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The Problems with Social Media Affordances and Digital Political Campaigning

Bossetta, Michael LU (2024) p.229-242
Abstract
Social media platforms open up new methods of candidate messaging, voter contact, and data acquisition. Currently, affordances is a popular concept used to study the relationship between political campaigns and how they use social media platforms. Scholars argue that since platforms have different designs, they offer different affordances that affect how campaigns use social media. This chapter evaluates each premise of the affordances argument and shows how it can lead to inaccuracies that are problematic for research. Ultimately, I argue that subtracting the concept of affordances results in a more precise framework to study political campaigning through structure and agency. Exactly how digital campaigning practices take shape will... (More)
Social media platforms open up new methods of candidate messaging, voter contact, and data acquisition. Currently, affordances is a popular concept used to study the relationship between political campaigns and how they use social media platforms. Scholars argue that since platforms have different designs, they offer different affordances that affect how campaigns use social media. This chapter evaluates each premise of the affordances argument and shows how it can lead to inaccuracies that are problematic for research. Ultimately, I argue that subtracting the concept of affordances results in a more precise framework to study political campaigning through structure and agency. Exactly how digital campaigning practices take shape will depend on the electoral system, platform structures, and how political actors decide to leverage platform structures to achieve their goals within a given electoral system. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Political Campaigning, Social Media, Digital Politics, Affordances
host publication
The Routledge Handbook of Political Campaigning
editor
Lilleker, Darren ; Jackson, Daniel ; Kalsnes, Bente ; Mellado, Claudia ; Trevisan, Filippo and Veneti, Anastasia
pages
14 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85210728404
ISBN
9781003333326
DOI
10.4324/9781003333326-21
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
59e47346-deb2-4c2c-afb0-87776d15f010
date added to LUP
2024-10-23 15:03:23
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:14:13
@inbook{59e47346-deb2-4c2c-afb0-87776d15f010,
  abstract     = {{Social media platforms open up new methods of candidate messaging, voter contact, and data acquisition. Currently, affordances is a popular concept used to study the relationship between political campaigns and how they use social media platforms. Scholars argue that since platforms have different designs, they offer different affordances that affect how campaigns use social media. This chapter evaluates each premise of the affordances argument and shows how it can lead to inaccuracies that are problematic for research. Ultimately, I argue that subtracting the concept of affordances results in a more precise framework to study political campaigning through structure and agency. Exactly how digital campaigning practices take shape will depend on the electoral system, platform structures, and how political actors decide to leverage platform structures to achieve their goals within a given electoral system.}},
  author       = {{Bossetta, Michael}},
  booktitle    = {{The Routledge Handbook of Political Campaigning}},
  editor       = {{Lilleker, Darren and Jackson, Daniel and Kalsnes, Bente and Mellado, Claudia and Trevisan, Filippo and Veneti, Anastasia}},
  isbn         = {{9781003333326}},
  keywords     = {{Political Campaigning; Social Media; Digital Politics; Affordances}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  pages        = {{229--242}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{The Problems with Social Media Affordances and Digital Political Campaigning}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/198137410/BOSSETTA_2024_-_THE_PROBLEMS_WITH_SOCIAL_MEDIA_AFFORDANCES_AND_DIGITAL_POLITICAL_CAMPAIGNING_-_Pre-Print.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781003333326-21}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}