social media into their campaigns. Overall adoption of new communication tools is still experimental.

1. Political Communication Trends
What can we learn from Greece and elsewhere
Meeting with representatives of PUK at PASOK headquarters
December 2011
Alexandros Melidis

2. political communication systems in flux
media/journalists Political institutions/
Mediatization advocates
Decentralization
Citizens/voters/
audiences

3. mediatization and its implications
• Negotiations among politicians and the media. Mutual
dependency (sources in exchange of publicity). Ballanced
power relationship?
• Central Control. media values shape agendas and
coverage. News management & political marketing to regain
loses in influence. The rise of spin doctors and the relative
marginalization of activism and bottom up politics.
• Opinionated journalism as a result to the influence of
media experts and political consultants.
• Civic disillusion as the public becomes well aware of the
tactics being used
• Strategic communication trade - offs. Politicians
gradually become aware of the limitations of spin

4. decentralization trends
• declined participation
• loose political allegiances
• Delegitimisation of institutional politics
• political consumerism
• the rise of the politics of protest
• proliferation of web 2.0 communities

5. european MP trends
• early adopters, young EMPs using social networking
(facebook& twitter)
• higher propensity to community building
• MPs tend to focus on one platform. Twitter for community
building. Facebook for frequent updates. However, individual
patterns vary.
• the more frequently they create content that makes their
sites and profiles sticky, the more fans and followers they
get and thus establish themselves as community leaders

6. web 2.0 in the local Italian elections
• the positive effects of web 2.0 rest upon the wider social and
political environment
• offline inequalities (access, knowledge) affect online
participation and engagement
• In the 2010 regional elections web 2.0 campaigning was
NOT integrated to the "traditional" campaign
• A tendency to simply support the campaign without
encouraging deliberative processes
• Largely experimental character of the web 2.0 campaign.
Various strategies tested. No solid know how.

7. The case of the Swedish Pirate Party
• a single issue party with a concrete agenda: to reform
copyright and patent law, end excessive surveillance, ensure
freedom of speech
• A strategy to capture media attention beyond the file-sharing
community. Youth section (young pirates).
• The Pirate Party got elected in the EU elections but failed to
enter the Swedish Parliament
• Will politics as usual alter Pirate Parties or will Pirate Parties
manage to change politics?

8. Disintermediation or Re-Mediation: The case of
NichiVendola
• Vendola, one of the most popular Italian politicians,
employed a sophisticated fb strategy. He posted frequent
updates from various sources of his activity that were
especially crafted for fb.
• The results were high average # of likes, comments and
engagement despite the fact that he was not involved in two
way dialogue
• Moreover, a nation wide network of pro Vendola
intermediaries emerged as a result of his fb activity
• A digital repertoir of collective actions of talking &sharing is
putting into practice
• Organisational hybridity. Blluring the lines between formal
and informal structures

9. Obama 2008 by the numbers
source: Edelman

10. E-mail is still king…

11. “We believed in human being to human
being communication.”
MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Spring 2009
– David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign
Art of the Possible: Online Branding Strategies and Tactics
David Plouffe, BarackObama's 2008 Presidential Campaign Manager
manager

12. Exemplar use of video

13. Greek parties on Facebook
• early analysis (2009) revealed that the PASOK facebook
campaign was more effective than ND as it was more
multidimensional and pluralistic
• however, both parties fb pages were leader centered
• Facebook is still largely seen as another top down medium
mainly displaying 'official' content with some glimpses of
friends comments
• Greek parties social networking strategy resembles an inter
medium web 1.5 model that is in between web 2.0 and web
1.0. Parties are trying to reserve central control and combine
it with some sporadic social networking strategies

14. email marketing tools & general
guidelines
 Weekly newsletter with news in and around the party
 Basic commentary. It provides officials and members
with unified PASOK arguments and messages about
the issues of the daily public agenda. See here:
http://us1.campaign-
archive.com/?u=d6a28a8ab45de3ba4f642baf6&id=1b5
7889000
 An insightful email marketing platform,
http://mailchimp.com
 Communication guide for candidates:
http://bit.ly/sLhBDW

15. No recipe for success.
 Know your goals and resources
 Experiment! Try new strategies all the time
 Define what success means in an as measurable
way as possible
 Measure and keep track of your results
 Consider what to change. Optimize all the time!

16. Sources
 Emiliana De Blasio, Matthew Hibberd, Michele
Sorice (Eds) (2011). Leadership and New Trends in
Political communication. Selected Papers. CMCS.
Rome. Available here:
http://mediaresearch.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/c
mcswp_0311p3.pdf
 Edelman
 GeorgiosLappas, Alexandros
Kleftodimos, ProdromosYannas. (2010). Greek
Parties and the web 2.0. Available here:
http://bit.ly/t7BmWp

17. Thank you!
Alexandros Melidis
almel01 AT gmail.com
http://almelidis.wordpress.com