The Role of Facebook in an Election within an
Emerging Democracy: A Case Study of the 2018
Election in Bhutan
by
Deki Choden
BA (English Literature), MA (Communication Management)
A Thesis submitted to Murdoch University to fulfill the
requirements for the degree of Research Masters with Training in
the discipline of Digital Communication
School of Arts
January 2019
Author’s Declaration
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
......
(Deki Choden)
ii Abstract
Since the emergence of the Internet and its widespread use around the globe, people have changed the way they communicate and the way they participate in politics. With a growing emphasis on social networking sites in election campaigns, previous studies have published varying conclusions on the effects of social media in political campaigns. However, there has been limited focus on the use of Facebook in particular as the largest social networking site, and how it facilitates political communication. Existing studies that focus on Facebook are Western centric, and some are carried using experiments and quantitative methods. This study was conducted using a case study research approach focusing on the use of Facebook in the 2018 election campaigns in Bhutan. Despite its short political and Internet history, nearly half of Bhutan’s population have Internet connection with majority of them on Facebook. Since the institution of democracy a decade ago, Bhutanese political parties and candidates have followed politicians in modern democracies by adopting social networking sites to campaign.
The case study approach used an integration of two qualitative methods of interviews and the analysis of Facebook wall posts. Results showed that the 2018 witnessed an Internet intensive campaign with significant use of Facebook by political parties and citizens for political discourse. Facebook Live streaming emerged as one of the effective strategies in reaching a maximum number of Facebook users, generating the highest number of reactions. Furthermore, the 2018 Bhutanese election campaign on Facebook saw the use of visuals and content related to campaign pledges and development issues to maximise Facebook interactions. Findings also revealed that parties and citizens used Facebook to exert agendas extending knowledge on how Facebook contributes to formation of public opinions. The use of fake accounts and malicious content to bring down opposing parties emerged as a major challenge affecting the pattern and quality of political discussions on Facebook.
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Acknowledgements
There are many people without whom this thesis would not have been possible, and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone for their support and encouragement.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Catherin Archer and Associate Professor Chris Smyth from the School of Arts at Murdoch University for their unwavering support, valuable input, professionalism and dedication in shaping this thesis. I am grateful for their time, understanding and patience reviewing repeated drafts of this thesis.
I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude to all interview participants who were kind enough to share their knowledge and time for this study.
My sincere gratitude also goes to my te am leader who put my study above any tasks at work and my colleague and friend Mr. Kamil Braima for his support in formatting this thesis.
I am grateful to Mr Justin De Sousa, Regional Manager at Murdoch International for his support and faith in me, and in this project.
I would like to thank my family, my late father who believed in me and supported my journey to study in Australia. I would not have been able to do it without his faith in me. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude like to my mother, my brother and sisters in Bhutan, my husband Yeshey Dorji and my friends for their moral support and assistance along the way.
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Table of Contents
Author’s Declaration ...... ii Abstract ...... iii Acknowledgements ...... iv List of Tables ...... viii List of Figures ...... viii List of Abbreviations ...... ix 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Overview ...... 1 1.2 Research Context and Problem ...... 2 1.3 Research Aims and Questions ...... 6 1.4 Research Approach and Methodology ...... 8 1.5 Significance of the Research ...... 8 1.6 Thesis Outline ...... 11 2 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...... 14 2.1 Chapter Summary ...... 14 2.2 History of Political Campaigns & the Use of the Internet ...... 14 2.3 Social Media and Election Campaigns ...... 17 2.4 The Agenda Setting Theory ...... 25 2.5 Facebook and US Election Campaigns ...... 28 2.6 Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Data Breach Scandal ...... 33 2.7 Facebook and Election Campaigns in India ...... 36 2.8 Facebook and Elections in Singapore ...... 38 2.9 Facebook in Other Election Campaigns ...... 39 2.10 Conclusion ...... 42 3 Chapter 3 Background and Context ...... 43 3.1 Chapter Summary ...... 43 3.2 Introduction to Bhutan ...... 43
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3.2.1 Introduction to Television, Internet & Mobile Network in Bhutan ...... 45 3.2.2 First Democratic Elections, Media & Internet Users 2008 ...... 48 3.2.3 The Parliament and the Electoral System in Bhutan ...... 49 3.2.4 Second Elections, the Media & Internet Users 2013 ...... 52 3.2.5 Third Elections, The Media, Internet and Social Networking Sites 2018 .. 57 3.2.6 Social Media Rules and Regulations in Bhutan ...... 60 3.3 Research Aims & Questions ...... 63 3.4 Conclusion ...... 64 4 Chapter 4 Methodology ...... 65 4.1 Chapter Summary ...... 65 4.2 A Case Study Research Approach ...... 65 4.2.1 The Relevance of a Case Study Research ...... 69 4.3 Data Collection ...... 70 4.3.1 Phase One: Interviews ...... 72 4.3.2 Phase Two: Facebook Data Collection ...... 77 4.4 Data Analysis ...... 80 4.4.1 Phase One: Interview Data Coding and Analysis ...... 80 4.4.2 Phase Two: Facebook Data Coding and Analysis ...... 86 4.5 A Note on Ethical Considerations ...... 89 4.6 Conclusion ...... 92 5 Chapter 5 Findings and Analysis ...... 93 5.1 Chapter Summary ...... 93 5.2 Bhutan National Election Results: 2018-10-19(Source: Election Commission of Bhutan www.ecb.bt/results) ...... 93 5.3 Summary of Phase One Interview Results ...... 94 5.4 Summary of Phase Two Results: Facebook Wall Posts ...... 97 5.5 Results from the Analysis of 20 posts with highest comments ...... 101 5.6 Combined Findings in Detail ...... 101 5.6.1 Research Question One: How does the use of Facebook facilitate political communication? ...... 102
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5.6.2 Research Question Two: What is the applicability of agenda setting theory during political communication of Facebook? ...... 106 5.6.3 Research Question Three: What are some of the Facebook strategies of the 2018 Bhutanese election? ...... 110 5.6.4 Research Question Four: What content type on Facebook maximizes engagement? ...... 114 5.6.5 Research Question Five: What are some of the challenges of using Facebook for political communication? ...... 120 5.7 Additional Findings ...... 121 5.7.1 WeChat, a Social Media Priority ...... 121 5.7.2 Traditional Media, Still Significant ...... 122 5.8 Conclusion ...... 123 6 Chapter 6 Discussion and Conclusion ...... 126 6.1 Chapter Summary ...... 126 6.2 Key Results and Findings ...... 126 6.3 Discussion ...... 128 6.3.1 How Facebook Facilitates Political Communication ...... 128 6.3.2 The Applicability of Agenda Setting during Political Communication on Facebook ...... 131 6.3.3 Challenges of Using Facebook for Political Communication ...... 133 6.3.4 Strategies for Political Communication on Facebook ...... 134 6.5 Recommendations for Future Research ...... 141 6.6 Conclusion ...... 143 7 Appendices ...... 145 7.1 Appendix A: Brief Information Letter ...... 146 7.2 Appendix B: Consent Form ...... 147 7.3 Appendix C: Interview Questions ...... 148 8 References ...... 149
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List of Tables Table 4.1 Definitions of Case Study Research ...... 68 Table 4.2 Roles of Interview Respondents (as expressed by respondents) ...... 75 Table 4.3 Example of Coding an Interview Transcript ...... 84 Table 5.1 Roles of Interview Respondents ...... 95 Table 5.2 Party A: Features of the Ten Popular Posts ...... 117 Table 5.3 Party B: Features of the Ten Popular Posts ...... 118
List of Figures Figure 4.1 Data Collection Methods ...... 71 Figure 4.2 Explanation of Three Variables ...... 88 Figure 5.1 Bhutan 2018 Election Results (Election Commission of Bhutan, 2018)...... 94 Figure 5.2 Explanation of the Three Variables ...... 98 Figure 5.3 Findings of Facebook Posts by Party A & B ...... 100 Figure 5.4 Facebook Posts by Each Party A and B ...... 106 Figure 5.5 Structural Findings of Party A Posts ...... 114 Figure 5.7 Total Reactions of the Ten Popular Posts ...... 115 Figure 5.8 Structure & Content of 10 popular posts (Party A & B) ...... 116
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List of Abbreviations
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BBS Bhutan Broadcasting Service
BIMIS Bhutan Information and Media Impact Study
ECB Election Commission of Bhutan
EUEOM European Union Election Observation Mission
GNHC Gross National Happiness Commission
MBS Media Baseline Study
MIS Media Impact Study
MoIC Ministry of Information and Communication
NSB National Statistical Bureau
REACH Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry
ix 1 Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview
The primary goal of this research is to examine the use and role of Facebook in election campaigns particularly those in developing countries and emerging democracies, using the 2018 Bhutanese election as a case study. With Facebook continuing to grow in popularity as the largest social networking site in the world, it is also known to be the most used network among political parties and candidates in election campaigns
(Nielsen & Vaccari, 2013). Despite Bhutan’s short Internet history after receiving
Internet connection about two decades ago in 1999 (BBC, 1999), the number of Internet subscribers has increased dramatically (Ministry of Information and Communication,
2018). Of the many social networking sites that Bhutanese use, Facebook has become predominant among both citizens and politicians (Zangmo, 2012; BBS, 2013). But the theoretical and empirical understanding of its role in political communication remains limited. Research has yet to explore how this social networking site facilitates political communication especially for a country that is new to Internet use and democratic elections.
This study also explores the extent to which Facebook can offer a space for political parties to reach and inform the electorate. The 2018 Bhutanese election was chosen for the purpose of this study because the nascent political and digital landscape in Bhutan makes it a unique case study. While research on the potential of social networking sites has gained momentum in many parts of the world, there is little understanding on the work of social networking sites in Bhutanese politics.
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1.2 Research Context and Problem
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat among others have experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Simultaneously, the ways in which election campaigns are planned, organized, and conducted have changed considerably as political parties and candidates employ new ideas and practices in order to communicate as strategically and as effectively as possible (Stromback et al., 2008).
Social networking sites gained popularity after Barack Obama successfully utilized the platforms to reach and gain supporters, and mobilize them to his advantage during the
2008 US presidential campaign (Abroms & Lefebure, 2009). Today, Obama’s huge and successful digital presence is known to have created a new standard for e-campaigning, making political figures across advanced democracies emulate his success (Gibson &
MacAllister, 2011; Fitzpatrick, 2012).
In pursuing elected office, political parties and individual candidates exploit any opportunity to facilitate contact with voters to raise their profile and claim recognition for policy successes (Lassen & Brown, 2010). Internet-facilitated sites, as they have become integrated into the daily lives of citizens, have given politicians the opportunity to amplify their connections with citizens, to reach and inform them of their campaign pledges, and mobilize and reinforce their messages (Fernandes et al., 2010; Lin, 2017).
Social networking sites have allowed politicians both unprecedented exposure and access to the voting populace all at no or low costs, and in turn allowed voters the opportunity to engage in political dialogue (Fernandes et al., 2010).
Due to social networking sites’ capacity to enhance dialogic communication between
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political actors and their constituents, the sites have attracted a substantial research attention over the last decade and half. Social networking sites have been found to help citizens create an immediate and informal way to respond to candidate messages and publicly display their support (Xenos et al., 2015). This close proximity between citizens and politicians online has made social networking sites new terrains in which electoral battles take place (Williams & Gulati, 2013).
The uptake of these platforms in elections is now as essential as the old staple of television advertising (Kress et al., 2018), as the use of social networking sites has been found to increase political knowledge, efficacy and even voter turnout (Tolbert &
McNeal, 2003). Previous studies on the role of social networking sites in election campaigns have concluded that online political activities help shape political debates through greater political engagement (Fernandes et al., 2010; Tumasjan et al., 2011) and positively relate to electoral outcomes (Lin 2017). The sites are known to help campaigners reach, target and inform voters more comprehensively than ever before
(Christenson et al., 2014).
From the many social networking sites today, Facebook stands as the most dominant platform, with over 2.3 billion users worldwide (Facebook, 2018). Responding to this phenomenon, politicians too have been quick to leverage the social media giant for party communication and mobilization especially during election campaigns (Kushin &
Yamamoto, 2010; Wlliams & Gulati, 2013). As the most widespread social networking site, its infrastructure, multi-faceted features and capabilities have made it well suited for individual-centered campaigning as well as target group centered campaigns (Magin
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et al., 2017).
Since the inception of social media use by politicians, research has found that political activity on Facebook mirrors offline political actions (Woolley et al., 2010; Gerodimos
& Justinussen, 2012; Barclay et al., 2015; Lin, 2017), partly because one can access a diverse mix of demographic groups on the network (Duggan & Smith, 2013). Facebook also functions as a direct communication channel for political actors to share and engage with supporters (Abroms & Lefebure, 2009; Bronstein, 2013). MacWilliams
(2015) said that Facebook is no longer simply a social medium but a social utility that political campaigners are using to reach, activate, and mobilize voters.
Facebook has been found to have the capacity to mobilize young voters, who otherwise do not participate in political discussions (Vitak et al. 2011; Lin, 2016). Exposure to political messages on Facebook was also found to influence political self-expression, information seeking and real world voting behaviours of millions of people (Bond et al.,
2012). While politicians in many democracies were exploring the potential of social networking sites after the 2008 US presidential campaigns, Bhutan had just embarked on its democratic journey as it held its first democratic elections in 2008, becoming the world’s youngest democracy.
It had been barely a decade since the introduction of the Internet and television when the country first held its parliamentary elections in 2008. According to the country’s
Info-Comm and Transport Statistical Bulletin, there were barely 6000 Internet subscribers in the country when it held its first democratic elections in 2008 (MOIC,
2018). The Annual Info-Comm. and Transport Statistical Bulletin is compiled by the
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Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC), to create up-to date information and statistical data on ICT, media, transport and postal services in the country. The 2018 statistical bulletin provides data from 2008 until December 2017 (MOIC, 2018).
Social networking sites became more visible during the second democratic elections in
2013. By then the number of Internet subscribers had increased to over 251,000 users
(MOIC, 2018). The drastic rise in the number of Internet subscribers was fuelled by the growth in the number of mobile subscribers after its introduction in 2003 (BIMIS,
2013). According to the Bhutan Information and Media Impact Study (BIMIS, 2013), more than 70% Bhutanese households owned a mobile phone by 2013. Avieson (2017) also pointed out that mobile telephones had the greatest communication success.
Although there is little knowledge and understanding about the work of social networking sites in Bhutanese politics, there is mounting evidence from traditional news sources that tools such as Facebook and Twitter were used during the 2013 election campaigns, mainly to promote campaign messages and opinions (Zangmo 2012; BBS,
2013). By the end of 2017, a few months prior to the 2018 election, the number of
Internet subscribers had nearly tripled, with over 726,000 Internet subscribers, according to the recent Info Comm. and Transport Statistical Bulletin (2018); this is in a country with less than 800,000 people (National Statistical Bureau, 2018). Internet
World Stats, an International website that features up-to-date world Internet usage recorded the number of Facebook users in Bhutan at 350,000 at the end of 2017
(Internet World Stats, 2017).
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In the West, previous studies have found Facebook to shape political decision-making through enhanced political engagement (Woolley et al., 2010), and predict electoral outcomes (Barclay et al., 2015). Although Facebook has been found to play an increasingly important role in voters’ political orientation and information consumption by recent studies (Woolley et al.; Vitak et al., 2011; Bond et al., 2012; Williams &
Gulati, 2013; Borah, 2016;), most existing studies are Western centric with limited attention in the Asia-Pacific region (Lin, 2016). In addition, recent studies on social networking sites including Facebook, have called for a need to consider the sites as more active agents in political processes than previously appreciated in literature
(Kriess & Mcgregor, 2017).
1.3 Research Aims and Questions
The aim of this research is to examine the use and role of Facebook in election campaigns by using the 2018 Bhutanese election as a case study. Although there have been advances in technology in Bhutan such as the introduction of the Internet in 1999 and cellular network in 2003, and the democratisation of the country in 2008 as discussed above, no previous research has directly examined the use of social networking sites including Facebook, and its role in Bhutanese politics. However, mainstream media have reported on how Bhutanese politicians have been campaigning using social networking sites since the 2013 election campaign even though the number of Facebook users prior to the 2013 election was around 80,000 (Zangmo, 2012).
Today, with wider Internet reach and with more than 350,000 Facebook users in the
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country (Internet World Stats, 2017), the goal of this study is to create an understanding of how Facebook shapes and facilitates political communication.
Outside Bhutan, current studies have looked at how using Facebook has influenced electoral outcomes. These have used statistical methods, such as surveys and experiments, alone (see, for example, Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010; Bond et al., 2012;
Barclay et al., 2015). Some qualitative studies have analyzed the content of Facebook
Groups affiliated to presidential candidates (see, for example, Woolley et al., 2010; Lin,
2017) or focussed on a single presidential candidate (see for example, Gerodimos &
Justinussen, 2015). However, many current studies have overlooked the functions of political parties on Facebook and paid less attention on the content they produce or the use of shares with other Facebook users or potential voters (Ceron & d’Adda, 2016).
Content on Facebook is known to be an important data source to address the reality of politics on social networking sites (Muniz, 2016).
The current research addresses the following questions in particular:
1. How does the use of Facebook facilitate political communication?
2. What is the applicability of agenda setting theory during political
communication of Facebook?
3. What are some of the Facebook strategies of the 2018 Bhutanese election?
4. What are the types of content on Facebook that maximize engagement?
5. What are some of the challenges of using Facebook for political
communication?
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1.4 Research Approach and Methodology
This study used a case study research approach and relied on two different qualitative research methods spread over two different research phases. As the Bhutanese electoral system consists of two-election rounds- the Primary Election round and the General
Election - the two research methods were applied at the different rounds. According to
Patton, using multiple data sources is common in case study research to enhance data credibility (1990). The study began with a thorough review of existing literature on social networking sites and political campaigns and in particular, Facebook and political communication. Guided and informed by the outcomes of current studies, and the digital and political landscape of Bhutan, the first phase of the research began with qualitative interviews with party representatives of all registered parties that contested the first or the Primary 2018 Election round. The second phase of the research focused on content analysis of Facebook wall posts made by the two major parties during their campaigns in the General Election run-off.
1.5 Significance of the Research
Although the mainstream media has highlighted the use and impact of social media in past election campaigns in Bhutan (Zangmo, 2012), there are no empirical academic studies that have directly explored the use of social networking sites in Bhutanese election campaigns. The media impact studies that were initiated soon after the launch of television and the Internet in Bhutan assess the trends in media content and pattern of information and media consumption. The studies have been initiated by the Bhutanese government to record the trends of media evolution, its impact, and the challenges facing the media industry in general (MIS, 2003; MIS 2008; BIMIS, 2013). Although,
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the most recent report (BIMIS, 2013) highlights how new information and communication technologies have transformed information flow and communication patterns among all segments of the Bhutanese society, there are no assessments on the use of social networking sites in election campaigns. No information on the role of
Facebook in election campaigns has been compiled.
Similarly, two books were released soon after the first and the second democratic elections in Bhutan (Sithey & Dorji, 2009; Sithey, 2013). As the authors wrote, the
2009 book was an attempt to mark the historic times and document the story of
Bhutan’s first elections for future generations. The book reflects Bhutan’s journey to democracy, discusses the electoral laws, political parties, the election results and voter turnout (Sithey & Dorji, 2009). The second book following the 2013 election discusses the electoral laws, political parties, voter outcome, and election results with some reference and examples on how Facebook was used as a popular medium amongst the government and the citizens (Sithey, 2013). The book however does not contain findings from an analysis of how social networking sites facilitated the 2013 election.
In 2014, a study examined the functions of Facebook in Bhutan, using a quantitative survey with 58 college students, and found that Facebook was mainly used to browse profiles and add social network members (Hamidi & Baljko, 2014). Although the PhD study did shed some light on the use and the general functions of Facebook in Bhutan, there are no references of those functions to political campaigns.
In 2015, an Australian academic published a paper on the evolution of the media landscape in Bhutan by detailing the cultural and technological background of the country (Avieson, 2015a). The article discusses the journey of new media in Bhutan,
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including how Facebook had become a forum for public issues in addition to social interactions. As the author wrote, the research for the article was undertaken following a series of field trips to Bhutan which included ‘interviews with senior journalists, editors, bloggers and politicians who were early adopters of digital media, senior bureaucrats, and the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy’ (p.2489). In the same year, the author published a book on how modern media found Bhutan in 2015, providing a glimpse of Bhutan’s history and the current state of the media (Avieson, 2015b). The book documents the development of modern trends in Bhutan, showing how modern
Bhutan continues to develop and democratize (Givel, 2017). A book by Avieson
(2015b) and a paper in 2017 (Avieson, 2017) discusses the evolution of modern communication in Bhutan. Avieson (2017) observed that although online media has allowed people to engage with their leaders, the potential of the Internet was yet to be fully realized.
This current study sought to develop this research in Bhutan, to understand the potential of Facebook and its role in the country’s 3rd democratic elections. It is also evident from the articles highlighted above, that there are no academic studies that solely focus on the parliamentary elections and the use of Facebook within Bhutan. Therefore, the findings of the current study are expected to inform researchers, academics, journalists and political parties and candidates, both in Bhutan and in countries with similar democratic institutions, about how Facebook facilitates political communication.
The rapid changes in the ways Bhutanese consume and exchange political information has created the need for this research. This study was guided by the agenda setting
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theory (see chapter on literature review on pp. 57-60), to understand how parties may set agendas, and respond to others, through Facebook as they manage their image and gain electoral attention.
1.6 Thesis Outline
This introductory chapter has provided a background on the study’s topic - Facebook and political campaigns. The research context and questions were also introduced followed by the research aims and questions. The research methodology was also briefly outlined in the first chapter. From this vantage point, one can judge the significance of the current study.
Chapter 2 provides a more extensive background and context to this study with an introduction to Bhutan, followed by a brief history on the introduction of television, the
Internet and mobile networks in the country. Starting with the democratization of
Bhutan in 2008, an in-depth picture of the election cycle in 2008, 2013 and 2018 is presented with information on the political landscape, the state of local media, and the number of Internet users during each election period. The chapter also provides information on the Parliament, the electoral laws and media regulations, followed by a summary of the country’s social media policy and the social media rules and regulations on elections. The chapter also goes into greater detail regarding the research aims and questions of this study.
Chapter 3 presents the literature review, which begins with the history of political campaigns and the use of the Internet in election campaigns, followed by literature on the use of social media in election campaigns, with a particular focus on Facebook as a
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campaign tool in American politics and other democracies. The use of Facebook in political campaigns in India and Singapore is also discussed. The chapter briefly documents the central role Facebook played in the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal. As this study is guided by the theory on agenda setting, the third chapter also provides details on the theory and its applicability during political communication on
Facebook, with reference to previous studies on the use of Facebook in election campaigns in different parts of the world.
Chapter 4 presents the details on the research design and methods used in this study. In the first section, the research approach is explained with definitions of case study research and the justifications of the relevance of case study research to this study. The second part of chapter 4 provides details of the different phases of data collection, with explanations on how data were collected. The later part of the chapter provides details of information from the two different research phases were analyzed. The last section of the chapter presents information on the ethical principles observed during the design and conduct of this research.
Chapter 5 provides the findings of the study, which begins with the formal results of the
2018 Bhutanese election, followed by a summary of results from the two different phases of the research. The findings from the analysis of the interview transcripts and the Facebook wall posts analysis are then combined to answer each of the five research questions. This chapter also presents some of the unexpected findings of the study.
Finally, Chapter 6 further discusses the findings of the study by providing an overview on how the findings align with existing literature on Facebook and political
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communication and contribute to it. The chapter also on reflects the weaknesses and limitations of the research and provides some recommendations for future studies on related topics.
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2 Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Chapter Summary
This chapter provides a detailed background on the chosen topic of this research. It begins with the history of political campaigns and the use of the Internet in election campaigns around the world. The theory of agenda setting is also discussed within the context of Facebook use in election campaigns, followed by information on one of the world’s biggest data breach scandals involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.
The chapter also provides literature on the use of social media, with a particular focus on Facebook as a campaign tool in American politics and other democracies, including
India and Singapore.
2.2 History of Political Campaigns & the Use of the Internet
Political actors have to communicate regularly by using each media outlet at his or her disposal (Ceccobelli, 2018) and more so during election campaigns to reach and inform citizens. Communicating to a wide public is the principal concern of political campaigns
(Thomson, 1956), and it is through the nation's mass media that the parties present their candidates, pledges and the issues to the electorate (Dryer, 1964). According to Trent and Friedenberg (2008), ‘communication is the means by which the campaign begins, proceeds and concludes’, and without it there is no political campaign (p.17). During the early days of political campaigns, candidates would mostly give speeches in their constituencies, organize rallies, schedule news conferences, hold one-on-one interviews
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with journalists and issue press releases to get the attention of the media in their efforts to reach out to potential voters (Bimber & Davies, 2003). In 1960, during the 35th US presidential campaign, the use of radio and television were popular as campaign- advertising budget for the mediums grew (Dreyer, 1964). A study that looked at trends in party expenditures for political broadcasting during the 1960 US presidential campaign found that parties spent more on radio and television advertising compared to previous elections in their efforts to project a ‘favourable political image’ (Dreyer,
1964, p. 216). Presidential candidate John F Kennedy was labelled the television president for allowing live coverage of his news conferences (Schieffer, 2017). Since then, ‘television has been the prominent vehicle for presidential candidate communication both in terms of the amount of resources devoted to the medium and the number of voters reached by it’ (Bimber & Davies, 2003, p. 27).
By the early 1990s, online communication gained public attention. Although ttelevision advertising constituted the vast majority of an American presidential candidate’s advertising budget, campaign-related information were also placed on the Internet
(Bimber & Davies, 2003). Bimber and Davies (2003) adds that, television advertising alone was not found effective in shaping voters’ attitudes about candidates, and hence information such as full texts of candidate speeches, advertisements and biographical information of candidates were placed on Internet platforms. Candidates are known to have used online computer information services such as electronic mails and online conferences to communicate with voters (Campbell, 1993). By the mid-1990s, the advantages of online communication became obvious to many political actors as the
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cost of disseminating information to voters on Internet platforms was seen as minuscule compared to the amount devoted to television or print advertising (Bimber & Davies,
2003). Trent and Friedenberg (2008) also shared that, in addition to saving costs, campaigning on Internet platforms created public awareness with its high visibility in short periods of time.
According to Cohen-Almagor (2011), the mid-1990s were the years when the Internet established itself as the focal point for communication, information and business. By
1996, the number of Netusers increased to 36 million, which rose to 360 million by
2000. Websites dominated the political communication scene as they were used particularly for online donations (Cohen-Almagor, 2011). When the 2000 US presidential campaigns were held, the Internet’s potential was realized with a variety of online services developed by political parties, candidates and the media (Trent &
Friedenberg, 2008). For example, websites were used to target undecided voters to visit the sites and learn about their candidates’ backgrounds and their positions on issues
(Bimber & Davies, 2003). Emails were continually sent to website subscribers urging them to volunteer in the campaign (Bimber & Davies, 2003). By 2004, Internet became an essential part of American politics, especially as websites provided new ways of increasing voters' sense of personal involvement (Pew Research, 2005). A Pew
Research finding following the 2004 US presidential election (2005) showed, that websites provided citizens with more ways to gather additional information about the candidates and election news.
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2.3 Social Media and Election Campaigns
Since the emergence of the Internet and its widespread use around the globe, people have not only changed the way they communicate, but also the ways in which they refer to products and services (Qualman, 2011). The new communication technologies permit users to exchange large amount of information quickly regardless of their locations
(Tolbert & McNeal, 2003). Internet facilitated tools enable online conversations through blogs, podcast, chats and social networking sites, which allow users to create a network based on any combination of shared interests and ideas (Choudhary, 2014).
Social networking sites are defined as ‘web-based services that allow individuals to (a) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (b) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (c) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007, p.
211). The sites enable people without any particular technical knowledge to create an online profile to communicate and share information with others (Bronstien, 2013).
Also referred to as social media, the sites help users create and maintain a network of social connections, and provide a source of information for users (Hanson et al., 2010).
Social media has become an integral part of the lives of most Internet users as it is global in nature and enables people to stay connected even when geographically apart
(Qualman, 2011).
Social media is known to have changed the manners in which candidates run for office today (Trent & Friedenberg, 2008). For example, websites hosted by political actors in the past have now been replaced by different social networking sites (Larsson,
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2015) such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and blogs among others. The sites are increasingly adopted as channels of political communication (Towner &
Dulio, 2011). Social networking sites have brought far-reaching shifts in the ways political campaigns are planned, organized and conducted. With their convenience and inexpensive means of conducting voter outreach (Williams & Gulati, 2013), the use of social networking sites in election campaigns help lower the cost of accessibility to political information, making it more likely for people to take interest in political discourse online (Carlisle & Patton, 2013). For politicians, using social networking sites help reach voters at a click of a mouse and at lightning speed. Some see the web to be revolutionizing modern election campaigns in much the same way as television did, but with even more vigour and far-reaching consequences (Gibson & McAllister, 2011). Just as political candidates organised rallies and speeches in the past, a political web presence today is essential to reinforce their messages and policies (Bimber & Davies, 2003) in order to raise the quality of political discourse and electoral outcomes (Williams and Gulati, 2013).
Although Internet tools were incorporated into political campaigns since the 2000
US presidential campaign, the first major success of using social networking sites was Barack Obama’s 2008 US presidential campaign (Abroms & Lefebure, 2009).
Numerous studies on the use of social media during the 2008 US presidential campaign concluded that sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube provided a highly visible environment for candidates to promote, articulate and interact with voters in fundamentally different ways than past campaigns (Abroms
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& Lefebure, 2009; Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010; Vitak et al., 2011).
It should be noted here that it was the 2004 US presidential candidate Howard Dean, who took online politics to the mainstream audience (Anderson, 2004), and that social media was also used by some candidates during the 2006 US congressional election campaign (Williams & Gulati, 2013). But, it was the 2008 US presidential election that witnessed the first significant integration of Web 2.0 technologies to influence political attitudes (Towner & Dulio, 2011), by reaching, engaging, inspiring and mobilizing supporters in ways that were unprecedented and untested in political campaigns
(Abroms & Lefebure, 2009). For example, survey findings of university students about their use of online media during the 2008 US presidential campaign found that online discussions via social media, such as sharing and commenting, increased participants’ political self-efficacy and political involvement (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). The study also found that attention to social media during election campaigns positively related to electoral outcomes due to enhanced engagement between political actors and citizens (Kushin & Yaamoto, 2010).
Another study found that participating in social network discourse strongly affected traditional political participation as social media allowed users to experience politics at a more intimate interpersonal level and obtain user-generated political information they might not be able to obtain in traditional news sources (Bode et al., 2014). The 2008 US presidential campaign is known to have boosted the momentum in online political communication (Vitak et al., 2011) as politicians across the world adopted social networking sites as campaign tools to engage with their constituents, entering into
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direct dialogues with citizens and enabling political discussions (Hong &
Nadler, 2012). By their sheer ubiquity, social networking sites contribute towards changing media ecologies and opening new ways and forms of communication between citizens and their representatives (Skogerbo & Krumsvik, 2015). Today, scholars have described social networking sites as new terrains in which electoral battles take place
(Williams & Gulati, 2013), as political candidates use personalized social media accounts to contribute towards their election outcomes. Just as media coverage helps shape public opinions, social media platforms help shape larger public opinions (Page
& Shapiro, 1992).
Gueorguieva (2008) said that social networking sites help increase the potential for candidate exposure at low or no cost, and allow campaigns to raise contributions and recruit volunteers online. Social media is more than just a medium as it also helps spread news, which in turn increases civic participation (Balsey & Karananov, 2016).
During Germany’s 2009 national elections, a study that examined the potential of
Twitter found that the number of mentions a party received matched closely with the results of the election polls (Tumasjan et al., 2011). The authors said that social media represents the thoughts and views of much of a country’s population due to its wide use, and serves as a large sample size.
In the United Kingdom, political parties and their leaders adopted the use of social networking sites with their presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace by
2009 (Jackson & Lilleker, 2009). While some of the parties offered Facebook applications for supporters to sign up, some parties were present on different social
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networking sites (Jackson & Lilleker, 2009). Jackson and Lilleker (2009)’s assessment on the use of different social networking sites found that British political parties used the sites to merely reinforce their existence, or as ‘perception-building tools and not to encourage the discussion and development of ideas’ (p.247). This was also one of the findings during a study of Twitter analysis during the 2010 UK General Election campaign (Graham et al., 2013). The research, not only observed how nearly a quarter of the British shared their thoughts, visions, and experiences on Twitter, but found that
British politicians mainly used Twitter as a one-way form of communication. On the other hand, the study also found that there were a group of candidates who used Twitter to interact with voters (Graham et al., 2013).
In Australia, voter mobilization is not a primary campaign strategy as the country has compulsory voting (Chen, 2013). Yet, Australian political parties and candidates have followed international trends in embracing social networking sites to encourage voter participation (Chen, 2013). To gain a better understanding of whether modern social media offered ‘the revolutionary possibilities its enthusiasts trumpet’, a quantitative analysis of Twitter utilization by Australian politicians was conducted in 2010 (Grant et al., 2010, p. 579). The analysis found that those who used Twitter to converse appeared to gain more political benefit from the platform than others (Grant et al., 2010). In 2013, during the Federal Election, another study found that the volume of social media use increased compared to previous elections (Macnamarra & Kenning, 2014). However, the 2013 Australian election was a step backwards when it came to interactivity compared with 2010. This implied that Australian political parties used the social
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networking sites as just another channel for one-way transmission of their campaigning messages (Macnamarra & Kenning, 2014).
The importance of social media in election campaigning also received attention in New
Zealand as the use of Facebook and Twitter during the 2011 general election was found to have a significant relationship between the size of online social networks and election voting and election results (Cameroon et al., 2016). In South Korea, Twitter use by candidates and parties was found to directly influence public attitudes towards politicians in a positive way (Hwang, 2013). In particular, Hwang (2013)’s study revealed that the use of social media made politicians appear experienced and highly skilled. Twitter was found to maximize dialogic communication with their voters.
Likewise, in Malaysia, the success of the 2013 general election was credited to the effective use of online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, news portals and blogs (Sani, 2014). According to Sani (2014), the use of social networking sites was found to strengthen the democratic process in the country.
American President Donald Trump is known to have strengthened the use of social media for electoral success by using his social networking sites to make his stand on issues and policies during the 2016 US Presidential campaign (Balsley & Karanov,
2016). The Wall Street Journal analyzed the Tweets of the two presidential candidates for a day each during the 2016 US presidential campaign and found that Trump raced ahead of his opponent with 33 million followers as of the study date compared to
Clinton who had only 16 million followers (Keegan, 2016). In a day, Trump tweeted 87 times compared to Clinton who tweeted 78 times. On the Election Day, Brandwatch, a
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social intelligence firm analyzed the Twitter mentions of Trump and Clinton and found that Trump had received more mentions compared to Clinton (Joyce, 2016). Between the start of November 8th and November 9th 2016, Trump accumulated close to 5 million mentions while Clinton’s count stood at over 2.7 million (Joyce, 2016). While many polls and prediction models forecast Clinton as the winner of the 2016 presidential race, a number of social media analytics firms saw the potential for Trump’s win well in advance (Perez, 2016). Clinton was found to have outspent on TV advertisements, set up more field offices, whereas Trump better leveraged social media to both reach and grow his audience (Perez, 2016). Other analytics firms also recorded more support for Trump on Facebook and Twitter with Trump having consistently higher positive sentiments than Clinton (Andrews, 2016; 4 C Insights, 2016).
In summary, the dynamics of political communication has changed with the integration of social networking sites that provide instant information delivery and direct interactivity (Flores, 2017). The sites not only give politicians the platform to reach, inform and interact, but give citizens the space to ‘engage politically with each other and with their candidates and parties’ (p.175). Today, social networking sites have become even more crucial with their capacity to foster relationships between candidates and their supporters (Lin, 2017).
Besides social networking sites’ capacity to enable citizens to interact directly with political parties and candidates, and enhance political discourse, the sites were seen to have some major political ramifications. The power of social networking sites were mobilized in 2009 in Iran where citizens protested in the aftermath of the presidential
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election results. A study that examined the role of social media during the movement concluded that social networking sites has the potential function in facilitating participation in social movements (Moghanizadeh, 2013). The study, which was based on personal interviews with participants from the demonstrations illustrated that social media was highly effective in mobilizing masses of people to form the Green
Movement (Moghanizadeh, 2013). Some scholars acknowledge the Green Movement as the catalyst for the beginning of the Arab Spring (Simonowitz, 2011), that caused the fall of two regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, civil wars in Libya and Syria, and revolutionary movements in Yemen and Bahrain (Mitchell et al., 2012). Empowered by access to social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, protesters organized across the Middle East, spoke against oppression, inspiring hope for a better and more democratic future (Brown et al., 2012).
An international media consultant, veteran journalist and an attorney, Jeffery Ghannam, wrote in 2011 that the use of social networking sites during the Arab Spring was arguably the most dramatic and unprecedented improvement in freedom of expression, association, and access to information in contemporary Arab history. Ghannam’s study, which was based on an analysis of more than 35 interviews and other secondary data, concluded that social networking sites were used to inform, mobilize, entertain, create communities, increase transparency, and seek to hold governments accountable in the
Arab Spring (2011). A BBC news article also described the use of social media during the Arab Spring as cyber battles that changed the age-old conflicts between the people in power and the power of the people (Simpson, 2014).
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2.4 The Agenda Setting Theory
This study was guided by the agenda setting theory and the data analysis process included examination of how Facebook serves as an agenda setting media platform for citizens and politicians. Agenda setting is one of the critical themes in mass communication research, and was founded by communication scholars McCombs and
Shaw (1972). According to the scholars, agenda setting theory is the ability of the mass media to influence the importance on the topics of the public agenda, upon which a voting decision has to be made (McCombs & Shaw, 1971). The scholars investigated the agenda setting capacity of the mass media during 1968 US presidential campaign by comparing the major issues highlighted by undecided voters and the content of mass media during the campaign period. McCombs and Shaw the were the first to test the hypothesis that the news media have a major influence on which issues the public considers important from the amount of information in a news story and its position
(McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Findings showed that ‘the media appeared to have exerted a considerable impact on voters’ judgements of what they considered the major issues of the campaign’ (p.180), demonstrating that the audience often judge the important of new item based on how frequently and prominently it was covered by the mass media.
The study discovered a strong relationship between voters’ perceptions of salient issues and the issues discussed most by the media (McCombs & Shaw, 1972).
First level agenda setting, is concerned with the salience of the issues covered in the press, while second-level agenda-setting focuses on the specific attributes of those issues (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Further research into agenda setting led to the development of a theory of second level of agenda setting, which is when the news
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media emphasize specific attributes of a news story, or when the press can influence how the public interprets those stories (McCombs, 2005). The communication scholars are known to have devoted more than four decades to build agenda setting from a successful hypothesis into a robust theory on how the news media influence the salience of issues (Davie & Maher, 2006). Since making this finding, agenda setting theory has been used to guide many studies worldwide in both election and non-election settings
(McCombs, 1992, McCombs et al., 1981, Roberts & McCombs, 1994, Lopez-Escobar et al., 1998).
With the rising use of new Internet platforms, politicians and parties have been found to use the new platforms to post messages in hopes of drawing a wide audience and media attention (Syre et al., 2010). With technological advancements, the agenda setting effects have been found to exist on the new media platforms especially with the presence of newspapers on websites (Syre et al., 2010). The Internet in general, and social media in particular, have been theorized as being able to break the press’s monopoly on agenda setting as the Internet diminishes barriers of communication among citizens and between citizens and opinion makers, including journalists (Meraz, 2011).
Researchers explored the intermedia influence of the Internet on traditional news media by examining the influence of Internet bulletin boards on newspaper coverage during the 2000 South Korean General Elections, and through content analysis of the major newspapers and the Internet bulletin boards during the campaign (Lee et al., 2005).
Results showed that newspapers influenced Internet bulletin boards and vice-versa implying that ‘the Internet funnels and leads public opinion as well as affect the
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coverage of other media (p. 57).
Other studies have also found that the power to filter and control messages no longer remained in monopoly with the mass media (Meraz, 2009). Testing traditional media’s agenda setting abilities against the rising use of blogs in the US, Meraz’s (2009) study found that traditional media was just one force competing among many influencers.
Another study compared the agenda setting cues of traditional media alongside those of online media by analysing the content of YouTube videos during the 2008
California State Elections, and found signs that newspaper coverage, search traffic, and posting to YouTube were interrelated. It also showed how YouTube allowed
‘individuals an opportunity to help drive and lead public discourses on socially relevant and politically important issues’ (Syre et al., 2010, p.26).
According to Jacobson, ‘social media have been theorized as being able to break the press’ monopoly on agenda-setting, giving the public greater influence over which stories are covered in the news’ (2013, p.338). Jacobson conducted a content analysis of the Facebook Page of The Rachel Maddow Show and the television content to determine the extent to which audience conversations on the Facebook Page influenced the selection of issues covered on television. Results showed a positive correlation between stories discussed on Facebook and the subsequent airing of similar stories on
TV, suggesting that the TV show used the Facebook Page to influence the public agenda (Jacobson, 2013).
Research also suggests that the number of times a politician is mentioned by traditional
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media is positively related to the number of mentions he or she gets on Twitter (Hong &
Nadler 2012). In the 2016 US presidential campaigns, Trump was labelled as a strategic
Twitter user as he bypassed the traditional media, set his own agendas, and shared his own thoughts with his followers, rather than be subject of the editorial agendas of mainstream reporters and editors (Balsley & Karanonov, 2016). On the applicability of agenda setting theory on the new media environment, McCombs (2005) noted that, ‘the basic agenda setting effects of news media may continue in much the same fashion as the previous decades or eventually disappear due to changing media landscape’ (p.
546). McCombs (2005) however said that the effects of agenda setting would remain high on the research agenda for at least the near term
2.5 Facebook and US Election Campaigns
Facebook is in the business of connecting people, allowing individuals to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers, and permits users to make their list of connections visible to others and to traverse their social networks (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Facebook has triumphed as the most dominant social networking site with nearly 2.3 billion active users around the globe (Facebook, 2018). Given its user-friendly interface and the growing body of users, the social media giant quickly made the leap as a common hub for political discourse during election campaigns in most democracies (Kushin &
Yamamoto, 2010; Bronstein, 2013; Muniz et al., 2017). To a large extent, the popularity of Facebook in the political arena is based on its wide range of tools that allow users to reach and connect easily (Wolley et al., 2010; Larsson, 2015). Its use by a diverse mix of demographic groups has also made the social networking site a popular forum for
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political dialogues (Duggan & Smith, 2014). Facebook provides a direct communication channel for political actors to also share and engage with supporters (Abroms &
Lefebure, 2009; Bronstein, 2013). According to MacWilliams (2015), Facebook is no longer simply a social medium but a social utility that campaigns are using to reach, activate, and mobilize voters.
The use of Facebook in election campaigns goes back to the 2006 US Congressional election. Williams and Gulati’s (2013) comparative study on the use of Facebook during the 2006 and 2008 elections in the US found that, only 16% of the candidates used
Facebook in 2006 compared to 75% in 2008. Facebook had also introduced ‘Pages’ in
2008 that were similar to personal ‘Profiles’ but offered the candidates greater capability to post various kinds of campaign materials such as photo albums, videos, links, and event information (Williams & Gulati, 2013). Studies that examined the potential of Facebook in election campaigns during the 2008 US presidential campaign found that Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates and interact with others on political issues (Vitak et al., 2011). Another study analysed Facebook wall posts and concluded that the use of Facebook facilitated political dialogues and increased citizens’ civic and political engagement (Fernandes et al., 2010). Likewise, other studies also found that communicating on Facebook helped shape political decision-making through exchange of political information (Woolley et al., 2010;). Woolley et al. (2010) studied more than 1,000 Facebook group pages during the 2008 US presidential campaign and found that the majority supported Obama than his rival, John McCain, hence popularizing the use of Facebook as a campaign tool.
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An increasing number of political parties, candidates and campaign strategists around the world are known to adopt Facebook as one of their campaign tools to enhance their political presence. According to Vaccari (2013), most politicians are followed on
Facebook by only a small portion of voters, but it is the followers’ reactions that make the posts reach many voters. It is said that the more supporters a campaign enlists and engages in political actions, the more likely it is for the campaign to succeed
(MacWilliams, 2015). A special feature of Facebook as an information resource is that it can easily reach the politically uninterested voters who otherwise tend to avoid political information in the current high-choice media environment (Bene, 2017). The site’s affordances make it well suited for increasing political participation, in part through the ability to acquire greater political knowledge, increase political interest, and improve political self-efficacy, all of which have been linked to greater political participation in prior research (Williams & Gulati, 2013; Barclay et al., 2015; Lin,
2017).
In addition, some research suggests that campaigning on Facebook has the capacity to mobilize young voters, who otherwise do not participate in political discussions (Vitak et al. 2011; Lin, 2016). Lin (2016)’s study during the 2012 Taiwanese presidential study assessed the effect on Facebook on offline political participation and found that active engagement on Facebook political activities had a direct effect on first time voters. Lin concluded that governments and society could use Facebook to establish an environment to encourage first time voters to become more engaged in political discussions (2016). Political activities on Facebook were also found to be a significant
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predictor of other forms of political participation (Bond et al., 2012). Results from a randomized controlled trial of political mobilization messages delivered to 61 million
Facebook users during the 2010 US congressional elections showed that messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real world voting behaviours of millions of people (Bond et al., 2012). Furthermore, the study found that the messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users’ friends, and friends of friends (Bond et al., 2012).
In addition to shaping political discourse and voters’ decision-making, the use of
Facebook during election campaigns has also been found to predict electoral outcomes
(Woolley et al., 2010; Lin, 2017; Barclay et al., 2018). A study during the 2012 US presidential campaign found a positive correlation between the number of Facebook
‘Likes’ that Obama and Romney recorded on their official Facebook ‘Pages’ and the number of votes they secured (Barclay et al., 2018). The researchers primarily used statistical data on the number of ‘Likes’ on the official fan ‘Pages’ of the two presidential candidates and compared the figures with the election results. The study’s results pointed to 'a strong and positive correlation between the variables, implying that
‘online social media sentiments are a reflection of the prevailing public mood’ (p. 15).
Facebook use in political campaigns is also known to have grown partly due to its agenda setting capabilities (Scherer, 2012). A study that examined Obama’s Facebook
‘Page’ in the run up to the 2012 US presidential election found that Obama made highly strategic and focused use of Facebook as a tool for promoting key messages and, mobilizing supporters (Gerodimos & Justinussen, 2015). According to Moire (2012), a
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special Facebook application created by Obama during the 2012 US presidential campaign encouraged more than half a million supporters to follow the presidential candidate’s Facebook campaigns. Over a million Facebook users signed up for the app giving the campaign permission to look up their networks making it easy for the Obama campaign to contact voters on Facebook. Campaign operatives described the targeted sharing on Facebook as the way forward for campaigns on Facebook (Moire, 2012).
It has been found by previous studies that Facebook provides an ideal platform for politicians to influence voters by transferring messages with agendas as it offers users options to personalize and design messages without being filtered by traditional media
(Enli& Skogerbo, 2013). As discussed earlier, the opportunities and freedom provided by the Internet to post and share thoughts and opinions, has broken the agenda setting monopoly that traditional media once held (Meraz, 2009; Jacobson, 2013). The 2016
US presidential candidate Donald Trump is known to have made his stand on issues and policies heard with the use of his social networking sites (Balsey & Karanov, 2016).
According to the Pew Research Centre (2016), 44% of American adults got information about the presidential election from social media, and it was President Trump himself who claimed that Facebook and Twitter helped him win (Balsley & Karanonov, 2016).
However, the 2016 US presidential campaign experienced a wide range of unprecedented issues that included, among others, widely circulated ‘fake news’ stories
(Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). According to Allcott and Gentzkow (2017), fake news stories favouring Trump appeared in the three months before the election, and were shared 30 million times on Facebook (2017). In the aftermath of the Election Day that
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brought the US presidency to Trump, media coverage around the world expressed shock over the unexpected success. This, according to Bessi and Ferrara, was an exploitation of social media’s praise for increasing democratic discussion, as online discussions were manipulated by changing public perceptions of political entities
(2016). The study investigated social media bots to see how they affected online discussions and found that suspicious accounts, possibly operated with ‘malicious purposes’, skewed political discussion (p. 11). Likewise, other research from the
2016 US presidential campaigns has identified the perils associated with the abuse of these social media platforms, manipulation of information, and spreading wrong and unverified information (Groshek & Koc-Michalska, 2017; Saez-Mateu, 2018).
Technology firms are oriented towards facilitating digital political advertising during electoral cycles. Using the 2016 US presidential election as a case, another research by Kriess and Mcgregor (2018), analyzed the role of different technology firms including Facebook in shaping political communication, and found technology firms and politicians collaborated to achieve the task of engaging voters and shaping election outcomes (Kreiss & Mcgregor, 2018). Facebook, along with YouTube continues to dominate the social media landscape in the US, according to a recent Pew Research (Smith & Anderson, 2018). The study has also observed a growing number younger Americans embracing new platforms like
SnapChat and Instagram.
2.6 Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Data Breach Scandal
As studies from the 2016 US presidential campaigns highlight the perils associated with
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the abuse of social networking platforms, and with Facebook continuing to dominate the social media landscape, it is important to understand some of the privacy issues confronting millions of Facebook users.
In early 2018, Facebook hit world headlines for its involvement in a massive data scandal with Cambridge Analytica (Martinez, 2018 March). Facebook’s motto is to build stronger relationships, break down geographical barriers and to meet new people and interact in new ways (Qualman, 2011). However, in contrast, Facebook was accused of hiding data they harvest from its users, as they evidently send algorithmic news feeds in the form of advertisements from recent travel or shopping behaviours
(Kosinski et al., 2016). Facebook was examined following alarming reports on breaches of trust, and was accused of not protecting personal data; for invading privacy; and for inadvertently circulating fake news during the 2016 US presidential campaigns
(Martinez, 2018).
Cambridge Analytica, a commercial analytics firm, was alleged for using micro- targeting political advertising to change people’s views and minds in an effort to ensure
Trump won (Martinez, 2018). The genesis of the scandal was in 2013, when a data scientist from Cambridge University created an app prompting users to answer questions for a psychological profile (Martinez, 2018). In response, 300,000 users are thought to have taken the paid psychological test, with the app then harvesting their personal data and that of their Facebook friends and their networks. This netted the researcher, Aleksandr Kogan, about 87 million Facebook users’ data which was later used to micro-target political advertisements to influence voters during the 2016 US
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presidential campaigns (Chang, 2018).
Micro-targeting is a marketing strategy that capitalizes on the consumer’s demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioural data to predict buying behaviours, interests, opinions, and influence those behaviours to create hyper-targeted advertising strategies
(Sivadas et al., 1998). Recent developments in information technology have created new opportunities for marketers to target consumers more precisely. The diffusion of social media has also enabled new opportunities for measuring public opinions
(Vepsalainen et al., 2016), which according to some scholars can be used to predict electoral outcomes during election campaigns (Barclay et al., 2015).
According to Lambiotte & Kosinski (2014), the growing immersion in digital environments imply that behaviours, locations, communication and psychological states of social media users, leave behind digital footprints that can be easily recorded.
Businesses use correlation analysis to gain customers’ attention by suggesting possible purchases based on their digital footprints like transaction records, locations, playlists or search history (Kosinski et al., 2016). The limitless amount of personal data on social networking sites are used to study important psychological outcomes, but with potential to present larger risks related to privacy and data breach (Kosinski et al., 2016).
By implying the same strategy, Cambrdige Analytica was accused of harvesting data of
87 million Facebook users to craft political messages designed to trigger and influence their political decisions during the 2016 US presidential campaign (Chang, 2018). Micro- targeting on social media platforms allow political campaigns to exploit the strongest
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emotions and manipulate voting decisions. As an investigative report by Britain’s
Channel 4 news showed executives from Cambridge Analytica’s openly claim about their manipulation thousands of American voters during the 2016 presidential campaign
(4 News, 2018). The analytics firm has since suspended its CEO, pending a full investigation (BBC News, 2018). Other news articles following the case reported that
Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility over users’ data protection and left the US
Congress hearing with assurance to ensure transparency in political advertisements
(Blake, 2018).
2.7 Facebook and Election Campaigns in India
Social media has also changed the picture of urban India with political parties becoming tech savvy to reach voters. It was during the 2014 national election campaigns when
India witnessed extensive use of social media networks compared to the 2009 General
Election (Wani & Alone, 2014). According to the Press Trust of India (2014), social media and traditional print media changed the face of the 2014 General Election. Social networking sites made political parties and candidates compete in breaking news and spreading messages, hence playing a game-changing role in the world’s largest democratic exercise in 2014 (Swamy, 2014). A study that quantitatively analyzed the official Facebook presence of the contesting parties found that that Facebook changed the face of the 2014 General Election (Barclay et al., 2015). The study’s analysis of
Facebook Page likes favoured the successful candidate, now Prime Minister Narendra
Modi (May 2014 – May 2019), who acquired nearly 15 million likes compared to 5.4 million and 3.3 million for his two opponents (Barclay et al., 2015). In 2014, India’s
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population was about 1.3 billion people, out of which 250 million had Internet connections with 100 million of them on Facebook (Statista, 2014). It is known that
Modi updated his social media sites, and in particular Facebook, nearly every day to share thoughts and views with the public, and, he also encouraged other politicians to be on Facebook and Twitter to communicate with voters (Kumar, 2014). The regular interactions and engagements with constituents led Modi to overthrow India’s long- standing government (Barclay et al., 2015).
Another study that examined India’s 2014 election qualitatively analyzed the dynamics of relationship between Modi’s team and the supporters, and found that Modi tapped the young urban voters who remained disconnected from politics, by using Facebook
(Chada & Guha, 2016). The youth were then encouraged to promote the party messages on their social networking sites (Chada & Guha, 2016). Currently, India has over 200 million people on Facebook (Facebook, 2018). In 2017, a new button called ‘register now’ was launched to encourage Indian citizens to register themselves with the Election
Commission of India (Election Commission of India, 2017). It sends reminders in the newsfeeds of Facebook users in different local dialects to enrol left out voters and first time voters. According to a report released by India’s Election Commission, the service was made available in order to support civic engagement to build stronger democracies with more engagement (Election Commission of India, 2017).
According to local media reports in India, Modi is one of the most social media savvy ministers the country had ever had (Singh, 2018). In global terms, a study by Burson
Cohn & Wolfe, a global communications agency found Modi was the most followed
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world leader on Facebook with over 43 million followers (NDTV, 2018). American
President Trump is in second place with 23 million followers on his personal Facebook
Page (NDTV, 2018).
2.8 Facebook and Elections in Singapore
Technologically, Singapore has been noted for its early successes in focusing on the extensive use of information technology for economic growth and governance in contrast to the experience of most other countries in developing Asia (Sreekumar &
Vadhrevu, 2013), and positions itself as an e-commerce hub (Chesterman, 2012).
However, fundamental rights prescribed in the constitution affect media and individual freedom of expressions (Kaur & Ramanath, 2011). As Singapore move towards its goal of becoming an information and communications hub, laws relating to access to information are also being amended (Soon & Soh, 2014). With an increasing number of
Internet users over the years, politicians were allowed to campaign on social media for the first time, during the 2011 General Election campaign, which is known to have facilitated greater dialogue and interactions between government ministers and their constituencies (Times of Oman 2011; Lin, 2015). Between the General Election in 2011 and 2015, the use of social networking sites grew significantly amongst political actors, with the inclusion of personal blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (Zhang et al., 2016). Zhang
(2016)’s study examined the influence of social media in the 2011 and 2015 elections, and points out that social media was used to disseminate information and foster dialogue while some parties used it to counter opposing parties.
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Similar findings were also observed during Soon and Soh (2014)’s research to determine how new technologies influenced the ways in which the government engaged with citizens. The study analyzed textual content from two platforms, namely Facebook and REACH; a governmental portal to interact with the citizens. The researchers were able to find that Facebook allowed individuals to adopt and advocate their own positions related to politics and economics. The study also found that Facebook had a higher potential of facilitating conversations between policy makers and citizens (Soon
& Soh, 2014). A non-parliamentary study that examined relationships between social networking sites like Facebook use and political participation found, that both online participation and traditional media were important drivers of traditional political participation (Skoric & Kwan, 2011). Being a member of a political Facebook Group was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in other forms of online participation such as signing online petitions and reading political blogs (Skoric & Kwan, 2011).
In 2018, Singapore had over 4 million Facebook users (Ngu 2018).
2.9 Facebook in Other Election Campaigns
Ever since Obama and his team proved the worth of social networking sites during the
2008 US presidential campaigns, the sites in general, and Facebook in particular have been widely recognized as important tools in modern political campaigns (Bene, 2017).
In Italy, the uptake of online media in election campaigning grew since the exponential growth of social networking sites (Mascheroni & Mattoni, 2013). The regional elections in 2010 were noted as a turning point with regard to the use of social networking sites
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such as Facebook to campaign. Although only a minority of political candidates were found to fully utilise the participatory culture of the sites, Mascheroni and Mattoni’s research came out as one of the first systematic explorative studies to examine how
Italian candidates used the new online communication tools (2013). Similarly, during the 2011 administrative elections, Giglietto conducted a quantitative study of Facebook likes to examine whether candidates’ popularity on Facebook could be effective indicators of the electoral performance (2012). Although the study found a non- significant correlation between the share of candidate popularity on Facebook and the respective share of votes, a small percentage of popular candidates on Facebook either won or came in second in the real electoral competition (Giglieto, 2012). The scenario has changed with sites like Facebook representing a source of strength for parties and candidates in Italy (Berezin & Davidson, 2018). According to local media reports following the 2018 Italian General Election results, the winning party credited
Facebook for its success quoting that the site facilitated them to take their beliefs to the forefront of the election (Berezin & Davidson, 2018).
In Taiwan, the 2012 presidential campaign witnessed the trend of using social networking sites and Facebook was noted as the primary tool. Presidential candidates had established fan Pages, and fans actively established clubs to organize various forms of political actions (Lin, 2016). The study found that engaging in political activities on
Facebook before the election directly affected offline political participation after the election (Lin, 2016). According to the study, ‘the effects occurred in both first-time voters and in the rest of the voters’ (p. 276). In 2014, Facebook was still found to be the
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most prevalent social networking site in Taiwan with the third highest traffic of all websites during mayoral elections (Lin, 2017). Using Facebook information of the mayoral candidates, Lin (2017)’s study found that a candidate’s Facebook presence, the type of accounts they used, the authentication of the account, and the number of online fans they had were related to their election outcomes.
In Mexico, Facebook was found to be one of the widely used networks to spread political messages in 2013 (Muniz et al., 2016). A study on the use of Facebook in different state elections for governor analyzed content of wall posts to measure the level of engagement. It was found that electoral candidates used Facebook more, to spread their proposals and reflections than as a scenario to promote citizen participation through the exchange of ideas (p. 135).
Most parties during the 2013 German Federal Election campaign used Facebook, as they feared that not utilizing Facebook in their campaigns might be a reason for losing the election (Magin et al., 2017). But the study using interviews and content analysis of
Facebook posts found that parties did not make use of Facebook’s interactive and mobilizing potential (Magin et al., 2017). Another study investigated the extent to which political communication is shaped by Facebook and Twitter using survey data during the 2013 German federal election campaign and found that, political communication on social media was induced by particular characteristics of audiences and the sociotechnical environments (Stier et al., 2018).
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A recent study to analyze different styles of political communication examined the
Facebook pages of 51 political leaders of many advanced industrial democracies
(Ceccobelli, 2018). In over two years, the study analyzed thousands of Facebook posts from political leaders in Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and found that
Facebook was most utilized during election campaigns, or a higher percentage of political leaders were found to personalize their political communication more in the weeks before an election day (Ceccobelli, 2018). According to a newly released
2018 study on World Leaders on Facebook by Burson Cohn & Wolfe, a global communications agency, Facebook has become the key platform for world leaders and governments to engage with voters, supporters and citizens (BCW-
Global, 2018).
2.10 Conclusion
This chapter provided an overview of the history of political campaigns and the use of the Internet in political campaigns. This chapter presented literature on the role of social media in election campaigns followed discussions on the theory of agenda setting in the context of election campaigns on Facebook. In particular, this chapter provided a detailed picture on the use of Facebook use in American politics, and how this spread to the rest of the world. The information on the use of Facebook in Indian election campaigns and in Singapore was also presented followed by Facebook use in election campaigns in other countries. This chapter also included discussions on the world’s biggest data breach scandal involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. The next chapter will present the background and context of the current study.
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3 Chapter 3 Background and Context
3.1 Chapter Summary
This chapter presents the context of this case study research with an introduction to
Bhutan, followed by a brief history on the introduction of television, the Internet and mobile network in the country. This chapter provides information on the state of
Bhutanese media, Bhutan’s political landscape and the number of Internet users during each election cycle since its democratization in 2008. The chapter also provides information on Bhutan’s parliament, the electoral laws and media regulations during the different election periods, followed by a summary of the country’s social media policy and the social media rules and regulations on elections. The chapter ends with the research aims and questions of this study.
3.2 Introduction to Bhutan
Bhutan is a small landlocked country located in the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountain range, tucked between China in the north and India in the south. The country’s longest East-West dimension stretches about 300 kilometres and stretched
170 kilometres between its north and south borders (National Statistical Bureau, 2017).
According to the country’s latest population and housing census report compiled by the
National Statistical Bureau (NSB), it has a population of about 780,000, of which around 62% live in rural areas (2017). Bhutan was isolated from the rest of the world
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for much of the 20th century, remaining one of the world's most reclusive countries. It was only in the 1960s that the first roads and schools were built. Prior to this, there were no modern education facilities in Bhutan (NSB, 1987). Postal services were launched in
1962 with basic services such as letter mail, postcards and parcels (NSB, 1987). In
1981, the national airline was launched and the country’s first international airport opened in 1999 (NSB, 2000).
Since the establishment of its first telephone network in 1963 (NSB, 1987), the ICT sector has come a long way, as telecommunication network has changed from physical wire network to a national digital network today (NSB, 2017) with more than 93% of its population now connected to a cellular network (MOIC, 2018). Modern education has also flourished with an extensive network of schools, colleges, and other education institutions around the country with a current general literacy rate of 71% and a youth literacy rate of 93% (NSB, 2017). The outside world sees Bhutan as something of an enigma or the last Shangri-La (Abel, 2017) with its thriving culture and a forest cover of
71%. According to a recent National Forest Inventory Report, more than 800 million trees are estimated to be found in Bhutan (2017). The Constitution mandates the need to keep a minimum of 60% of the country’s land area under forest cover for all times to come (The Constitution, 2008). Bhutan is also the only country in the world to measure success not by economic growth but by Gross National Happiness (GNHC, 2018), which, among other things is sought to achieve wellbeing through the preservation and promotion of its culture and other indicators. The philosophy has been at the centre of
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all government policies, inspiring the United Nations to pass a resolution in 2011 urging other countries to follow the example (Barker, 2018).
3.2.1 Introduction to Television, Internet & Mobile Network in Bhutan
Bhutan was one of the last countries in the world to receive television and Internet connection. It was in 1999, when Bhutanese welcomed television broadcasting and
Internet connection, as part of the celebrations for 25 years of the King’s enthronement
(BBC, 1999). A BBC news article that reported the historic journey wrote that the introduction of television and the Internet was a reflection of the level of progress the country had achieved over the years (1999). The first records on the number of Internet users are available on Internet Live Stats, an online Internet statistics site. It shows a total of 2300 Internet users joined in the first year (Internet Live Stats, 2000). The growth in the number of Internet users was slow for a few years as only a few government offices and apartments had Internet connection (Thinley, 2014). It is said that Internet speed at that time was low and people would wait hours to get the connection (Dema, 2016).
The year 2000 also saw the opening of the country’s first ever Internet cafe which offered e-mail, printing and scanning facilities (BBC, 2000). Another BBC news article that reported on the launch of the Internet cafe wrote that the cafe was primarily opened to serve as an informal learning place for Bhutanese youth in order to encourage them to use and explore information technology (BBC, 2000). According to Bhutan Telecom, the country’s telecommunication service provider and the company that worked closely with the government to introduce the Internet, the government continuously invested
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resources to encourage Internet use by providing free laptops and Internet services in schools, providing free dial up services during weekends, and spending resources to train and educate people on the use of computers (Thinley, 2014). Along with the launch of the Internet and television in 1999, Bhutan was also introduced to several cable channels allowing citizens to keep abreast of news and happenings around the world (MIS, 2003).
Bhutan’s first Media Impact Study (MIS) was released in 2003 under the initiative of the Ministry of Information and Communication or MOIC. Since then, the government
Ministry conducts a series of media impact studies every five years to assess the impact of information and media on society, trends in media content and pattern of information and media consumption. The media impact studies are also conducted to facilitate development of appropriate policies in order to effectively develop the information and media industry in the country (MIS, 2003; MIS 2008; BIMIS 2013). The local media, namely the national radio station and the national newspaper, were made independent of the government by a Royal decree in 1992 to operate as autonomous bodies in order to ensure the growth of a free and responsible press (MIS, 2003). A board was comprised of representatives of the government, media, professionals, scholars and eminent citizens govern the media organizations (MIS, 2003).
Kuensel is the national newspaper in Bhutan, and was founded in 1967 as an internal government bulletin, and since 1986 it has been published as the only weekly newspaper in the country. In 1992, it was de-linked from the government by Royal decree and stopped receiving government subsidies in 1998 (DOIM
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2014). Kuensel is now a listed company with the government holding 51 percent of the company’s total shares, while the public holds the remaining. Although newspaper circulation is Kuensel’s major source of revenue, government advertisements are another source of income (Tobgay, 2019). The national newspaper enjoys undue support and privileges from the government in the form of major government advertisement shares. In addition, Kuensel is known to have the highest circulation because of its paper distribution network and highest quality printing press
(Lamsang, 2015). On the other hand, the national broadcaster, the Bhutan
Broadcasting Service Corporation, continues to be fully owned by the state and receives state funding annually for its daily operations (Subba, 2017).
Between 1999 and 2003, radio was found to be a major source of news for the majority of Bhutanese, while television was found to be popular among the urban population (MIS, 2003). According to Internet Live Stats (2003), there were around 15,000 Internet users in the country by 2003 with over a dozen Internet cafes (MIS, 2003). The 2003 media impact study states that the full potential of the
Internet for official and business transactions remained unexplored as it was mostly used for emails and chats (MIS, 2003). In 2003, mobile network was introduced for the first time with a limited coverage in only five towns (Thinley,
2014), which had a total of 2000 subscribers (Dema, 2016). National coverage of the cellular service was only made available in 2006, which is known to have encouraged Internet use (MIS, 2008).
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3.2.2 First Democratic Elections, Media & Internet Users 2008
Bhutan became the world's newest democracy in 2008, when it held its first democratic elections, ending more than a century of monarchical rule (Sinpeng, 2008). A European
Union mission observing the first parliamentary elections reported that international standards were met in a successful change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy (EUEOM, 2008). A book that recorded the historic journey from the evolution of democracy to the 2008 elections described how political parties and candidates organised face-to-face meetings with the electorates and made door-to-door visits in the absence of proper communication facilities in many parts of the country in 2008 (Sithey & Dorji, 2009). The authors present information on how candidates toured extensively to reach and inform their electorates. Although it highlights radio and television as media sources for political information, the book does not reflect on the use and role of social networking sites during the campaign period
(Sithey & Dorji, 2009), partly because Internet use was still limited.
According to the second Media Impact Study, released in 2008, policy makers, journalists and citizens had witnessed substantive media growth between 2003 and
2008, both in diversity and complexity (MIS, 2008). The local media industry grew from one radio station in 2003 to four stations. The number of newspapers in the country also rose from one in 2003 to four newspapers in 2008, while the number of television station remained the same at one (MIS, 2008). The study found that socio- economic and political developments in the country had enhanced the role of media in the previous five years with television reported as the major source of information for many Bhutanese (MIS, 2008). In 2008, when the country held its first democratic
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elections, there were an estimated 6,000 Internet subscribers (MOIC, 2018) and close to
14,000 computers. By 2008, Bhutan also witnessed a surge in new communication technologies with interactive websites and online newspapers that provided updated news online, but these were limited to urban areas (MIS, 2008).
Since the introduction of a cellular network in 2003, the number of mobile phone subscribers surpassed 230,000 for a population of 600,000 in 2008 (NSB, 2008). With an Internet penetration rate of just 7% in 2008 (Internet Live Stats, 2008), the use of the
Internet was mostly urban centric and its impact was not noticeable in the early days of democracy (Business Bhutan, 2018). Political campaigners relied on meetings and door- to-door communication (Sithey & Dorji, 2009).
The European Union Mission that observed the elections recommended and encouraged electoral authorities to facilitate open debate of ideas (EUOMR, 2008), clearly suggesting the need for greater interaction between political candidates and parties and voters.
3.2.3 The Parliament and the Electoral System in Bhutan
The Bhutanese parliament consists of two elected houses, the National Council (upper house), and the National Assembly (lower house) (The Constitution, 2008; Election
Act, 2008). The National Assembly consists of 47 elected representatives, from which the government is elected, and on which this study is focused. The election for the
National Assembly involves a two-stage process. First, a primary election round is held with multiple parties. Then the two parties with most votes from that round contest the general election, vying for the 47 seats. The party with the majority of seats becomes
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the elected government and its leader assumes the post of Prime Minister. The other party becomes the formal opposition (Election Act, 2008). The National Assembly enacts, amends and approves the national budget, and deliberates on national issues and policies (Election Act, 2008).
The National Council consists of 25 members. The election to the National Council is held every five years, with 20 members directly elected by the people, one from each of the 20 Dzongkhags or states. The King nominates the remaining five as eminent members. The National Council is an apolitical institution that scrutinizes state affairs by reviewing public policies and legislation passed by the National Assembly on which this research is focused on. The house reviews matters affecting the security and sovereignty of country, and affairs of the country and the people that need to be brought to the attention of the King, the Prime Minister and the National Assembly (The
Constitution, 2008). All parliamentarians in the lower house and the upper house serve for a five-year term (Election Act, 2008).
Political parties and candidates receive a base amount from the Election Commission of
Bhutan to fund their campaigns (Public Election Act, 2008). During the 2018 general election campaign, a total of Nu 14.1 million Ngultrum ($300,000 AUD) were disbursed to the 94 candidates of the two political parties as election campaign fund
(Dema, 2018). No parties or candidates are permitted to resort to any form of fund raising from individuals and agencies besides the registration fee, the membership fee and the voluntary contributions from registered members (Public Election Act, 2008).
The Election Act (2008) also requires all candidates and parties to notify the electoral
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officers about the time and place of the rallies beforehand to avoid public inconvenience. Posters and banners cannot be affixed on any public property, unless permitted by the electoral officers or are affixed in designated areas (Public Election
Act, 2008).
The Constitution of Bhutan, adopted in 2008, guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of media, and the right to information to enable the media to strengthen good governance, a pillar of Gross National Happiness (The Constitution, 2008). The government recognizes that a professional media is an important pillar of a vibrant democracy, especially in its role of ensuring institutional accountability and transparency (Media Development Assessment, 2010). According to the latest World
Press Freedom Index, Bhutanese journalists enjoy one of the best working environments in the South Asian region, despite ranking 94th in the list of 180 countries worldwide
(Reporters Without Borders, 2018). Nepal is close behind at 106, while Afghanistan is at 118, and India and Pakistan at 138 and 139 respectively (Reporters Without Borders,
2018). The rankings were based on an assessment of media independence, safety and freedom of journalists, and the legislative, institutional and infrastructural environment in which the media operate (Reporters Without Borders, 2018). Reporters Without
Borders is an international non-profit, non-governmental organisation that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of press (2018).
During elections, the Election Media Coverage Rules and Regulations (2018) require all media agencies independent and free of any control from political parties and candidates. No media agency or journalists are allowed to promote any political
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objectives either through advertisements or under the guise of editorial coverage or news. Media functionaries are required to allocate and provide equal broadcasting and publication time and space for political announcements and similar programs. During electoral periods, the Election Commission appoints a media arbitrator to administer the rules and provisions of the Election Act that deal with political and campaign broadcasts and advertising (Election Media Coverage Rules & Regulations, 2018).
In the 2018 election, the media arbitrator found a total of 37 Facebook posts that were objectionable. After further investigation and action the originating users removed 7 posts, while Facebook authorities removed 10 posts. Twenty posts remained unresolved as of 11th October 2018 (Election Commission of Bhutan, 2018). According to the report prepared by the Election Commission of Bhutan, the posts were defamatory and found to be in violation of Election Social Media Rules and Regulations (2015).
Facebook is also known to have removed some anonymous accounts and the posts made from those accounts during the election period (Pelden, 2018).
Electoral laws also impose a 48-hour no-campaign period before the commencement of poll. This applies to both traditional and social media. (Election Commission of Bhutan,
2018).
3.2.4 Second Elections, the Media & Internet Users 2013
In 2013, when Bhutan held its second democratic elections, new information and communication technologies had transformed information flow and communication patterns among all segments of the society (BIMIS, 2013). Although the exact number
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of Internet users between 2008 and 2013 is not available, the number of Internet subscribers is recorded to have increased from barely 6,000 in 2008, to over 133,000 by the end of 2012, according to the Annual Info Comm. and Transport Statistical Bulletin
(MOIC, 2013). The government’s constant effort to enhance information and communication technologies narrowed the digital divide by increasing the reach of the
Internet from about 7% in 2008 to 30% in 2013 (Mecometer, 2013). Better access to the
Internet allowed citizens to share, vent and update political information using social networking sites (BBS, 2013). By 2020, the government’s priority is to provide affordable Internet to 90% of the rural population (Vision 2020). It was reported that the affirmation of the existence of a Bhutanese gay population is known to have happened only after the creation of the Facebook Page titled ‘LGBT Bhutan’ in
2013, which was the first such visible outlet for the Bhutanese LGBT community
(Zam, 2013).
The rapid growth in the number of Internet users was found to have been fuelled by the increasing number of mobile subscribers in the country, which had more than doubled between 2008 and 2013 (MID 2008; BIMIS, 2013). The BIMIS (2013) showed that
560,000 out of its 730,000 people in 2013 (NSB, 2013) owned a mobile phone. The growing number of mobile subscribers, which in turn created the boom in the number of
Internet users, presented an opportune moment for politicians who were contesting the second elections to take advantage of the digital landscape by adopting social networking sites as campaign platforms (Zangmo, 2012).
The BIMIS (2013), also found that social media was in many ways advancing democratic discussions, allowing the voices of ordinary citizens to reach the powerful
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(Zangmo, 2012). Citizens were able to make their voices heard on decisions that shaped their lives, and were able to use the new media tools to hold the government accountable (BIMIS, 2013).
One early example of the successful use of social media by citizens to exercise democratic rights was the challenging amendment of the Tobacco Control Act in 2011.
The Tobacco amendment movement is considered one of the first successful digital protests in Bhutan using Facebook. Bhutan banned the sale of tobacco in 2004 but the legislation to implement the law was not drafted till 2009 by the first parliament, and came into effect in 2010 (Kuensel, 2004). According to the Act, people using tobacco and tobacco related products would be imprisoned, and business licenses of shops selling them cancelled (Tobacco Control Act, 2010). The Act restricted buying and selling of tobacco products in the country, restricted people from smoking in public spaces, levied huge taxes on the permissible amount for import of tobacco products and imposed harsh penalties for offenders (Tobacco Control Act, 2010). Six months after the Act was enforced, and following the arrest of many people, citizens began venting their frustrations, with some describing the Act as draconian.
The then Opposition Leader, Tshering Tobgay was amongst the hundreds of citizens who were vocal about the implementation of the Act. Tobgay was amongst the first politicians in Bhutan to pioneer the use of social media by making his presence on
Facebook, his Blog, Twitter, You Tube and now Instagram and other social networking sites. The Opposition Leader wrote on his Blog that while he supported the Act, it was not possible to make sense of the implementation of the Act, and also wrote that ‘the first person to be arrested and jailed be a member of parliament’ (Tobgay, 2011). The
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debate over the Act flared over the months since implementation, as more and more number of people was being arrested and jailed. A Facebook Group named ‘Amend the
Tobacco Control Act’ was created by a media consultant following the jailing of a
Buddhist monk for three years for possessing a small amount of tobacco (Scutton,
2011). Scutton’s news article in Reuters highlights how the Facebook Group gathered momentums from hundreds of followers and supporters who shared heated discussions by publicly venting about the cruel penalties under the Act. The Facebook Group which resulted in more than 3000 members, constantly ‘mocked and criticized the law and many lobbied with their legislators to mellow out the legislation’ (Sithey, 2013, p. 82).
The movement went viral as people voiced their disagreement openly and questioned the government. It attracted the attention of many international journalists who reported continuously on the rough tobacco laws (New York Times, 2011; Reuters, 2011; Wall
Street Journal, 2011; The Independent, 2011; Aljazeera, 2012). It is said that both local and international media reports and the Facebook movement played a huge role in making the parliament amend the act and free those arrested in tobacco smuggling cases
(Tobacco Control Act, 2012). The country had never seen a mass protest as this and, the digital protests by the younger generations on Facebook, reflects on the important changes Bhutan witnessed in its modern political communication. According to the
Opposition Leader, Facebook opened floodgates for open criticism of the government, stressing how social media had taken place as a platform for the citizens to communicate with the government (Tobgay, 2011).
Likewise, by early 2012, blogging had captured the attention of many Bhutanese, which exploded, with the launch of Bhutanomics, in March 2012. Bhutanomics, is an
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anonymous satirical blogging website that published articles contributed by users.
Within a short span of time since it launch, the topical blogsite gained a strong and growing number of faithful supporters and followers that continued to grow (Tobgay,
2013). It was through Bhutanomics, when Bhutanese citizens started to publicly express their concerns and dissatisfactions with the conservative government leaders. By
January 2013, the debate over who spearheaded Bhutanomics became a subject of political discourse. Local media described the blog site to be on the side of the then
Opposition with their one sided articles against the government, which the Opposition
Leader denied on his blog site (Tobgay, 2013). The news articles published on
Bhutanomics were described to be baseless and destructive that often portrayed negative views about individuals. The site was made inaccessible to those in the country in
January 2013, and finally in March 2013 (BBS, 2013), by the country’s media regulatory authority following a court order (BBS, 2013).
On the state of the traditional media, the local media industry had grown from 4 newspapers in 2008 to 12 by the end of 2012, while the number of radio stations rose from 4 in 2008 to 7 by the end of 2012, according to the Bhutan Information and Media
Impact Study between 2008-2013 (BIMIS, 2013). Television, particularly satellite TV had become a pervasive medium, even among rural communities and from one TV channel in 2008, TC channels rose to two by the end of 2012, both of which are run by the national broadcaster (BIMIS, 2013). From only one magazine in 2008, there were 4 magazines by the end of 2012 (BIMIS, 2013). However, the information and media sector were confronted with numerous issues such as lack of professionals, difficulties
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in accessing public information, urban bias in media coverage and financial sustainability, s a result of declining advertisement revenues (BIMIS, 2013).
In the years leading to the country’s transition to a parliamentary system of governance, the country’s young media industry was faced with challenges to perform its duties due to lack of adequate resources and sustainability (Media Baseline Study, 2012). This was reported in the findings of a Media Baseline Study (MBS), which was conducted to help address the needs and challenges of the media industry, and strengthen the capabilities of the young journalists (MBS, 2012). The Bhutan Information and Media Impact Study
(2013) also found that these challenges and issues negatively impacted the growth of a free, credible and independent media, otherwise vital for promoting democratic processes and good governance (BIMIS, 2013). As a result of these challenges, political parties, and candidates made their presence online (Zangmo, 2012). A local news report wrote, that social media was in many ways doing a great deal to advance and develop a democratic culture (The Bhutanese, 2011). Facebook and Twitter were pointed out as the most common platforms used to proliferate and popularize their causes, ideas, opinions and messages prior to the 2013 election (Zangmo, 2012). The news media reports pointed to how social media could play a major role in facilitating political discussions, including examining behaviour by the government.
3.2.5 Third Elections, The Media, Internet and Social Networking Sites 2018
The use of social media for democratic discussions continued after the 2013 national election. By the end of 2017, a few months before Bhutan held its third elections, the
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number of radio stations had increased from seven in 2013 to ten in 2018, which included community and campus radio (MOIC, 2018). According to the Annual Info
Comm and Transport Statistical Bulletin compiled by the Ministry of Information and
Communication (2018), the number of newspapers dropped from twelve in 2013 to ten in 2018 and the number of television channels stood at two, both run by the national broadcaster (MOIC, 2018). Dr Bunty Avieson, an Australian Academic who helped establish a private newspaper in the country described in an ABC interview that Bhutan is a country where newspapers haven’t worked but Facebook has (Wilson, 2015). The number of Facebook users grew rapidly since the introduction on cellular network in the country in 2003, with close to 80,000 Facebook users prior to the second democratic election (BBS, 2013).
The use of the Internet saw a dramatic rise after the first elections taking the total number of Internet subscribers to 726,000 by 2018 (Internet Live Stats, 2018). Mobile subscribers also reached a record high with more than 93% of the country’s population owning a mobile phone (MOIC, 2018). Cheaper smartphones and Internet services in almost all parts of the country made it easier for more Bhutanese to spend an increasing amount of time and energy on social media every day (Zangpo, 2017).
Among other social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp,
Snapchat and WeChat, Facebook stands out as the dominant site, with more than
350,000 users (Internet World Stats, 2017). A local news article in early 2018 said
Facebook was used as a means to disseminate political messages, learn about the interests and needs of constituents and the broader public, and build networks of support
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(Business Bhutan, 2018). The government and the opposition party both maintain a vibrant Facebook presence, communicating with the public on the developments and issues in the country. According to Social Bakers, an online social media analytics firm, some of the popular Facebook Pages in Bhutan have over 600,000 followers (Social
Bakers, 2018). Popular pages represent religious groups, trading groups, travel agents and celebrities, among others. For example, a popular ‘buying and selling group’ on
Facebook has more than 234,000 members posting houses, land, and vehicles to buy and sell (Facebook-B-Bay-Buying and Selling, 2018). Another informal group on
Facebook that discusses social, current and political issues has over 167,000 members, and during elections, members discuss flaws of the parties, share opinions, conduct polls, make predictions and compare party pledges (Facebook-Bhutanese News &
Forum, 2018). The majority of the objectionable posts found by the media arbitrators during the 2018 election period were from informal Facebook groups (ECB, 2018). The majority of the members on such groups use their anonymity to share opinions on contemporary affairs, many of them to criticise government policies and decisions, or specific public figures, and to share the latest gossip (Zangpo, 2017).
Thesurge in fake and anonymous social media accounts, especially on Facebook during elections, forced electoral officers to meet Facebook officials ahead of the
2018 election to discuss options for the responsible use of Facebook (Gyem, 2018).
The 2018 election began with a notification from the Election Commission of Bhutan
(ECB), urging citizens to refrain from spreading defamatory comments and false information on social media. As a result of the meeting between Facebook and ECB
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ahead of the election, ECB notified the public that all malicious posts for political gain would be traced and taken to task, especially after Facebook assured its support to trace fake accounts (Gyem, 2018). In order to monitor the growing use of social networking sites in the country, the government also launched a Social Media Policy in 2016 to ensure proper and responsible use of social media tools among electorate stakeholders.
The Election Commission has separate Social Media Rules and Regulations that are specific to electoral content.
3.2.6 Social Media Rules and Regulations in Bhutan
The growing reach and use of the Internet in Bhutan has transformed communication patterns among all segments of the society, including the ways in which Bhutanese people access political information, and on issues that affect their lives and their voices
(BIMIS, 2013). With about 95% of the total Internet users on Facebook (Internet World
Stats, 2017), the government formulated its Social Media Policy in 2016 to ensure the responsible use of social media (Social Media Policy, 2016). According to the third Bhutan Information and Media Impact Study (2013), the majority of social media users are between the ages of 18 and 34 years.
Lack of Internet literacy, and the absence of a code of conduct to guide citizens on the responsible use of social networking sites, prompted the government to formulate the social media policy. This targets government institutions and employees, to improve accessibility to government information (Social Media Policy, 2016). The government approved the policy in order to promote the use of social media and encourage discussions between citizens and government officials to formulate public policies in
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order to improve the design and delivery of public services (Dorji, 2016).
The policy requires government agencies to set up social media accounts with the aim to increase citizen participation in policy development and public service design and delivery. The policy provides guidelines to broaden the responsibilities of government institutions to publish, respond and interact with citizens (Social Media Policy, 2016).
According to the policy, proper use of social networking sites would enable greater information sharing and closer collaboration among ministries and other agencies, and lead toward better understanding of issues (2016).
In addition to the government’s Social Media Policy, the Election Commission has its own set of Social Media Rules and Regulations that is specific to electoral content in keeping with the Election Act (2008) to ensure free, fair and transparent elections. The rules and regulations were drafted to ensure proper usage of social media by election officials, political parties, candidates and their supporters as well as media agencies in all matters related to elections (Social Media Rules and Regulations on
Election, 2015). According to the rules and regulations, all political parties and candidates are required to provide their official social media accounts used for election campaigns to the Election Commission of Bhutan to streamline political communication online (2015). It does not allow political parties, candidates and general Internet users to communicate, transmit and post hate messages with intent to defame and reduce the electoral success of other parties and contestants (Social Media Rules & Regulations on
Election, 2015). Online polls supporting or opposing parties and candidates are not permitted during an election period.
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To ensure that the Social Media Rules and Regulations are adhered to during elections, the Election Commission appoints a Media Arbitrator to oversee a level playing field in political advertising and ensure that no individual or group draws advantage through propagandas, personal attacks or hate speech (Social Media Rules & Regulations,
2015). The Media Arbitrator is responsible for receiving and investigating all media- related disputes and reports cases to the Election if necessary (Social Media Rules &
Regulations on Election, 2015). Identities of social media users who violate electoral laws including fake users are required to be traced and the address blocked during elections (Social Media Rules & Regulations on Election, 2015).
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3.3 Research Aims & Questions
The reliance on the use of Facebook and other social networking sites in political campaigns is growing in Bhutan despite its nascent state of Internet use, voting practices and election campaigns. It is therefore the aim of this study to examine the role of the most popular social networking site, Facebook, during political campaigns in
Bhutan’s third democratic elections in 2018. With the use of different qualitative methods detailed in the next chapter, this study is important to explore and investigate the role of Facebook in the national elections of a young democracy.
As discussed in the introductory chapter, it has become evident from local news stories during the 2013 election campaign period that, social networking sites have become crucial campaign tools (BBS, 2013). This research hopes to contribute resources and knowledge to future Bhutanese politicians and researchers on the role of Facebook and political communication, by offering answers to the following research questions:
1. How does the use of Facebook facilitate political communication?
2. What is the applicability of agenda setting theory during political
communication of Facebook?
3. What are some of the Facebook strategies of the 2018 Bhutanese election
4. What content type on Facebook maximizes engagement or interactions from
Facebook users?
5. What are some of the challenges of using Facebook for political
communication?
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3.4 Conclusion
This chapter provided the context of the chosen case study research with an introduction to Bhutan, followed by a brief history on the introduction of television, the Internet and mobile network in the country. Over the period, since the democratization of the country in 2008, each election cycle was discussed, supported by information on the media and political landscape and the number of Internet subscribers. The chapter also included information on Bhutan’s parliament, the electoral laws and media regulations during election periods, followed by a summary of the country’s Social Media Policy and the Social Media Rules and Regulations on Elections. The chapter concluded with the study’s research aims and questions.
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4 Chapter 4 Methodology
4.1 Chapter Summary
This chapter presents the details on the research approach and methods used in this study. In the first section, the research approach is explained with definitions of case study research and the justifications on the relevance of case study research to this study. The second part the chapter discusses the chosen methodology with details of the two different phases of data collection. In the third section of the chapter, the details of data analysis process are explained by separately presenting the analysis of the two different sets of data collected from the two research phases. The last section of the chapter presents information on the ethical principles observed during the design and conduct of this research.
4.2 A Case Study Research Approach
This study took a case study research approach to examine the use and role of Facebook in Bhutan’s election campaigns. To give a definition of a case study, Miles and
Huberman see it as an object or objects to be studied in-depth and it centres around a phenomenon occurring within a bounded context (1994). A case study is `an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life or natural context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident' (Yin, 1994, p. 13). It is a problem to be studied to help reveal an in- depth understanding of a ‘case’ or understanding of an event, activity or process
(Creswell, 2003, p.61). According to Crowe et al. (2011), case study research captures
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information such as ‘how’ an intervention is being implemented and received, offering insights on ‘what’ gaps exist in its delivery and ‘why’ one implementation strategy might be chosen over another (p. 41). Case studies typically combine various data collection techniques such as interviews, observation, questionnaires, participant observation or field studies with a goal to reconstruct and analyze a case from a sociological perspective (Hamel et al., 1993).
Case study research is not considered a research method as various research methods are used to collect data to build or uncover a case (VanWynsberghe & Khan, 2007).
Therefore, case study research may also be understood as an intensive research technique, or a research procedure, or means for gathering evidence or data, where the purpose of the study is at least to shed light on a larger class of cases or population
(Gerring, 2007). Both qualitative data collection and analysis methods and quantitative methods can be used in case study research (Yin, 1994). In order to develop a thorough understanding of the case, the case study approach usually involves the collection of multiple sources of evidence, and using a range of quantitative and more commonly qualitative techniques (Crowe et al., 2011). Case studies are usually used to accomplish various aims such as to provide descriptions, test or generate theories (Darke et al.,
1998). It does not involve explicit control of what is observed and the tasks examined are not artificially made (Benbasat et al., 1987). Therefore, case studies are used to explain, describe, and explore events or phenomenon in the everyday contexts in which they occur (Yin, 2003). It is often said that it is worth asking what is being analyzed to understand and determine what the case is (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
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For this research, the case is the rising use of Facebook and its role in an election campaign that is bounded within the context of the 2018 national elections of Bhutan. In summary, case study research can be understood as an intensive analysis or investigation of a phenomenon to the deepest levels without the use of manipulative controls, in an effort to illuminate the reality in a holistic way reasoning how and why things occurred (Merriam, 1988; Yin, 2003). Case study research is more than simply conducting research on a single individual or situation, as the approach has the potential to deal with simple and complex situations. By closely describing, documenting, and interpreting events as they unfold in a natural real life setting, a case study research can determine critical factors to implement a programme or policy and analyze patterns and links between them (Simons, 2009). A case study can be defined in a variety of ways, some of which are listed in Table 4.1.
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Table 4.1 Definitions of Case Study Research
Author & Year Definitions
Banbaset et al/, 1987 A case study examines a phenomenon in its natural setting, employing multiple methods of data collection to gather information from one or a few entities.
Merriam, 1988 A case study refers to investigation of complex social units consisting of multiple variables of potential importance in understand the phenomenon.
Gable, 1994 A case study provides the opportunity to ask penetrating questions and to capture the richness of organizational behaviours, but the conclusions may not be generalizable.
Stake, 1995 A case study is the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case to understand its activity within important circumstances.
Darke et al., 1998 Case study research can be used to achieve various research aims such as to provide descriptions of phenomena, develop theory, and test theory.
Gummesson, 2003 A case study gives full and rich accounts of network of relationships.
Baxter & Jack, 2008 Case study research takes into consideration how a phenomenon is influenced by the context within which it is situated (p.556)
Crowe et al., 2011 A case study is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context.
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Case studies are analyses of persons, events, decisions, periods, Thomas, 2011, p.513 projects, policies, institutions, or other systems that are studied holistically by one or more methods
4.2.1 The Relevance of a Case Study Research
Case study research is considered an appropriate research strategy where a contemporary phenomenon is to be studied in its natural context (Benbasat et al., 1987;
Yin, 1994). According to Scholz and Tietje (2002), a case must serve a specific purpose within an overall scope of an inquiry, which for this research is to examine the use and role of Facebook in the 2018 Bhutanese election campaign. In contrast to laboratory experiments, this research used multiple sources of data in order to increase the validity of the study (Crowe et al., 2011). An underlying assumption is that approaching the same issue from different angles helps develop a holistic picture of the phenomenon
(Pinnock et al., 2008). In addition, another trait of a case study research is its ability to test a theory, which this study used to test the applicability of agenda setting theory during political communication on Facebook (Darke et al. 1998).
A case study approach is appropriate for this study as it is the first ever study to explore the use of Facebook for political communication in Bhutan. It is said that case study research is usually chosen when the `research is at its early, formative stage' (Benbasat et al., 1987, p. 369), and involves the study of a weakly understood phenomenon or where there is little understanding of how and why processes or a phenomena occur, or where the experiences of individuals and the contexts of actions are critical (Darke et
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al., 1998). Cavaye (1996), also pointed out that case study research is often been associated with exploration of areas where existing knowledge is limited, which is the motivation behind this study as the subject of Facebook and political communication in
Bhutan has not been explored by past studies.
Another hallmark of case study research is the use of multiple data sources, a strategy that also enhances data credibility (Patton, 1990; Yin, 2003). Case studies capture knowledge and experiences of participants through multiple methods (Banbasat et al.,
1987). In principle, it is described that each case study should use various sources of information such as interviews and participant observation (Hamel et al., 1993). This study also relied on different sources of information from the two different phases of data collection.
4.3 Data Collection
This study examined the use and role of Facebook in Bhutan’s 2018 election with a focus on the National Assembly election or the Lower House election, which consists of
47 elected members and from which the government is elected. The election involves a two-stage process; the primary election round held with multiple registered parties, and the General Election held between two parties that emerge with the maximum votes from the primary election round (Election Act, 2008). As discussed in the earlier part of this chapter, a case study research typically uses multiple data collection methods, and ideally converge evidence using a range of data collection techniques in order to develop a thorough understanding of the case (Benbasat et al., 1987; Crowe et al.,
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2011). This study also collected data from two different sources spread in two different research phases.
In the first phase, interviews were conducted with party representatives of all four parties that contested the primary election round. In the second research phase,
Facebook data was collected from the official and active Facebook platforms of the two parties that contested the General Election. While the interviews were conducted before the primary election campaign, the Facebook wall posts were collected during the general election campaign to spread the data collection process over the entire election cycle. An explanation of the structure of the methodology is illustrated in Figure 4.3 followed by details of the two phases of data collection.
Methodology
Phase 1 Phase 2 Interviews (party Facebook wall representatives posts
Before the During the primary election general election campaign campaign
Figure 4.1 Data Collection Methods
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4.3.1 Phase One: Interviews
In order to understand the use of Facebook by the participating parties in the 2018
Bhutanese election, interviews were conducted with party representatives of all four registered parties before the campaign for the primary election round began. Interviews are essential sources of information for a case study research (Yin, 1994), and are arguably the primary source of data in a case study research. Interviews allow for better understanding of the participants' views and interpretations of actions and events
(Walsham, 1995) and enable individuals to think and to talk about their needs, expectations, experiences, and understandings (Nunkoosing, 2005). Similarly, Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) described the purpose of interview as a method of data collection in social research as to understand the world from the subject’s point of view and to unfold meanings of their experiences. To researchers, interviews enable them to generate highly reliable and valid data, and have long been a staple of research on politics (Beamer, 2002). It is said that interview data constitute the empirical backbone of much qualitative research in social sciences (Campbell et al., 2013).
The face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight representatives from the four political parties that contested the primary election round, to gather their views, thoughts and experiences in past elections campaigns, and their emphasis on Facebook in the 2018 election campaign. It is said that poorly prepared and unstructured interviews can yield poor information and biased perceptions (Beamer, 2002). To ensure reliability of this study, recruitment emails were sent to the office of the campaign strategists of all four parties, inviting the party presidents, secretary-generals
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and the campaign strategists to participate in the research, as they are responsible for the development of the structures, finance and strategies of the election campaigns. The emails contained a copy of a brief background of the study (see Appendix A), a consent form (see Appendix B), and semi-structured interview questions (see Appendix C) each.
It is also said that in case study research, participants need to know that adequate preparation for the study at that site has been carried out (Darke et al., 1998), and hence the brief background describing the nature and context of the research and its objectives was included in the recruitment emails. Due to the timing of the interviews, which were conducted just ahead of the primary election campaign, not all the invited party representatives were able to participate in the research. Eight interviews were conducted in total before the campaign for the primary election round began on 23rd August 2018 and ended on13th September 2018.
Although the number of respondents from each party was not proportionate, there was at least one party representative from all parties, and in addition, some respondents functioned in multiple capacities as the vice-president, secretary-general and the campaign strategist. The responses from the eight participants were also sufficient to address the research questions in conjunction with the findings from the second phase of the study. The interviews, which lasted about 20 to 30 minutes each, were conducted in the office of the political parties in Bhutan. Prior to the interviews, the participants were briefed on the nature and context of the research and the possible risks. The interviews covered the same themes and focused on the same questions with all eight participants.
The interview respondents were all directly involved with the adoption and implementation of ideas and strategies in their respective parties. The semi-structured
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interviews contained about fifteen questions and addressed the parties’ views on the use and role of Facebook in past elections, their observations, and the emphasis given to
Facebook as a campaign tool in the 2018 election. A summary of the interview respondents’ roles and responsibilities are presented in Table 4.2
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Table 4.2 Roles of Interview Respondents (as expressed by respondents)
Respondents Party Positions Roles (as described in the interviews)
Respondent 1 President • Helped build the reputation of the party by ensuring the party had enough candidates, finance and human resources to manage the media and so on. Party 1 • Travelled to different constituencies as the party leader and make sure the party ideologies and candidates are promoted in all constituencies in conjunction with the doings of the candidates.
• Had the final say in responding to rumours and allegations both online and offline.
Respondent 2 President • Managed the overall party and communicated the party ideologies to the electorate.
Party 2 • Communicated with the General Secretary and the Campaign Strategist on a daily basis to ensure they implemented t he right strategies and send out consistent information on all media platforms.
Respondent 3 Secretary General • Managed the party, organized events to lead the party forward and put in place strategies to solve party issues. Party 3 • Worked closely with all candidates and the campaign strategist
Respondent 4 Vice President Party 4 • This representative was the vice president of the party, the spokesperson liaising with the media to ensure the party moved forward
Respondent 5 Secretary General • Managed the general activities of the party, and the functions of various representatives to help show a positive image of the party. Party 1
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Respondent 6 Secretary General • Helped strengthen the party to ensure the party wins. Built the human resource capacity and the financial strength of the party. Party 2 • Developed long-term ideas and policies for growth of the party.
Respondent 7 Campaign Strategist • Took care of all media advocacy and media related roles of the party such as writing reports.
Party 2 • Monitored the traditional media, and campaign materials for social media.
Respondent 8 Campaign Strategist • Actively involved with image building of the party, dealing with traditional media and monitoring social media networks. Party 3 • Developed media materials, organized media events and ensured traditional journalists participated in press conferences
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4.3.2 Phase Two: Facebook Data Collection
The focus of the second research phase is on the two parties that emerged with the maximum votes from the primary election round and contested the
General Election for the government seat. In this phase, wall posts were collected from the two official Facebook platforms of the two parties over a
14-day study period during the general election campaign, to allow a better understanding on the use of Facebook by the political parties. Data collection began on the 4th October 2018 and ended on 17th October 2018, while the general poll day was on 18th October 2018.
To avoid duplication of the Facebook platforms, the official Facebook
Pages were confirmed and verified during the interviews in the first phase of the research. Many Pages and Groups on Facebook are often known to be created by opponents and fans to express their support or interests in a brand or public figure (Lin, 2017). For example, the official Coca-Cola Facebook
Page was not originally created by Coca-Cola but by two fans, which was later acquired by Coca-Cola when it reached 90 million fans (Klaassen
2009). Therefore, to avoid duplication and enhance the reliability of this research, the political parties’ official Facebook Pages were confirmed and verified by the interview respondents in the first research phase. However, when the data collection process for the second research phase began, one party’s official Facebook Page remained inactive and hence their official
Facebook Profile was chosen to collect the Facebook wall posts.
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According to Lin (2017), a Facebook Page is designed to be the official accounts for entities with an unlimited number of fans compared to a
Facebook Profile that presents more personal information about an individual person. Since Obama’s success story of leveraging Facebook in the 2008 US presidential election, political actors in many countries have been increasingly using social networking sites like Facebook in their campaigns (Abroms & Lefebure, 2009). As discussed in the literature review chapter, Facebook found to enable politicians to directly reach potential voters creating an immediate and relatively informal way to influence voters’ perceptions (Kushin & Yamamoto; Vitak et al., 2011).
While previous research has relied on quantitative methods to examine the role of Facebook in political communication (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010;
Barclay et al., 2015), some qualitative studies have focused on Facebook analysis of a single presidential candidate (Gerodimos & Justunissen, 2015).
The second research phase therefore focused on the official Facebook platforms of the two political parties by analysing their posts made during the 14-day study period in order to obtain a broader perspective and better understanding of the research questions (Creswell, 2003). For the convenience of data collection and analysis process, the two parties were labelled as Party A and Party B. Party A’s Facebook Profile was studied while Party B’s Facebook Page was studied in the second research phase.
Although the focus of the second research phase is to analyze the meanings
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of the Facebook posts made by the two parties, additional numeric data such as the number of followers were obtained to fully understand the role of
Facebook in political communication. It is said that political actors consider followers as a resource to extend the reach of their messages (Bene, 2017).
Therefore, in addition to studying the content of the posts, the current research gathered the total number of followers on the two Facebook platforms of the two parties along with the total number of Facebook posts made by the two parties over the 14-day study period. After recording the total number of followers, all posts made by the two parties were recorded daily for further analysis, as little attention has been paid to the content of campaign messages on social networking sites (Ceron & d’Adda, 2016).
After collecting all individual posts made by the two parties, ten additional posts with the highest comments from both Party A and Party B were collected to further understand the characteristics of content that maximize interactions on Facebook. Posts with the highest comments were chosen to help understand the qualities of popular posts as Facebook comments are known to be expressions of opinions from users about the content or the author of a post (Bene, 2017). Commenting on a post is also known to help enhance the visibility of the post by opening up a new interaction channel
(Bene, 2017).
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4.4 Data Analysis
This section discusses the decisions made in organizing and analyzing data collected during the first and the second phase of this research. Data analysis is essential to reduce data into manageable forms and transform them into useful findings (Patton, 2002). As data for this study was collected in two different phases, the data analysis process was also conducted in two different phases using content analysis. Content analysis refers to analyzing written, verbal or visual communication messages (Cole,
1988), and is a systematic and objective means of reading a body of texts
(Krippendorff, 2013) by using a set of procedures to make valid interpretations (Weber, 1990). Content analysis has a history of more than
60 years of use in communication, journalism, sociology, psychology, business and other disciplines (Neuendorf, 2016). It can be analyzed by counting the frequency and sequences of words and phrases and by using constructs or rules of inference to move from texts to seek answers for the research questions (White & Marsh, 2006; Elo & Kyngas, 2008). According to Conroy et al., analyzing content posted by the political groups online will help assess the merits of political knowledge acquisition (2012).
4.4.1 Phase One: Interview Data Coding and Analysis
The interview data analysis was conducted using qualitative content analysis. Research using qualitative content analysis focuses on the
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characteristics of language as communication with attention to the content or the contextual meaning of the texts (Tesch, 1990). A qualitative content analysis relies on identifying thematic patterns in a text to make sense of the data (Neuendorf, 2016). Qualitative content analysis goes beyond merely counting words to examining language intensely for the purpose of classifying large amounts of text into an efficient number of categories that represent similar meanings (Weber, 1990). The goal of content analysis is to provide knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon under study
(Hsieh & Shannon, 2005).
The data analysis process for the current research’s interview data began with individual transcription of all eight interviews. The interview transcription helped build a deeper knowledge of the views of the respondents on the use and role of Facebook in the past and currently, and assisted in generating insights on the subject (Patton, 2002). The interview transcripts were coded using Nvivo, a computer software for qualitative data analysis. Patton (2002) states that ‘qualitative software programs facilitate data storage, coding, retrieval, and speed up the processes of locating coded themes, group data together in categories, and help compare passages in transcripts or incidents from field notes’ (p.442).
Codes are defined as ‘tags or labels for assigning units of meaning to the descriptive or inferential information compiled during a study’ (Miles &
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Huberman, 1994, p.56), and are an integral part of the interview data analysis process (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011). Coding refers to exploration of ideas and meanings that are contained in a data to enable researchers make connections between ideas and concepts (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011).
It is also referred to the process of pursuing data for categories and meanings and systematically marking similar responses with a node (Basit,
2003). Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that, data in case studies can be coded by taking into consideration the research questions. This approach was adopted to analyze the interview data by identifying words and short phrases from individual interview transcripts. For example, answers to the question on the primary online campaign tool were coded under one topic, while responses on the significance of Facebook Likes were coded under another topic. Once the initial coding process was complete for all interview transcripts, the coded data were revisited, and the overlapping codes were grouped under different categories from where the themes were drawn. New categories were created wherever required to ensure the inclusion of all relevant data. It is known that while coding, researchers organize and group similarly coded data with related characteristics into categories (Saldana,
2009). Although there are no fixed methods to group codes, Atkinson
(2002) states that codes are usually grouped in particular themes. The themes are used to present the findings that are discussed in the next
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chapter. Table 4.3 presents some examples of how the interviews were coded to identify the central ideas and categories.
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Table 4.3 Example of Coding an Interview Transcript
Code Examples/Interview Quotes Central Ideas/ Categories • I think social media was not very popular in the past due to poor Internet
and cellular coverage. Social media was not as significant as • Facebook communication tarnished the name of a political party in the it is today Facebook in past elections past elections.
• Facebook must have made a difference to a certain extent, but maybe not Mainstream media was important in
a game-changing role. the past
• Our party’s use of social media was minimum in the past.
• I think mainstream media had a bearing on the outcome of the election in
the past.
• Our priority is on Facebook in our social media campaign
• There are many components for a successful election and how we Facebook as a significant campaign communicate through Facebook is one. tool for urban population Using Facebook in 2018 • It is a must for every candidate to have a Facebook account.
• People are acknowledging our party through Facebook.
• Facebook will have a major impact on the election outcome in the urban
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areas.
• A party without Facebook presence is a party that has given up the
contest.
• Likes make you feel good but we cannot count on it.
• Likes are both important and not important as the party members and Facebook fan base is important for all supporters could have liked the page. parties Likes • People seek admission into the party because of what like on Facebook.
• We receive feedbacks from people saying they liked our posts. Endorsing online supporters on
• Likes give us some indication that people are following. Facebook
• Our promotions on Facebook have given our party the 2nd highest number Likes as indicators of followers of followers.
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4.4.2 Phase Two: Facebook Data Coding and Analysis
Data collected in the second phase of the research consisted of the total count of followers on both
Party A’s Facebook Profile and Party B’s Facebook Page, all individual wall posts made by the two parties during the 14 day study period, and an additional ten posts each from the two parties with the highest comments. The data analysis process of this data set was conducted using content analysis.
The data analysis process began by noting the differences between Party A and B’s total number of followers on their Facebook Profile and Facebook Page respectively on the first and last day of the second research phase’s study period. The difference in the total number of Facebook posts made by the two parties was also noted. Although numbers and counts are referred to as quantitative methods, and the tabulation of codes and the numerical results referred to as quantitative content analysis, a quantitative content analysis is typically used to test hypotheses (White & Marsh, 2006;
Riff et al., 2014), which is not relevant to this study. In addition, counting of codes is also defined as an analytical technique within qualitative content analysis (Morgan, 1993).
All individual posts made by the two parties were recorded on two different spread sheets on a daily basis by categorizing them under the three variables identified to examine the content of the posts.
The variables include the structure of the posts, the content of the posts, and the emotions in the
Facebook posts. In order to study the structure of the posts, each party’s total set of Facebook posts was analyzed separately for the frequency of posts that contained pictures, videos and graphics, followed by the frequency of posts that were made using text only. The total number of Facebook
Live streaming by each party was also recorded. The process was repeated for all posts made by the two parties. This analysis was crucial to understand features of the posts that maximized engagement, which is one of the research questions of this study. Given the highly visual nature of
Facebook, previous studies have found that posts with pictures and videos were more likely to be shared, compared to posts containing text, which were found to be generally more commented on
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(Bene, 2017).
Each post was separately analyzed for topics related to candidate profiles, pledges and development issues. First the number of posts containing candidate profiles were recorded followed by the number of posts that contained information related to pledges and development issues. The analysis was essential to understand the focus of Facebook posts by each party. A study of Facebook wall posts’ analysis from the 2012 US presidential campaign found that Obama’s followers interacted more with policy-oriented posts than with promotional ones (Gerodimos & Justinussen, 2015).
Another study that investigated Facebook’s viral posts during the 2014 Hungarian election campaign, found that posts with news value, and easily identifiable content were characteristics of content that maximized engagement (Bene, 2017).
On the third variable of emotions in Facebook posts, all posts made by the two parties were separately analyzed for the presence of positive and negative emotions. Posts containing or implying applause, honour, wishing well, hope, inaugurations, success and progress were grouped under positive emotions. Posts containing or implying fears, critiques, attacks, pity, and accusation, were grouped under negative emotions. It is known that emotion-filled posts would elicit more reactions (Berger & Milkman, 2012). For example, an analysis of Facebook Group Pages during the 2008 US presidential campaign found that Obama was portrayed more positively across
Facebook Groups than his opponent John McCain (Woolley et al., 2010). Likewise, during the 2012
US presidential campaigns, an analysis of Facebook Pages of the two presidential candidates revealed that both Obama and Romney chose emotional and motivational approaches to bring users to identify with them (Bronstien, 2013). Emotional appeals are also known to be useful strategies in campaign messages to maximize the reach of posts (Borah, 2016). The details of each variable are explained in Figure 4.2
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Figure 4.2 Explanation of Three Variables
• texts/pics/videos/graphics Structure • live streaming
• candidate profiles Content/Topic • pledges & development issue
• postive tone/content Emotions • negative tone/content
Once the analysis for the total posts made by the two parties was complete, ten additional posts with the highest comments that were extracted from both parties were analyzed. The data analysis process for the ten posts each with the highest comments was carried out using similar variables, such as examining the posts for the structure and content of the posts. In addition, the total number of comments, likes and shares generated by the ten posts were noted. Results from the analysis of the total Facebook posts made by the two parties including the analysis of the ten posts with the highest comments were combined with findings of the interview analysis from the first research phase in order to answer each research question in the next chapter.
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4.5 A Note on Ethical Considerations
Ethics are defined as principles to guide moral behaviours to distinguish between the right and the wrong, and deals with the dynamics of decision-making (Resnik, 2011).
Ethics are also defined as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act while analyzing complex problems and issues (Resnik, 2011). In research, ethics involve requirements on daily work, the protection of dignity of subjects and the publication of the information in the research (Fouka & Mantzarou, 2011).
As online research grows in popularity, attention to the ethics of studying online content is crucial to ensure ethical diligence and appropriateness, especially in qualitative studies as it examines the personal narratives of content shared online (Burles & Bally,
2018). As the second phase of this study collected Facebook wall posts made by the political parties, special emphasis on ethics was placed during the ethics application, as the current research dealt with content shared on Facebook. Recognizing the privacy concerns following the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s data breach scandal during the 2016 US presidential campaign and brought in the lime light in early 2018
(see Chapter 3 Literature Review), maintaining privacy was at the core of attention during the data collection and analysis process for the current research. Ethics approval was sought from Murdoch University’s human research ethics committee, and as part of the ethic application, a brief background of the study, a consent form and a list of interview questions were also submitted and approved before the data collection process began.
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According to Zimmer (2010), it is important to articulate ethical concerns and address them before embarking on a research especially in a study that utilizes social network data. These concerns include challenges to the traditional nature of consent, properly
‘identifying and respecting expectations of privacy on social network sites, and developing sufficient strategies for data anonymization prior to the public release of personal data’ (p.314). For this study, once the ethics application was approved, a brief background of the research, consent forms and the interview questions were emailed to the office of the campaign strategists during the recruitment process in the first phase of the research. The participants were briefed on the background of the study and informed about their rights to decline from participating in the research, skip questions and withdraw from the study until after the data analysis process was complete. Signed consent forms were also obtained from the participants prior to the interviews. The consent process ensures that individuals are voluntarily participating in the research with full knowledge of relevant risks and benefits (Smith, 2003). They were also informed of the possibilities of their identities being revealed due to the small number of parties and interview respondents.
It is said that the ethical principles are especially important for studies that examine the personal narratives shared online (Burles & Bally, 2018). As this study only analyzed posts made by the parties, and not the individual comments and messages contributed by Facebook users, consent was not sought from individual Facebook users. Although the political parties were informed of the collection and analysis of their Facebook posts, no formal consent was obtained from the two major parties, as their content was publicly available. Burles and Bally (2018) said that decisions on seeking informed consent can
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be based on whether or not the content is publicly available online. In addition, both names of the participants and their parties were annonymised to maintain confidentiality and privacy of the participants and their parties.
While analyzing posts with the highest comments from the two parties, the content of the comments made by individual Facebook users were not examined besides the frequency of comments, likes and shares of the ten posts. The Facebook posts were also publicly available and did not involve interactions with the researcher. The Facebook data analysis did not include any data related to the age, demographic and gender of
Facebook users.
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4.6 Conclusion
This chapter provided an outline of the case study research approach by presenting definitions of a case study research approach and presented justifications on the relevance to this study. The data collection was also discussed by presenting the details of the two different phases of the research, followed by the data analysis process for data collected from both the first and the second research phase. Some ethical considerations related to online research were also presented.
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5 Chapter 5 Findings and Analysis
5.1 Chapter Summary
The previous chapter discussed the research approach, the data collection methods and the data analysis process. This chapter begins with the official results of the 2018
Bhutanese Election, following which a summary of results from both the interview data analysis and Facebook wall post analysis. The detailed findings are combined to answer each research question. Additional findings such as the importance given to traditional media and the use of WeChat as another social media tool are also presented.
5.2 Bhutan National Election Results: 2018-10-19(Source: Election Commission of Bhutan www.ecb.bt/results)
The 2018 Bhutanese General Election was held on 18th October 2018, and the Election
Commission of Bhutan declared the official results on 19th October 2018. Of the two parties that contested for the 47 parliamentary seats, Party B won the election with 30 seats, while Party A secured 17 seats (Election Commission of Bhutan, 2018).
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National Election Results 2018
Party A Party B
Party A 30%
Party B 70%
Figure 5.1 Bhutan 2018 Election Results (Election Commission of Bhutan, 2018).
5.3 Summary of Phase One Interview Results
In the first phase of the research, 12 party representatives were invited to participate in the study, of which eight agreed. The interviews with the eight respondents were conducted ahead of the campaign period for the primary election round. A summary of the eight respondents’ positions and their roles in the four parties they represented, are presented in Table 5.1.
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Table 5.1 Roles of Interview Respondents
Respondents Party Positions Roles (as described in the interviews)
Respondent 1 President • Helped build the reputation of the party by ensuring the party had enough candidates, finance and human resources to manage the media and so on. Party 1 • Travelled to different constituencies as the party leader and make sure the party ideologies and candidates are promoted in all constituencies in conjunction with the doings of the candidates.
• Had the final say in responding to rumours and allegations both online and offline.
Respondent 2 President • Managed the overall party and communicated the party ideologies to the electorate.
Party 2 • Communicated with the General Secretary and the Campaign Strategist on a daily basis to ensure they implemented t he right strategies and send out consistent information on all media platforms.
Respondent 3 Secretary General • Managed the party, organized events to lead the party forward and put in place strategies to solve party issues. Party 3 • Worked closely with all candidates and the campaign strategist
Respondent 4 Vice President Party 4 • This representative was the vice president of the party, the spokesperson liaising with the media to ensure the party moved forward
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Respondent 5 Secretary General • Managed the general activities of the party, and the functions of various representatives to help show a positive image of the party. Party 1
Respondent 6 Secretary General • Helped strengthen the party to ensure the party wins. Built the human resource capacity and the financial strength of the party. Party 2 • Developed long-term ideas and policies for growth of the party.
Respondent 7 Campaign Strategist • Took care of all media advocacy and media related roles of the party such as writing reports.
Party 2 • Monitored the traditional media, and campaign materials for social media.
Respondent 8 Campaign Strategist • Actively involved with image building of the party, dealing with traditional media and monitoring social media networks. Party 3 • Developed media materials, organized media events and ensured traditional journalists participated in press conferences
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After transcribing and coding the interview data, the analysis process involved identification of categories and themes, as discussed in the previous chapter. The following findings emerged and were used to answer each research question in combination with findings from the Facebook wall posts analysis. In summary, this inquiry found that political parties used Facebook as one of the primary tools to campaign. The interview data analysis also showed that:
• Facebook was used to set political agendas by both parties and Facebook users.
• Facebook live streaming, visual content and limited interactions with individual
Facebook users were found as some of the major Facebook campaign strategies.
• Anonymous users on Facebook were found to be a major challenge for the
parties in their political communication on Facebook.
• Traditional media and mainstream journalists were still considered important by
the parties in shaping voter decisions.
• Other than Facebook, WeChat, an audio messaging app, was found to be another
important platform for communication with voters.
5.4 Summary of Phase Two Results: Facebook Wall Posts
The second research phase collected Facebook wall posts over a 14-day study period during the General Election campaign. In order to simplify the analysis process, the two parties were named as Party A and Party B. Party A used its Facebook Profile to communicate with citizens during the General Election campaign while Party B used its
Facebook Page. Party A’s Facebook Profile was used to collect Facebook data, as their
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Facebook Page remained inactive during the General Election campaign period. A
Facebook Page is designed to be the official accounts for entities, with an unlimited number of fans compared to a Facebook Profile that presents more personal information
(Lin, 2017).
Number of Facebook Followers and Posts: On 4th October 2018, the first day of data collection, Party A had about 7,600 followers on their Facebook Profile, which rose to nearly 8,000 followers on 17th October 2018, which was the last day of the study period.
Meanwhile, Party B started with a little over 32,000 followers on their Facebook Page, which crossed 33,000 followers on the last day of the study period. During the 14-day study period, the two parties made 166 posts in total, 74 posts were made by Party A and 92 were posted by Party B.
Content Analysis: Each party’s total number of posts was analyzed using three variables to examine the structure or the features of the posts, the content or topics of the posts, and the use of emotions in the posts. A detailed explanation of each variable is given is Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2 Explanation of the Three Variables
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A summary of the results from the analysis of the 166 posts is presented below and the details are used to answer each research question in conjunction with the interview findings.
• Structure of the Posts: Both parties used the same amount of visual such as
content with pictures, videos, and graphics. The two parties also had an equal
number of posts that we made using text only. Party A had no Live streaming in
comparison to 2 Live streaming by Party B.
• Content of the Posts: The majority of Party A’s posts contained candidate
profiles compared to Party B’s posts that contained mostly pledges and
development issues.
• Emotions in the Posts: The use of positive emotions were higher in Party B’s
posts than Party A. Likewise, Party A had a higher content of posts that were
made using negative emotions compared to Party B.
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Figure 5.3 Findings of Facebook Posts by Party A & B
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5.5 Results from the Analysis of 20 posts with highest comments
As part of the Facebook wall post analysis, ten posts each with the highest comments were also collected from the two parties’ total posts on the poll day on 18th October
2018, as the number of likes and comments on Facebook posts differ from each day.
The ten posts with the highest comments were analyzed individually for their structure and content to identify their characteristics as they carried the highest comments. While recording the total number of comments generated by the ten posts in total, along with the total number of likes and shares, Party A’s ten posts generated about 450 comments, with more than 4500 likes and about 350 shares in total. Party B’s ten posts generated a total of 2300 comments, 11,500 likes and close to 700 shares in total. A summary of results from the analysis of the ten posts with the highest comments is given below.
• All 20 posts with the highest comments contained visuals such as pictures, videos and graphics with fewer texts. • The two Facebook Live streaming videos generated the highest reactions (comments, likes and shares). • Posts with candidate profiles and pledges generated higher comments compared to posts that merely focused on candidate profiles.
5.6 Combined Findings in Detail
The details of the above results are combined in this section and presented in more depth to answer the research questions. Results from the two different data sources are merged to develop a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon (Patton, 2002).
Each research question is answered with findings from both phase one’s interview data analysis and phase two’s Facebook wall posts analysis to present a holistic picture of
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how Facebook facilitates political communication in the 2018 Bhutanese election campaigns.
5.6.1 Research Question One: How does the use of Facebook facilitate political
communication?
Interview Analysis: Facebook was an essential campaign tool for political success:
According to all eight respondents, all four parties that contested in the primary election round had an official Facebook Page through which they communicated with the citizens every day.
Respondents said that Facebook was used to inform and reach citizens both in Bhutan and around the world.
“Communicating on social media is very important to send our messages. We
use Facebook to promote our party ideologies and pledges.” Respondent 5
According to the interview participants, the official Facebook Pages of the parties and other social media platforms were managed and monitored by the office of the campaign strategist.
“We spend some amount on keeping our Internet going. At the core, we are
three of us and now with the budget, we heavily invest on people who take care
of our social networking sites. It is phone and Internet intensive.” Respondent 8
The majority of respondents said Facebook had become a component of a successful campaign. Respondents stressed their increased focus on the use of Facebook in 2018 compared to past elections.
“In my opinion, Facebook is more powerful than the traditional media as it
reaches everywhere. There are a higher number of social media users in
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comparison to those who rely for information on traditional media.” Respondent
3
A respondent said their party’s use of social media was minimal in the past due to fewer mobile phone users and weaker Internet services than today.
"In 2018, we have better Internet services and people have the option to choose
and subscribe different cellular providers. Things have changed now, including
myself. I use Facebook to some extent whenever there are exciting things
happening.” Respondent 6
Respondents said that their focus on Facebook was due to the increasing number of
Facebook users.
“Facebook users would have increased by many folds particularly the younger
generation, and it will therefore have a lot of impact.” Respondent 7
“Without Facebook, we will not be able to reach out to the citizens. Facebook is
more important than our face-to-face campaigns.” Respondent 3
Another factor for Facebook’s rising use according to a respondent was due to traditional media’s limited reach, coverage and circulation.
“There are two things: the number of social media users is higher than
those who view traditional media. Traditional media has more credibility
than social media but again, it depends on how you build your Facebook
page.” Respondent 3
For some parties, respondents said Facebook was mainly used to target urban voters, as communication with urban voters also helped influence rural voters in some cases.
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“Even now, rural voters tend to seek advice from their relatives in the urban
areas who are educated and have access to many forms of social media
particularly Facebook.” Respondent 1
The majority of respondents said that social media, in particular Facebook was expected to influence the 2018 election given the huge amount of interactions amongst citizens and politicians and amongst citizens themselves on different Facebook forums. A respondent said that their party heavily depended on social media networks and more so on Facebook.
“At this stage, we cannot do without Facebook. Everything is centered around
Facebook. We see around twenty fresh comments every hour and that is the
trend today.” Respondent 8
A respondent said that their party was able to recognize the value of Facebook, during the Facebook Live streaming of the party convention, which was held just before the primary election campaign. Impressed by the number of viewers and feedback from
Facebook users during the Live streaming, the party immediately prioritized Facebook as their main campaign tool.
“We were not as active as we are today on social media until our party
convention. Thousands were watching our convention on YouTube and
Facebook. In total we had more than 200,000 views.” Respondent 3
Respondents also said that, information on Facebook gave citizens the opportunity to reflect on and analyze the different parties, as they shared incidents of Facebook users seeking to join the party based on what people saw on Facebook.
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“We also receive letters and feedback from people saying they liked our posts. It
has been overwhelming as people reassure their faith in us based on what we do
on Facebook. ” Respondent 8
A respondent said that their party constantly compared their Facebook Page to other party Pages.
“We will also be monitoring the Facebook Pages of the other parties to see how
they are doing and then we will counter accordingly.” Respondent 8
The importance of Facebook was summed up by one respondent:
“If a political party has no Facebook page or account, it is as good as giving up
from contesting. ” Respondent 3
Results: Facebook Wall Posts Analysis
Facebook played a vital role during the last 14 days leading up to the general poll day with the two parties generating 166 posts in total. As discovered from the interview analysis, the 2018 Bhutanese election campaign saw an Internet intensive campaign with significant use of Facebook by both politicians and citizens with thousands of followers on the two parties’ Facebook platforms. Both parties used Facebook as a campaign tool to reach and inform voters. Party A made 74 posts during the 14-day study period and Party B made 92 posts as demonstrated in the diagram below.
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166 Facebook Posts 100 92 90
80 74
70
60
50
40 Total Number of Posts 30
20
10
0 Party A Party B Facebook Posts in 14 days
Figure 5.4 Facebook Posts by Each Party A and B
5.6.2 Research Question Two: What is the applicability of agenda setting theory
during political communication of Facebook?
Agenda Setting by Political Parties
It can be noted from the interviews that all four parties used Facebook as a platform to reach, inform and influence voters.
“The intent is to inform citizens as we want informed citizens to be able to
convince them, and that is the objective of every communication.” Respondent 1
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“Politics is about winning the hearts of the people and to win the hearts, parties
have to promote their ideologies and manifesto and make people understand,
social media is an effective platform given its reach and interactive features.”
Respondent 5
In addition to using Facebook to promote party ideologies, some respondents said
Facebook provided them the ideal channel to express their stands on issues and clarify rumours.
“There has been a lot of negative comments against our President because of his
background and people are saying the should be in his old profession. We put up
Frequently Asked Questions on Facebook to calm those rumours by highlighting
the strengths of our President.” Respondent 3
“People are forming images through Facebook, forming perceptions and
opinions of the party through Facebook.” Respondent 3
To most political parties Facebook was able to fill the void left by traditional journalists who failed to give news coverage on their party developments.
“The traditional media organizations for their own rules and regulations refused
to cover our events and we used Facebook to go Live where we had thousands
of viewers. In fact, our own media team will accompany the President making at
least one Facebook post ever day.” Respondent 3
“Since we did not receive media coverage from the traditional media, we fell
back on the social media networks. We are able to upload our day-to-day
activities on Facebook.” Respondent 8
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“Mainstream media has a small readership and audience, whereas social media
has a wider reach. We use Facebook to reach Bhutanese overseas.” Respondent
5
Discussing further reasons for using Facebook, most respondents said their parties used
Facebook to devise their own messages in their own ways to attract users.
“We have introduced our candidates on Facebook to inform the citizens by using
photo profiles of all the candidates consistently. Once the official primary
election campaign begins, we will post snippets of all the pledges, at least three
to four snippets in a day. We will share the stories while accompanying the
President in different constituencies. We will also share inspiring quotes from
the President by keeping it short and attractive. We have our templates ready
and we hope to present it in a way to attract people.” Respondent 8
The applicability of agenda setting during political communication on Facebook is further evident from the analysis of Facebook wall posts made by the two parties, 14- days ahead of the general election. While analyzing the structure of the posts made by
Party A and B, it was found that both parties focused to gain attention from Facebook users to their content by including either a picture, a graphic or a video in majority of their posts. Examining the content of the posts made by Party A, one post was reflected the party’s views on an accusation made by Party B, for recruiting 20 social media users to defame their party (Dema & Dorji, 2018). In addition, while analyzing the content of
Party A’s ten posts with the highest comments, two were related to the party’s concerns over malicious content spread by fake Facebook users to defame their party. The three
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posts in total shared by Party A, one that related to an accusation of recruiting social media workers and two posts that related to fears of fake users, indicate the practice of agenda setting by political parties to frame other parties.
While analyzing Party B’s ten posts with the highest comments, seven were strategically designed to play with people’s perceptions as it contained a consistent picture of the party president with different candidates in different constituencies. All seven posts carried similar descriptions with a candidate profile, the party ideologies and the strengths of the party and the president. Unlike Party A, whose majority of the total posts focused on candidate profiles alone, Party B used majority of their total
Facebook posts by putting together information about their candidates, pledges and issues.
Agenda Setting by Facebook Users
All eight respondents pointed to how people turn to Facebook without giving their identities.
“On Facebook, you have anonymous users who are very critical, perhaps in
many cases, unnecessarily critical. A normal Facebook user will think that is
normal and that they also need to take entrenched positions as well and I think
this is bad for the society.” Respondent 2
Narrating incidents of how anonymous users impacted past election campaigns, most respondents said fake users were successful in damaging the reputation of opposing parties by spreading false information.
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“An anonymous user rampaged on an active forum spreading lies and fear and
they achieved their purpose and we lost by a huge margin.” Respondent 2
Anonymous users impacting campaign communication was not merely a problem of the past. According to one respondent, in 2018, it had become even more difficult to differentiate facts from lies or fiction.
“There was a Facebook Page who used our party’s logo and attacked another
party. The anonymous user was trying to attract the undecided voters of another
party towards them by using our logo. We could tell where it is coming from.”
Respondent 8
“I hope the Election Commission has the capacity to monitor these problems in
the upcoming election.” Respondent 1
The expression of concerns by Party A in their posts about their fears of fake users also add on how Facebook was being used to set political agendas by individual citizens.
5.6.3 Research Question Three: What are some of the Facebook strategies of the
2018 Bhutanese election?
Strategy 1. Facebook Live Streaming
Four of the eight respondents said they focused on Facebook Live streaming to reach citizens across the world, and more so, to reach citizens who were unable to participate in party events physically. For most parties, their first use of Facebook Live streaming started with their party convention. Respondents described this activity as a successful
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way of not only reaching supporters but also a way to receive feedback from viewers on
Facebook.
“Facebook users enjoy our Live streaming and they give us live feedback
through their comments on particular speakers. For us the Live stream was
important to reach out to a wider audience.” Respondent 5
A respondent said that their party chose to live stream, as other parties were live streaming.
“It is everybody’s game. Because the other parties were using it, all other parties
used the medium.” Respondent 6
When analyzing the posts made by the two parties using the first variable to study the structure or the features of the posts, assessment also included counting the number of posts using text only and the number of Facebook Live streaming. It was noted that
Party B had two Facebook Live streaming compared to no Live streaming by Party A.
Both Live streaming occasions showed the president making public speeches at different locations during the constituency visits. For Party B, the two Facebook Live streaming attracted more than 3200 Facebook likes, about 1600 comments and 400 shares in total. As pointed out in the interviews by the respondents, Facebook Live streaming was found to be an effective Facebook strategy to maximize users’ reactions.
Strategy 2. Limited Interactions with Individual Facebook Users:
An interview respondent said their Facebook Page sent automated acknowledgements to
Facebook users who sent messages to the party using the party’s Facebook Page inbox.
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Likewise, most respondents said it was important to acknowledge positive messages and comments.
“We group all the positive comments on our posts and thank them together. We
acknowledge the responses after certain intervals not that we can respond to
every user.” Respondent 8
Another respondent said that their party did not feel the necessity to react to every comment on Facebook, unless required.
“If there are certain issues, in collaboration with the media team, we respond but
not to the small things.” Respondent 3
They said the use of fake accounts with intentions to spread lies and misleading stories were all part of the 2018 election campaign on Facebook. Some of the respondents added that rising use of Facebook by anonymous users affected the pattern of political discussions. A few respondents said they did not respond or react to comments on
Facebook, as they feared opposing party agents could have contributed the comments.
“There are so many anonymous users out there with hate speeches and so we do
not react to both positive and negative feedbacks.” Respondent 4
“Fake users could be contributing the comments purposely to damage our party
as the comments are mostly malicious and attacking in nature.” Respondent 5
To summarize the above responses, lack of interaction on Facebook was due to rampant anonymous users, setting different agendas. Although one respondent shared the significance of negative content, the interaction was limited again.
“We would definitely want to engage with the people that offer genuine
comments, it doesn’t matter positive or negative. Even if it is anonymous, we do
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get a lot of constructive feedback. Our response depends on the severity or
authenticity of the comment, and we check the facts.” Respondent 7
Strategy 3: Using Visual Content
In reaching, informing and sharing party ideologies and priorities, some respondents spoke about their focus on the use of photos and videos to broadcast their candidates’ profile, party manifesto and pledges.
“We have texts and images for literate lots and videos and audios for the
illiterates in the rural areas. Every day during the campaign period, we will put
up snippets of all the pledges, at least 3-4 snippets in a day.” Respondent 8
“First we provide, photo profiles of candidates to introduce them and then a
minute interview with every candidate.” Respondent 3
Results from the structural analysis of total posts made by the two parties during the 14- day study period also showed that more than 80% of the posts made by both parties contained a picture, video or graphics. Both parties used fewer texts to post, but Party A use of texts was slightly higher than Party B as shown in Figure 5.5 and 5.6. Due to the uneven number of total posts by the two parties, different figures are used to show the results.
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Party A: Structure of Posts Texts 19% Pictures/ Videos/Gr aphics 81%
Figure 5.5 Structural Findings of Party A Posts
Although Party A posted only 14 times using text only, compared to 16 times by Party
B, due to the uneven number of posts by each party, Party A was still found to have a higher portion of their total posts with texts only.
Figure 5.6 Structural Findings of Party B Posts
5.6.4 Research Question Four: What content type on Facebook maximizes
engagement?
From the ten posts with the highest comments made by the two parties, Party A’s ten posts generated a total of 450 comments in comparison to Party B’s ten posts that
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generated 2200 comments in total. The total number of reactions generated by the two sets of ten posts with the highest reactions is presented in Figure 5.7.
Party A Party B 450 comments 2200 comments
4500 11500 likes likes
350 700 shares shares
Figure 5.6 Total Reactions of the Ten Popular Posts
On the structure of Party B’s ten posts with the highest comments, all posts contained pictures of party presidents and candidates on campaign visits, of them speaking to the public, candidate profiles and Live streaming. Similarly, majority of Party A’s post contained pictures and videos except for one post, which was made using text only.
On the content of the ten posts with the highest comments by Party B, 9 posts focused on the progress of the campaign with topics related to pledges and development issues in comparison to Party A, who had 7 out of the ten posts that focused on the progress of the campaign and topics that related to pledges and development issues.
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Structure & Content of Popular Posts 12
10 10 9 9 8 8
6
4 Total Number of Posts 2
0 Pics/Videos/Graphics/Live Candidates, Pledges & Issues Streaming
Figure 5.7 Structure & Content of 10 popular posts (Party A & B)
The analysis results of the posts with the highest comments showed:
• Posts with pictures, videos and graphics can generate high interactions.
• Posts with more elements of candidates, campaign progress and pledges can
attract more reactions.
• Facebook Live streaming can attract the highest number of comments, likes and
shares of all the twenty posts.
Table 5.2 and 5.3 are the final results or the results of the analysis of the 10 posts with the highest comments each. The highest comments and reactions were analyzed as of midnight 17th October as Facebook reactions keep fluctuating.
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Table 5.2 Party A: Features of the Ten Popular Posts
Rank Comments Structure Content of the Posts Likes Shares 1 88 Pictures & Text • Pledges to review education policy and critiquing the opposing 899 likes 85 shares parties’ school cut off points 2 70 Pictures & Text • Focused on the strengths of the candidates, reminded to vote 633 likes 36 shares wisely + Hydro Power pledge 3 69 Pictures & Text • Concerns of fear makers among voters to reduce electoral 631 likes 69 shares chances by spreading false stories. 4 50 Text only • Concerns over account users spreading malicious rumours on 256 likes 50 shares social media with false allegations 5 46 Pictures & Text • Campaign progress only 827 likes 42 shares
6 23 Picture & Text • Profiles of experienced candidates (If you want a party to win 455 likes 28 shares with experience, vote for us) 7 20 Pictures & Text • Campaign visit, president meeting and speaking to the public 371 likes 15 shares about their pledge to review the education policy but critiqued the opposing party 8 19 Pictures & Text • Campaign progress from constituency visits 249 likes 14 shares
9 19 Video (30 sec) • Candidate profile 179 likes 2 shares
10 17 Video (30 sec) • Candidate Profile 225 likes 7 shares
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Table 5.3 Party B: Features of the Ten Popular Posts
Rank Comments Structure Types & Features of Posts Likes Shares 1 878 Live Stream Video 1 hr • President speech in local dialects during campaign visits 1900 likes 131 shares
• 2 716 Live Stream Video 1 hr • President speech in local dialects during campaign visits 1300 likes 237 shares
3 109 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 1200 likes 56 shares candidate profile and pledges 4 104 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 2000 likes 54 shares candidate profile and pledges 5 97 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 1000 likes 35 shares candidate profile and pledges 6 92 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 869 likes 22 shares candidate profile and pledges 7 85 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 549 likes 35 shares candidate profile and pledges 8 76 Picture • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 1600 likes 26 shares candidate profile and pledges 9 74 4 min Video • A short video seeking apology from a candidate on the 502 likes 83 shares underperformed common forum debate 10 72 Picture & Text • One picture of the President & their local candidate, with 633 likes 18 shares
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candidate profile and pledges
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5.6.5 Research Question Five: What are some of the challenges of using
Facebook for political communication?
Anonymous users pose a major challenge for political communication on Facebook
Although parties turn to Facebook to broadcast their works and priorities, they often encountered false allegations. Anonymous users sharing negative comments, spreading malicious content and using hate speech were identified as a common challenge for all four parties as all eight respondents pointed it out. For example, a respondent said that in a past election, a group of anonymous users on Facebook formed a group to defame a party with many negative stories.
“The fake accounts that users made affected the party’s image especially
towards the end of the election.” Respondent 1
“Our constitution gives the right to expression. People coming under anonymous
accounts, that in itself is a big challenge. Authenticity of the issue is
compromised when one wears a mask to make a very important point.”
Respondent 7
According to another participant, the 2018 election campaign on Facebook made it difficult for people to differentiate facts from lies or fiction, and for parties to show they are telling the truth. The capacity to rightly influence voters has been impeded by widespread fake news and lies, according to a respondent.
“Spreading fake news and lies, divisiveness under the cloak of anonymity so
that is difficult.” Respondent 2
Most respondents felt the need for all political parties to resort to Facebook with credibility.
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Of the ten posts with the highest comments by Party A, two posts involved the Party expressing concerns of anonymous users spreading malicious information. This finding is an indication of how anonymous users posed a major challenge for parties during political communication on Facebook.
5.7 Additional Findings
This section contains new findings that are in addition to the above answers to the research questions.
5.7.1 WeChat, a Social Media Priority
The majority of interview respondents spoke about their focus on Facebook in the 2018
Bhutanese election campaigns. However, most respondents pointed to WeChat as another social media priority for political communication. WeChat is a Chinese mobile app with audio messaging features that allows illiterate users to communicate.
According to a respondent, WeChat was used, as the majority of Bhutanese voters are concentrated in the rural areas that do not have access to Facebook.
“I think every mobile phone subscriber uses WeChat. It helps rural people as a
user does not need to type, with the voice message feature.” Respondent 5
Only two of the eight respondents said WeChat was more important than Facebook for their party communication.
“Social media seems to be the future of communication, regardless of how you
engage with the citizens. Social media is dynamic, and in Bhutan, I am not too
sure how popular Facebook is given WeChat in the villages and in the youth, it
is increasingly Instagram.” Respondent 2
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“We have several WeChat groups, such as women and constituency groups to
take our messages across.” Respondent 6
WeChat was used to target rural voters, but most respondents said they did not have an official presence on WeChat as candidates and supporters created the Groups on
WeChat.
5.7.2 Traditional Media, Still Significant
Although most respondents shared the essence of social media and in particular
Facebook, in the 2018 Bhutanese election campaigns, they also shared that traditional media was still important as it has more credibility than social media. A respondent said both social media and mainstream media help mould voting decisions.
“The number of social media users is higher than those who access information
from traditional media. But traditional media has more credibility and social
media does not have as much credibility. But again it is how you build your
page.” Respondent 3
Other respondents said that both social media and traditional media are important as traditional journalists shared formal information and the social information was shared first on social media. However, most focused on Facebook amongst the different social networking sites used in the election campaigns. Despite the vibrant discussions on social media, people still fell back on traditional media sources to seek endorsement and credibility on the issues discussed on Facebook, according to a respondent.
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“There are a higher number of social media users in comparison to traditional
media. But, traditional media has more credibility and social media does not
have as much credibility as traditional media.” Respondent 3
“I do not have any empirical data to back up my statement but people consider
what they get on traditional media to be true and so are therefore powerful in
that context.” Respondent 2
In summary, most respondents felt that both mainstream media and social media were important to shape voting decisions of citizens.
In the analysis of the total posts made by the two parties during the 14-day study period,
7 out of 74 posts by Party A were traditional news media stories of the election campaigns, in comparison to Party B’s 4 out of 92 posts of traditional media articles.
5.8 Conclusion
This chapter presented the findings of the study on the role of Facebook in the 2018
Bhutanese general election campaigns. First a summary of findings from the two research phases were presented and the detailed results of the two methods were merged to answer each research question. In the first research question on how Facebook facilitated political communication, interview data analysis showed Facebook as an essential campaign tool as most respondents stressed on the effectiveness of Facebook to reach and inform the electorates. The results of the Facebook wall posts analysis demonstrated the use of Facebook during the general election campaign generating 166 posts by the two parties in the course of the 14-day study period.
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On the second research question to see the applicability of agenda setting theory during political communication on Facebook, results from both the analysis of interviews, and the Facebook wall posts’ analysis showed that, parties used Facebook to reach, inform and influence voters. Although this study did not include a directly method to study the effects of agenda setting and how discussions on Facebook influenced news agenda, some interview respondents spoke about how they attempt to propagate their campaign messages and their stands on issues through their posts on Facebook. Parties shared that their posts were designed to catch the attention of the public and prepare the audience to interpret the stories the parties wanted. For example, during the analysis of Party B’s ten posts with the highest comments, seven posts had similar photos of the president with different candidates with information on the candidate’s strengths, interests and pledges, all in the attempts by the parties to promote the candidates by raising their profiles on
Facebook.
To answer the third research question to identify the Facebook strategies of the 2018 election, respondents in the interviews demonstrated the use of visuals, live streaming and limited individual communication as some of their Facebook strategies. In the analysis of ten posts with the highest comment, the use of live streaming was found to be an effective way to reach electorates by generating the highest number of comments, likes and shares from the 14-day’s total posts. Both parties maintained a highly visual
Facebook presence with less of text only. The use of positive emotions was also concluded as one of the strategies as demonstrated by Party B during the 14-day study period.
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On the fourth research question to examine content types that maximized engagement on Facebook, the ten posts with the highest comments generated about 450 comments for Party A and 2200 comments in total for Party B. Posts with high visual content, posts with pledges and development issues and Live streaming were found to feature of highly interactive posts. Posts with candidates’ personal information and pledges were also found to lead to higher interactivity.
To answer the fifth research question on the challenges that impede Facebook use for political communication, interview respondents identified anonymous users by both politicians and Facebook users as a major challenge. Supplementing to this finding from the interviews, the Facebook wall post analysis also showed that the use of fake users spreading malicious content to reduce electoral chances, as two of the ten popular posts by Party A were related to fears and concerns of defamation by fake users. A traditional news media article on accusations of hiring social media agents also featured in one of the posts by the two parties during the 14-day study period.
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6 Chapter 6 Discussion and Conclusion
6.1 Chapter Summary
In this final chapter, findings of the study are further discussed by providing an overview on how the findings align with existing literature. It discusses new contributions made by this research to existing literature on Facebook and political communication. The chapter also presents the weaknesses and limitations of the research followed by recommendations for future studies on related topics.
6.2 Key Results and Findings
This study documents the role of Facebook in election campaigns within the context of
Bhutan, an emerging democracy. The research was conducted to explore how Facebook facilitates political communication, to identify some of the effective strategies for political communication on Facebook, and to test the applicability of agenda setting theory during political communication on Facebook. It was also carried out to understand the types of content on Facebook that maximize interactions, and identify some of the challenges of political communication on Facebook. To address these research questions, the study focused on the 2018 Bhutanese election using a case study research approach and employing two different data sources of interviews and Facebook wall posts analysis in two different research phases. Results from both interview data analysis in the first phase of the research and findings from the second research phase’s
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Facebook wall post analysis demonstrated strategic use of Facebook by Party B which won the election with a majority of 30 out of 47 seats. Some of this study’s key findings and contributions are summarized below:
• Fills the research gap in understanding the democratic potentials of Facebook in
Bhutan.
• Extends knowledge on Facebook as an instrumental campaign platform for
political parties.
• Identifies anonymous users as a challenge for using Facebook for political
communication.
• Shows that suspicious and anonymous accounts on Facebook prevent political
discourse restricting the interactivity potentials.
• Identifies Facebook Live streaming to create an engaging user experience.
• Extends current knowledge on how Facebook has become a platform to shape
public perceptions by setting political agendas by both political parties and
citizens
• Identifies Facebook posts filled with positive emotions appear to elicit more
reactions.
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6.3 Discussion
The most important takeaway from this study is that the 2018 Bhutanese election campaign was characterized by widespread use of Facebook, as all parties deemed
Facebook as an essential tool for political success. Although a little over half of the
Bhutanese population had Internet connection in 2018, the election saw an Internet intensive campaign with significant use of Facebook by political parties and citizens.
The current research findings demonstrate how strategic use of Facebook can be a powerful advantage for winning the elections. It adds to existing knowledge on how
Facebook has assumed an increasingly popular role in voters’ political orientation and information consumption (Lin, 2017). Facebook is not merely the most popular social networking site on the globe today, but the findings of this study also help extend knowledge on how the social media giant is recognized as an important political campaign platform and tool.
6.3.1 How Facebook Facilitates Political Communication
To discuss how Facebook facilitates political communication, the results of the analysis of the eight interviews showed Facebook as a major campaign tool for all four political parties that contested in the primary election round in Bhutan. The significance of
Facebook as a campaign tool was further demonstrated by the two major parties’ presence on Facebook during the general election campaign that attracted thousands of followers and reactions ahead of the poll day, as found during the second research phase of Facebook wall post analysis. Party B used its official Facebook Page to communicate during the general election campaign with more than 32,000 followers compared to
Party A, which used its official Facebook Profile that had over 7500 followers. Previous
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studies have confirmed that the type of Facebook account that a candidate uses relates to an election outcome (Lin, 2017). From this study’s outcomes, it could be argued that political parties with a Facebook Page tend to have both a higher vote share and a higher chance of winning an election than political parties with other types of Facebook accounts such as Profiles.
In addition, the results of this study observed a positive relationship between the number of followers and the electoral outcomes. Party B won the 2018 Bhutanese election, and had a higher number of followers than Party A. This result is similar to the
2008 study in the US where Obama’s campaign team was found to far outpace McCain on Facebook throughout the campaign giving Obama nearly 2.4 million Facebook friends just ahead of the poll day compared to McCain who managed only about
620,000 friends (Williams & Gulati, 2013). Similar results were also found during
Woolley et al. (2010)’s evaluation of user-generated Facebook groups of the two US presidential candidates in 2008. The study found that Obama-focused Facebook Groups were significantly higher than were McCain-focused Facebook groups in terms of both the number of group members and the overall level of activity (Woolley et al., 2010).
In India’s 2014 general election too, a strong positive correlation was found to exist between the numbers of Facebook Likes a party or its leader secured on their official
Facebook Page and their popular vote share (Barclay et al., 2015). Likewise, Trump is known to have had 9 million followers on his official Facebook Page, which was about double the number who followed either Clinton or Sander’s Facebook Pages during the
2016 US presidential campaign (Pew Research Center, 2016). While Internet alone does not increase political participation, exposure to political materials online is known to
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increase political participation (Kenski & Stroud, 2006). For the current research, the higher number of followers on Party B’s Facebook Page indicates that a significant positive relationship exists between a political party’s number of followers on Facebook and their election outcomes.
On the total number of posts made by the two political parties, Party B made 92 posts in total compared to 74 posts by Party A during the 14-day study period in the run up to the general election. Party B’s higher levels of activity on Facebook also resulted in higher effects on the amount of public attention their party received in terms of the total number of likes, comments and shares. According to Gil de Zuniga et al., 2012), the larger one’s network, the higher one’s probability to be politically engaged. This is based on the assumption that a larger network involves exposure to people who are typically active and could affect one’s views and opinions (2012). In the current research, the ten most popular posts by Party B received 11,500 Facebook Likes, 2200
Comments and 700 Shares compared to 4500 Likes, 450 Comments and 350 Shares by
Party A for the same number of ten most popular posts. According to previous researchers, messages on Facebook are usually transmitted by personal acquaintances like Facebook friends who could induce their persuasive power (Bond et al., 2012). An experiment study randomly controlled political messages on the newsfeed of 61 million
Facebook users during the 2010 US congressional campaign and found that messages directly influenced the real-world voting behaviors of the users and their networks’ behaviors as well (Bond et al., 2012).
Just as political chats served both social and information seeking needs, and influenced
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political behaviors and attitudes (Johnson & Kaye, 2003), Party B’s higher level of activity on Facebook increased reactions from Facebook users and enhanced electoral chances. Although further analysis was made on the content, structure and emotions of the Facebook wall posts, preliminary findings of this research indicate that higher
Facebook activities by a political party or candidate can result in higher attention from
Facebook users. The results indicate and suggest that parties and candidates should be not be ignorant of the statistical significance while managing their Facebook presence for a successful Facebook campaign.
6.3.2 The Applicability of Agenda Setting during Political Communication on
This study was guided by the theory of agenda setting, a critical theme in mass communication research. Traditional media, which had long played a gatekeeper role in setting the agenda for campaign discourse, had been losing ground since the rising use of social networking sites by politicians and citizens (Meraz, 2009).
Although no direct evaluations were conducted to assess the agenda setting role of
Facebook during political communication, the analysis process in both the first and the second research phases was informed by the theory to see how political parties used
Facebook to influence people’s perceptions. During the general election campaign, both parties sought strategic ways to attract audiences by designing their own messages and by sharing their own thoughts and opinions with their followers on Facebook. These results were reflected both by interview respondents and in the Facebook posts shared by the two parties. Past studies in the west reported on how Facebook negated the role
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of traditional media, as traditional news media were found to be no longer holding the monopoly in setting public agendas (Meraz, 2009). Agenda setting is what the media intends people to believe by setting agendas for public perceptions (McCombs & Shaw,
1972).
In this study’s first research phase, interview respondents indicated their agenda setting activities on Facebook such as the use of frequently asked questions on Facebook to make their positions clear, and ensuring the use of strategic Facebook posts to get users’ attention. While analysing the Facebook posts during the second phase of the study,
Party A shared a news article denying allegations of having recruited youth to defame
Party B and their candidates on social media. Such accusations and news stories during the campaign period confirm that Facebook was used both by the parties and the citizens to set political agendas. Seven of the ten most popular posts by Party B also indicated how agenda was set by the party to carefully craft their messages to promote their party president, their candidates and pledges, all in one Facebook post. This aligns with current understanding on how politicians and parties adapt their practices and messages to formats, deadlines and genres that are journalistically attractive (Skogerbo
& Krumsvik, 2015). As the fathers of agenda-setting theory put it, ‘readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position’ (McCombs & Shaw 1993, p.
176). The strategic use of Facebook by Party B indicates how the party successfully transferred messages on Facebook with agendas (Santana & Camaj, 2015). For Party A, two of the ten most popular Facebook posts focused on their concerns of fake users spreading malicious information on social media. Political actors are known to use
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social networking sites to devise their own messages and reach the public largely with little or no journalistic channels (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) and the current research results re-emphasizes the notion that Facebook continues to be used as a platform for setting public agendas (Santana & Camaj, 2015).
6.3.3 Challenges of Using Facebook for Political Communication
The current research findings also extend knowledge on the challenges of using
Facebook for political communication. The prevalence of anonymous users spreading false information and malicious content was found to be a major challenge for political communication on Facebook during the 2018 Bhutanese election campaigns. Analysis of interview data and the Facebook wall posts revealed that fake users had made it increasingly difficult for Facebook users to differentiate lies from truth which in turn affected direct interactions between political parties and the citizens. This is similar to the social media bots that spread propagandas and fake news during the 2016 US presidential campaigns (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). According to Silverman (2016), some of the most discussed fake news that was shared on Facebook during the 2016 US presidential campaign tended to favor Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Some critics even pointed that Trump would not have been elected president if it was not for the influence of fake news (Parkinson 2016). According to Persily (2017), the power of fake news is determined by the popularity of the lie that it propagates, by the speed with which it is disseminated and consequently by the number of people who receive and believe the falsehood. The presence of social media bots negatively affects the democratic political discussion according to Bessi and Ferrara (2016). Although their findings were based on analysis of Tweets, the implications are similar to the current
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research findings where anonymous users caused limited interactions between political parties and individual Facebook users. The political parties were not able to take advantage of the interactive potentials of Facebook for fear of encountering opposing agents. While parties acknowledged the significance of interacting with Facebook users in the current research, engagement with individual Facebook users remained limited, for fears of fake accounts purposely damaging their parties. Therefore, interview respondents in the first research phase revealed that they would only react to authentic comments. Even though the current research focused on Facebook, and Bessi and
Ferrara’s (2016) study was based on Twitter analysis, hate speech, negative content and false information propagated by anonymous users impact users of different social networking sites in similar ways. Just as the presence of social media bots negatively affected political discussions during the 2016 US presidential campaigns, the rampant use of anonymous accounts on Facebook prevented the Bhutanese political parties from interacting with individual users rather than improving political discussion.
6.3.4 Strategies for Political Communication on Facebook
Facebook Live is a feature that uses the camera on a computer or mobile device to broadcast real-time video in hopes to engage the audience (Facebook, 2018). Facebook
Live streaming was found to be a successful strategy in reaching a large number of audiences. As reflected by the interview respondents during the first phase of this research, Live streaming was used to garner feedback from Facebook users as the only two Live streaming during the general campaign attracted the highest number of reactions in the form of comments, likes and shares. Facebook Live streaming can be broadcast publicly, and people typically come across Live streaming from people they
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follow, either via notification or when a stream appears in their newsfeed (Haimson &
Tang, 2017). Live video streaming is known to have played an important role during the 2016 US presidential campaign as Trump provided his own Facebook Live broadcast during the third presidential debate, which attracted more than nine million views (Persily, 2017).
According to Persily, the Trump campaign’s digital video presence lent the campaign an air of authenticity that was lacking in the Clinton campaign (2017). Similar to these findings, the current study’s results also revealed that the two Facebook Live streaming by Party B attracted the highest reactions from Facebook users, helping the party receive thousands of reactions from viewers.
Another study of social media Live on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat examined how people experienced events during Live streaming and concluded that if designed well,
Live stream platforms offered real time interactions, leveraged multiple viewpoints and created an engaging user experience (Haimson & Tang, 2017). Besides Trump’s successful exemplification of Facebook Live, not many studies have explored the role of Facebook Live streaming as an event viewing platform and the advantages it provides politicians during election campaigns. Although Haimson and Tang’s study was not based on political events, the study demonstrates how social media Live enables interactivity for users participating in the live events (2017). This is a demonstration on how Facebook Live streaming was used as a strategy to reach the maximum audience.
The current study’s results align with their findings on how Facebook Live can be an effective way to enhance reach and provide interactive and social experiences for users.
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The results of this study also offer further knowledge in understanding characteristics of
Facebook posts that people are more likely to engage with, as it is important to understand campaign strategies for effective political communication on Facebook.
During the analysis of Facebook wall posts in the second phase of the current study, a noticeable difference was observed between Party A and B’s posts with a higher number of posts by Party B that contained or implied positive content with its content carrying messages of applause, honour, hope, success and updates on the campaign progress. On the other hand, Party A had a smaller number of posts that contained or implied positive emotions. According to Borah (2016), emotional appeals are fundamental in understanding campaign strategies. In his comparative study of campaign strategies during the 2008 and 2012 US presidential campaigns, Obama was found to use Facebook to mostly acclaim and use positive emotions just as majority of
Party B’s post focused on success, progress, and applaud in this current research.
In comparison, his opponents McCain and Romney were both found to use their
Facebook to attack their opponents. This current study also found that the losing party made more posts that expressed fears and concerns. During the 2016 US presidential campaign, one of Trump’s highly shared post was posts was a post showing support and appreciation to the police (Pew Research Center, 2016). Although this study was carried within the context of Bhutan, a young democratic country, the results are still able to concur with previous knowledge on how positive political content on Facebook can relate to positive election outcomes by enhancing a party’s Facebook visibility.
The results also indicate that the more use of negative content may affect electoral outcomes. During the analysis of the ten most popular posts with the highest comments
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by Party A, two posts were related to fears and concerns of reduction in electoral chances by anonymous users, which attracted 631 and 633 likes respectively with 70 and 69 comments each and 36 and 69 shares each. This is similar to what Bene (2017) found while assessing Facebook posts during the 2014 Hungarian general elections.
Bene (2017) found that negative emotional content could sometimes prove to make content popular depending on the purpose of the Facebook post. Similarly, while analyzing the ten most popular posts by Party B, one post was a short video of a candidate who sought apology from the public for ruining the common forum debate.
Although the video clearly contained negative emotions related to seeking pity, it attracted 502 likes, 74 comments and 83 shares as of 17th October 2018, the last day of the 14-day study period. These results help one understand that negative content may not necessarily affect Facebook users’ reactions but adversely affect the electoral outcomes. The results of this study also indicate that irrespective of the democratic setting, political messages during election campaigns on Facebook follow the same strategies (Borah, 2016; Bene, 2017).
An overwhelming majority of the posts by the two parties were visual posts that either contained a picture, video or graphics that were accompanied by text captions. With over 80% of posts by both Part A and B containing visuals, it can be agreed that social media including Facebook can be a space in which visual communication is becoming more important (Uimonen, 2013). This is similar to Obama’s posts during the 2012 US presidential campaign which mostly contained visual content (Gerodimos &
Justinussen, 2015).
While examining the content of the posts or the topics of the Facebook posts made by
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the two parties over the course of 14 days, about 70% of Party B’s posts were related to issues compared to only a little over 27% of Party A’s posts, that mostly focused on candidate profiles alone. Although the results tally with Borah (2016)’s findings where
Obama was found to make more Facebook posts that focused on policy issues compared to his opponent McCain, in 2012 Romney was found to make more posts related to policy matters compared to Obama. Although Obama’s focus on issues-oriented posts were less than Romney in 2012, as Vaccari (2013) pointed out, his messages had the capacity to change attitudes as a higher number of Facebook users received and reacted to the messages compared to Romney due to the personalized nature of the posts, both in terms of focusing on Obama’s personality and positive emotions (Gerodimos &
Justinussen, 2015). It is said that accidental exposure of political information can also influence political behaviors with a stronger effect on voters with low political interest
(Valeriani & Vaccari, 2015). Likewise, based on the results of the current study, it can be agreed that Party B not only made posts that were more policy and issues oriented but combined their posts with a higher number of positive emotions resulting in a higher number of reactions. This indicates that, overall, Party B strategically used Facebook in their effort to reinforce and change political attitudes./ how traditional news media impact online discussions on Facebook and otherwise. It is known that parties and the media battle over winning over public agendas especially during election campaign periods (Meraz, 2009).
Another shortcoming of this study is the lack of post-election interviews with the parties studied. Interviews with the two party representatives at the end of the election would have helped provide first-hand accounts of how the election campaign played out by
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confirming the parties’ experiences, strategies, challenges and lessons of using
Facebook for political communication. As WeChat, a Chinese social networking app, was found to be highly popular during the election cycle, one limitation of this research is the lack of knowledge on the communication messages that were exchanged between political actors and citizens.
6.4 Limitations of the Research
While this study has been able to provide important insights on the use and role of
Facebook in election campaigns, the case study research also presented some limitations. The current study was conducted by focusing on a single country’s particular election campaign, and some scholars argue that one cannot generalise the findings on the basis of a single case (Flyvbjerg, 2006). However, much can be learned from a particular case, according to Stake (2005). Erickson also argued that the lessons from a particular case study can be transferred to similar situations (1986), and the findings from this current case study research can be applied to shape campaign strategies in countries with similar political settings.
Another limitation of this study is the small sample size of interview respondents during the first phase of data collection. With only eight respondents from the 12 recruitment emails sent, some scholars argue that there are possibilities of making conclusive claims with a small sample (Button et al., 2013). As Marshall et al. (2013) noted, some of the political representatives who were invited for the face-to-face interviews did not find the time for interviews due to their busy campaigns, while a few had resistance in this qualitative study. The recruitment emails were purposely sent to a set of three party
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representatives each from each party. With one representation each from all the four political parties that contested in the primary election round, the respondents provided a rich set of data during the face-to-face interviews. In addition, the current research does not solely rely on the data from the right interviews alone, as the second stage of data collection includes an in-depth content analysis of the Facebook wall posts.
Furthermore, the results of this study are based on data that was collected from political parties and their Facebook posts alone, without analysing the Facebook posts of individual candidates and party leaders who are also the prime ministerial candidates.
This research examined only the Facebook platforms of the two major parties contesting in the general election. Likewise, the data analysis process in this research did not include comments from individual Facebook users on the campaign posts. Previous studies on Facebook and political communication have said that it would be informative and educational to know the meanings of the reactions from Facebook users on political posts (Flores, 2017).
Another shortcoming of the study was the data collection period in the second phase of the research, which encompassed 14 days of Facebook activities before the poll day of the general election, and hence the findings of the study cannot be generalised to the entire campaign. It is said that focusing on a shorter time frame of the campaign cycle can obscure patterns of political discussions that emerge over the entire campaign period on Facebook (Xenos et al., 2017). Using data collected over a limited time period is also believed to lead to wrong conclusions (Barclay et al., 2015). Although this study tested the applicability of agenda setting during political communication on Facebook,
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no direct methodological steps were incorporated to understand the level of agenda setting on Facebook. It did not explore the extent to which parties on Facebook exert agendas, and neither did it assess how traditional news media impact online discussions on Facebook and otherwise. It is known that parties and the media battle over winning over public agendas especially during election campaign periods (Meraz, 2009).
Another shortcoming of this study is the lack of post-election interviews with the parties studied. Interviews with the two party representatives at the end of the election would have helped provide first hand accounts of how the election campaign played out by confirming the parties’ experiences, strategies, challenges and lessons of using
Facebook for political communication.
With a sole focus on the use of Facebook, this study does not cover the discussions and interactions on other social networking sites such as Instagram, WeChat, Whats App and YouTube among other emerging networks. For example, WeChat, a Chinese social networking app, was found to be highly popular during the campaign period,..
6.5 Recommendations for Future Research
As the current research only examined the Facebook platforms of the two major parties, future studies can examine the Facebook platforms of party leaders and political candidates in election campaign to extend understanding on the role of Facebook on not only political parties but also individual candidates.
Future studies could also consider investigating the agenda setting cues of emerging social networking sites on traditional media stories to obtain a better understanding on the influence of online political messages on traditional news stories and vice-versa.
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Anaysing the level of traditional media attention on political information on social networking sites is known to be a crucial factor in determining the issues that make it onto the political agenda (Meraz, 2009). Analysing data from both local journalism and social media activities of politicians during election campaigns are also known to help illuminate knowledge on whether social networking sites function as journalistic sources or otherwise (Skogerbo & Krumsvik, 2015).
To fully comprehend the meanings of political communication on Facebook, future research should explore the meanings of the comments on the Facebook posts to understand the connections between Facebook and public opinions. Citizens’ information consumption via Facebook and other social networking sites merits further examination with growing reliance on social media by both politicians and citizens.
Future studies should also compare results of political discourse on both parties’ or candidates’ platforms and the discussions groups and forums to analyse the difference in results and what the results mean, as comparing results with different discussion groups is believed to lead to more insightful and informative findings (Vergeer &
Hermans, 2008). Future studies on the number of people who rely on Internet sources and social networking sites for political information in Bhutan is also essential in order to fully understand and interpret the scale at which citizens depend on social networking sites as sources of political information. Given the increasing uptake of the social network sites like Facebook and considering new emerging social networking sites with growing technologies, future researchers should continue to investigate the role of emerging social media platforms in political campaigns in Bhutan and other democracies. Future studies may also consider post-election interviews not only with
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the participants but also with the election commission to report on the number of social media offences recorded during the particular election cycle.
Since the results of this study showed anonymous users as a major challenge during political communication of Facebook, it will be worthy for future studies to specifically examine how the behaviours of anonymous users affect the directions of online political discourse by focusing on the parties and candidates they support and oppose. Future researchers should also focus on analysing the content of the messages propagated by fake users to comprehend how their presence negatively affects democratic political discussion rather than improving it.
As WeChat was found to be used to target rural voters through the app’s voice and group messaging features, future studies should investigate the proportion of WeChat users and its role in election campaigns, as 62% of Bhutan’s population in the rural areas (NSB, 2017). Similar studies can also be conducted different countries where the use of WeChat is popular, as the Chinese social networking app is known is have over a billion active users (Statista, 2018).
Research on the political potential of other social networking sites can also help future political actors and campaign strategists make informed decisions to prioritize their campaign platforms, especially with emerging social networking sites.
6.6 Conclusion
As previous studies have shown, Facebook has become an important political communication channel. Overall, this research is significant as it fills the research gap in understanding the potential of Facebook in Bhutanese election campaigns, and the
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results reinforce current knowledge on how Facebook enhances the ability of politicians to reach, inform and influence citizens. Through multiple methods of data collection and content analysis, the results of this case study research documents evidence confirming how McCombs and Shaw’s (1972), agenda setting theory has expanded to digital platforms like Facebook. This research also suggests the effectiveness of political communication on Facebook can be constrained by anonymous users, as these users were found to hinder the level of interactions between political parties and citizens in this case study. As social networking sites continue to grow in significance during political campaigns, future studies in this area should explore the relationships between the new emerging sites and political communication.
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7 Appendices
Appendix A: Brief Information Letter
Appendix B: Consent Form
Appendix C: Interview Questions
145 Party Name Brief Information Letter
7.1 Appendix A: Brief Information Letter
The role of Facebook in an election within an emerging democracy: A case study of the 2018 election in Bhutan
Dear Sir/Madam,
The purpose of this project is to conduct a detailed analysis on the use of Facebook in Bhutan’s 2018 election by political parties. Facebook usage has surpassed 250,000 in a nation of 700,000 people and with previous media reports of how Facebook played a game changing role in the 2013 elections, it has become essential for this research to take shape to understand the role and impact of social media and in particular Facebook, in a country that is not only nascent to internet usage but is also an emerging democracy. Research on this subject is growing and assuming greater significance around the globe and I wish to contribute the discussions and findings of this study to Bhutan’s future politicians, students, academics, journalists and the country.
Dr Catherine Archer along with Associate Professor Chris Smyth at Murdoch University in Western Australia are working with me to investigate the use and role of Facebook in Bhutan’s political communication.
Your party’s leader, secretary general and a media focal person are invited to participate in separate interview, which is a crucial research for Bhutan. The interview will last about 30 minutes and will ask about your experiences & observations of past elections and we would also like to find your party’s use of Facebook for political communication especially during the campaign period.
The interview will be recorded and transcribed. Within the thesis, your comments will be used to identify themes and your name will not be linked to the data. However, it is possible that your comments may be identifiable due to the small number of interviews or the small number of political parties.
While the student is a journalist, clear boundaries around the academic research will be established. The student will ensure to protect information and findings until after the election results have been formally declared.
You can decide to withdraw your consent to participate in this research now or until data processing is finalised, which could take up to three weeks.
My supervisors and I are happy to discuss with you any concerns you may have about this study.
Ethics Approval Number: 2018/061
Signature:
This study has been approved by the Murdoch University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval xxxx/xxx). If you have any reservation or complaint about the ethical conduct of this research, and wish to talk with an independent person, you may contact Murdoch University’s Research Ethics Office (Tel. 08 9360 6677 (for overseas studies, +61 8 9360 6677) or e-mail [email protected]). Any issues you raise will be treated in confidence and investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome. 146 Party Name Consent Form
7.2 Appendix B: Consent Form
The role of Facebook in an election within an emerging democracy: A case study of the 2018 election in Bhutan
I have read the participant information sheet, which explains the nature of the research and the possible risks. The information has been explained to me and all my questions have been satisfactorily answered. I have been given a copy of the information sheet to keep.
I am willing to be interviewed and for the interview to be audio recorded as part of this research. I understand that I do not have to answer particular questions if I do not want to and that I can withdraw until data analysis is finalised, which could take up to three weeks, without needing to give a reason and without consequences to myself.
I agree that research data from the results of the study may be published and I understand that my name will not be used. I have been informed that the details of the interview will be used to identify themes and that my name will not be linked to the data. I have also been advised on the chances of my name being identifiable due to the small number of interviews conducted with the small group of political parties.
While the researcher is a journalist, I have been explained on the clear boundaries around the academic research and assured that information will be protected until after the election results have been formally declared.
I understand that all information provided by me is treated as confidential and will not be released by the researcher to a third party unless required to do so by law.
Participant’s name: ______
Signature of Participant: ______Date: …..../..…../……. I confirm that I have provided the Information Letter concerning this study to the above participant; I have explained the study and have answered all questions asked of me.
Signature of researcher: ______Date: …..../..…../……. This study has been approved by the Murdoch University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval xxxx/xxx). If you have any reservation or complaint about the ethical conduct of this research, and wish to talk with an independent person, you may contact Murdoch University’s Research Ethics Office (Tel. 08 9360 6677 (for overseas studies, +61 8 9360 6677) or e-mail [email protected]). Any issues you raise will be treated in confidence and investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome.
147 Party Name Interview Questions
7.3 Appendix C: Interview Questions
The role of Facebook in an election within an emerging democracy: A case study of the 2018 election in Bhutan
Dear Sir/Madam,
The following questions have been drafted for the purpose of the interviews with party representatives both before and after the elections. You do not have to answer particular questions if you are uncomfortable answering any of the questions. You can choose to withdraw from participating in the research until data processing is finalised. 1. Please tell us about your role in the upcoming election. 2. Can you share some of your experiences and observations on the use of Facebook in the last two election campaigns? 3. Many, including the national TV said, Facebook played a game-changing role in the 2013 elections, what is your comment on this? 4. We saw the party convention LIVE on YouTube, a well organized new media usage, how significant is social media in political communication and why? 5. How are you employing social media in your election campaigns? 6. How does Facebook feature in your social media strategy? 7. In Bhutan’s context, how many followers is a good number for your party’s official Facebook page? If you can direct us to the correct official BKP page too. 8. Who will monitor your official page? 9. How often do you expect to post and respond? 10. How will you handle negative feedbacks? 11. Do you believe every political party and candidate should have a Facebook presence? Why? 12. How does social media compare with mainstream media when it comes to effectiveness in political campaigns in Bhutan? 13. What are some of the major challenges of using social media in Bhutan for political communication? 14. How do you measure social media success and in particular Facebook’s?
Sincerely
Signature: This study has been approved by the Murdoch University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval xxxx/xxx). If you have any reservation or complaint about the ethical conduct of this research, and wish to talk with an independent person, you may contact Murdoch University’s Research Ethics Office (Tel. 08 9360 6677 (for overseas studies, +61 8 9360 6677) or e-mail [email protected]). Any issues you raise will be treated in confidence and investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome.
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