Pseudo-discursive, mobilizing, emotional, and entertaining: identifying four successful communication styles of political actors on social media during the 2015 Swiss national elections

Abstract

Political actors are adapting their communication styles to the network media logic of social media platforms with varying success. This study investigates the communication styles used during the Swiss national election 2015 and their success in triggering digital reactions. In a quantitative content analysis of the “top 20” most reacted to messages on Facebook (n = 2170) and Twitter (N = 1796) of 246 Swiss parliamentarians and 11 parties we analyzed the impact of a pseudo-discursive, mobilizing, emotional and entertaining communication style. Whereas the pseudo-discursive style is the most common on both platforms, it leads on Facebook to fewer interactions. The entertaining style fosters reactions on Facebook but not on Twitter. Though the emotional style is used the least, it is the most beneficial. The paper concludes by discussing how these four communication styles alter communication between political actors and citizens.