POLITICAL COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS - CHANNEL OF OPENCOMMUNICATION WITH CITIZENS OR CO-CREATOR OF IMAGE OF POLITICAL ELITE(CASE OF CROATIA AND SLOVENIA)

Prednosti komunikacije te lakšu dostupnost ciljnih javnost preko društvenih mreža prepoznale su i političke elite te su, osim tradicionalnih oblika komunikacije, političku komunikaciju obogatile društvenim medijima. Dominantna društvena mreža u Hrvatskoj je Facebook, iako nemali broj osoba iz javnoga života koristi i Twitter kao sredstvo komunikacije. Premda se raspravlja jesu li društveni mediji unaprijedili demokraciju ili je ugrozili, činjenica je da je ta platforma omogućila transparentniju i dostupniju komunikaciju koja zasigurno utječe na izgradnju imidža pojedinaca i institucija iz političke arene, kojima je takav oblik komunikacije omogućio i izgradnju vlastite virtualne zajednice. Struktura rada sastoji se od nekoliko većih cjelina i pripadajućih podcjelina. Razlike koje su uočene istraživanjem upućuju na to da su institucije, dakle ministarstva, u Sloveniji u daleko većoj mjeri prisutna u viralnome prostoru nego li je to slučaj u Hrvatskoj. Gledaju li se sami nositelji javne vlasti, ministri, oni su u Hrvatskoj, za razliku od Slovenije, prisutniji sa svojim službenim Facebook stranicama. Takvi rezultati, iako znakoviti, ne upućuju na to da se u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji komunikacija na digitalnim platformama koristi u svrhu političkoga diskursa ili u cilju informiranja ključnih aktera te posljedično kreiranja javnoga mišljenja o nekome političkom pitanjuWith the development of the Internet, as the fastest growing media, social networks have evolved, as well as everyday communication on these platforms. Benefits communication and easier access to the target public and has been recognized by the political elites and are, in addition to traditional forms of communication, political communication enriched communication on social media. The dominant social network in Croatia is Facebook, although not a small number of public life uses Twitter as a means of communication. Despite the numerous controversy over whether or not the social media have upgraded or threatened democracy, the fact is that this platform has enabled a more transparent and accessible communication that certainly has an impact on building the image of individuals and institutions from the political arena, which has made this form of communication possible to build a virtual community . The structure of the work consists of several larger entities and corresponding subdivisions. The first part of the work is based on theoretical insights. Minorizing the transition theory and democratization of post-communist societies, the theoretical part of the work also deals with civic participation and culture. All these transversal processes for three decades have also influenced the modification of communication, from top to bottom, therefore, towards citizens, from citizens to the public authorities. Therefore, political communication on social networks as well as social networks as a tool for creating a positive image in public relations will be treated theoretically. The second part of the deconstruction process is the presence of Croatian and Slovenian ministries, as a public authority institution and ministers on Facebook’s social network. Compilation and descriptor methods, theoretical perspectives are dissected using relevant sources, while in the second part, the descriptive statistics method deconstructs the results obtained by research. Using the illustrations and the comparison method, the results are compared. At the end of the paper, the conclusion is based on theoretical strengths and results obtained