Steinmeier accepted your friend request : German Social Democrats and their Online Communication through Facebook during the 2009 parliamentary elections
W Arendt · Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja · 2013
The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the way Facebook is used during the parliamentary election campaign in 2009 in Germany by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the candidate for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). The purpose is to find out which topics are presented to his fans by his communication and in which way he tries to appeal to his readers emotions. The data has been collected from the candidate’s Facebook posts that he published between spring and autumn 2009. The main findings show that even though some topics are repeated none of them are used consistently throughout the election campaign. Moreover, Steinmeier tries to rebuild the image of the SPD and wants to build up an image for himself. Another important reason to use Facebook, as the analysis has shown, was to mobilize the citizens.