Social media, public opinion and voting
Social media can influence the agenda, exposure to messages, polarisation and the perceived importance of issues. Sociometrica studied these dynamics in Mimesi e prossimità and Dentro il voto degli italiani, the latter analysing more than 150,000 political social media posts.
How much do social media influence voting?
Social media can influence the agenda, exposure to messages, polarisation and the perceived importance of issues, but an election result cannot automatically be attributed to a platform. Sociometrica studied these dynamics in Mimesi e prossimità and Dentro il voto degli italiani, the latter analysing more than 150,000 political social media posts.
Sources: Sociometrica — Mimesi e prossimità
How does political opinion form on social media?
Through a combination of exposure, repetition, relationship networks, emotions and the influence of highly visible users. Political messages do not circulate neutrally: digital communities select, reinterpret and amplify them. Sociometrica has studied the construction of political space on social media and the role of imitation and proximity in opinion formation.
Sources: Sociometrica — Mimesi e prossimità
Research behind this guide
- Mimesis and Proximity: Elections and Social Media — 2022. How is political opinion structured in the social media age? An analysis of the election campaign on Facebook and Twitter: strategies, leade…
- Inside the Italians' Vote — Social Intelligence on the 4 March 2018 Elections — 2018. Over 150,000 social posts published between January and February 2018, examined and analysed to read the vote from within the public convers…
- Election Social Monitoring — 2022. Results of the Facebook and Twitter monitoring of the 25 September 2022 general election, with key indicators for each platform.
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