Political communication patterns and sentiments across time on Twitter in the 2017 election in the Netherlands

Abstract

Political communication on social media has become more important in (post-)modern day campaigning. Either merely broadcasting, retweeting or actually engaging with citizens or journalists, communication patterns have become quite diverse and emotional. To understand how candidates in the Dutch 2017 elections use Twitter, their communication patterns and sentiments are compared for different types of parties (non-populist, populist and nativist/populist), candidates of government, opposition or parties, their ballot position. The study also questions whether party leader’s communication style is distinct from that of other candidates. The entire analysis uses longitudinal data to understand whether these communication styles change over time.