Political Communication on Social Networks by Zagreb's Mayoral Candidates in the 2021 Local Election

Politički sadržaj koji se objavljuje na društvenim mrežama dosad je prilično zanemareno područje istraživanja u domaćoj literaturi. Cilj ovog rada je dati doprinos u tom kontekstu. Ovaj rad pokušava detektirati pojavu populizma i negativne kampanje u političkoj komunikaciji vodećih kandidata u utrci za gradonačelnika Zagreba na lokalnim izborima 2021. Ta dva trenda osobito su važni jer utječu na jačanje polarizacije u društvu. Osim teorijskog osvrta na navedene fenomene, ovaj rad donosi i analizu sadržaja kojom se ispitala njihova učestalost i priroda pojave u kampanji. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju da negativni sentiment nije niti približno dominantan u kampanji koju su vodeći kandidati u utrci za gradonačelnika Zagreba vodili na Facebooku, kao i da nije detektirana prisutnost pravih populista, nego samo populizma kao populističko-komunikacijskog stila.Political content on Social Networks was so far quite a neglected area of research in Croatian literature. This paper aims to contribute to that context. This paper seeks to identify the possible appearance of populism and negative campaign in Political Communication on Social Networks by Zagreb's Mayoral Candidates in the 2021 Local Election. These two trends are particularly important because they contribute to the polarization of society. In addition to a theoretical review of these phenomena, this paper also provides a content analysis that examined their frequency and nature of appearance in the campaign. The results indicate that negative sentiment is not dominant tone in the campaign that the leading candidates in the election race for mayor of Zagreb led on Facebook, and that true populists were not detected, but only populism as a political communication style