Social Networking Websites in Electoral Campaigns: the Case of Lithuania

In recent years social networking websites, and especially Facebook, have attracted millions of new users. For that reason, politicians seek to use this interactive space more and more intensively for their goals, most often during the period of election campaigns. This article analyzes the processes of political communication via social networking sites, and discusses the benefits and some negative aspects of these communicational activities. As well, the article presents the analysis of the use of social networking websites during the presidential campaign of 2009 in the Republic of Lithuania. It also presents the results of the municipal councils election campaign of 2011, which reveal various aspects of the use of social networking websites by the candidates. Finally, the article presents the results of the logistic regression model, which allows forecasting the use of social networking websites by politicians during elections