How Do Romanian Politicians Communicate Online ? An Emphasis on Facebook

The power of social networks and the internet as a channel of communication has established a radical change in the way people communicate. The field of politics is no exception. Over the last decade, politics has been one of the most changeable areas since the emergence of social networks, becoming the medium that most dramatically altered the meaning, scope and rhythm of media crises for political actors. This article aims at describing the use and evolution of social networks, with a focus on the political field. In addition, this paper integrates a brief case study of the online campaigns of 2014 presidential elections and the 2016 parliamentary elections in Romania, in order to see how the political actors communicate and the online reactions generated by their messages. The results indicate that overall the 2016 online campaigns generated low interest from users, one of the reasons being that the parties used social networks as a way of disseminating information and did not truly engage with the voters