The role of celebrities in the online communication of political parties during parliamentary elections in 2007, 2011 and 2015

Proteklih godina internet je postao vrlo važno sredstvo komunikacije u svim komunikacijskim profesijama: od medija, odnosa s javnošću, marketinga pa do političke komunikacije. Blagodati i mogućnosti interneta, a posebno društvenih medija počele su koristiti i političke stranke u svojim kampanjama. Međutim, dosege i mogućnosti ovog medija političke stranke počele su, čini se, shvaćati tek nedavno. Fokus ovog rada je analizirati koja je uloga poznatih osoba u online komunikaciji političkih stranaka na parlamentarnim izborima 2007., 2011. i 2015. godine. Teorijski dio rada objašnjava modernu političku kampanju 21. stoljeća te fenomen zvan 'celebrity politics', odnosno preklapanje svijeta politike i svijeta poznatih osoba. U istraživačkom dijelu analizirani su primjeri poznatih osoba koje su sudjelovale u predizbornim kampanjama. Analiza rada je pokazala kako hrvatske političke stranke koriste poznate osobe u svojim predizbornim kampanjama na online platformama, ali činjenica je da je to vrlo skromno te da stranke poznate osobe više koriste za komunikaciju u drugim medijima nego na samom internetu.In the past couple of years, the internet has become a very important communication tool in communication-based professions such as the media, public relations, marketing, and political communication. In their campaigns, political parties have started to make use of the many possibilities and benefits the internet offers, including social media. However, its full potential has only recently been discovered by political parties. The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the communicative role of celebrities in online political party campaigns for the 2007, 2011 and 2015 general election. The thesis is composed of two parts. The theoretical part explains the modern political campaign of the 21st century and the phenomenon known as “celebrity politics”, which occurs when the political sphere coincides with the celebrity sphere. The research part analyses examples of celebrities involved in pre-election campaigns. The analysis shows that Croatian political parties do make use of celebrities in their online political campaigns. However, the analysis concludes that this use is very low as celebrities are mainly used for communication in offline political campaigns. Keywords: online communication, political communication, celebrity politics, pre-election campaign, political parties, celebrities