Analysis of Political Communication on Social Networks During the 2020 Parliamentary Election Campaign

Politika je ključan čimbenik djelovanja nekog društva ili zajednice jer bez politike ne bi bilo donesenih zakona, regulacija, razvoja ekonomije i drugih faktora koji su bitni za društveno uređenje. U Republici Hrvatskoj svake se četiri godine bira nova vlada, a svakih pet novi predsjednik ili predsjednica koji, pritom, daju svoja obećanja u predizborno vrijeme. Do prije nekoliko su se godina za političke kampanje u Hrvatskoj koristili tradicionalni mediji, poput televizije i novina, no u posljednje vrijeme spomenuti mediji nisu više u prvom planu. Promjena je nastupila tehnološkim razvojem i prelaskom velikog dijela biračkog tijela s tradicionalnih medija na Internet, tj. na nove, društvene medije. Zadnjih nekoliko godina, političke kampanje na društvenim mrežama uzimaju sve više maha. Analizom političke komunikacije, tijekom ovogodišnjih parlamentarnih izbora, uspoređene su, grafički i tablično, objave pet političkih stranaka te je utvrđeno koja je imala najbolju kampanju na društvenim mrežama. Prije istraživanja postavljene su hipoteze, koje su tijekom analize potvrđene ili odbačene. Ukratko, utvrđeno je da je većina analiziranih hrvatskih političkih stranaka iskoristilo puni potencijal društvenih mreža.Politics is a key factor in the functioning of a society or community, because without politics there would be no laws, regulations, economic development and other factors that are important for social regulation. In the Republic of Croatia, a new government is elected every four years, and every five years a new president, who give promises during the pre-election period. Until a few years ago, traditional media, such as television and newspapers, were used for political campaigns in Croatia, but lately the mentioned media are no longer the most important communication channel. The change came with technological development and the transition of a large part of the electorate from traditional media to the Internet, i.e. to social media. In the last few years, the political campaigns in the social media are in full swing. The analysis of political communication during this year's parliamentary elections compared, graphically and tabularly, the posts of five political parties in order to determine which one had the best campaign on social networks. Hypotheses had been set before the research, and they were accepted or rejected during the analysis. In short, the results of the research showed that most of the analyzed Croatian political parties used the full potential of social networks