Case Study:Ponta’s and Iohannis’ PresidentialCampaigns in the 2014 Romanian

Presidential Elections

Online Communicationin Political Public

Relations

Research Topic

• Online Communication refers to the„numerous ways people communicate witheach other over the Internet, including e-mail, instant messaging, feedback onblogs, contact forms on Web sites,industry forums, chat rooms and socialnetworking sites.”

Political Communications

• Before: newspapers, television, radio• Now: websites, IM, social media, posts,

tweets, blogs, vlogs etc.• Before: buying votes and slander

• Now: good advertisement andconsideration for the onlineaudiences

• Privacy does not exist anymore.

Literature review

• Political public relations is• a management process• political purposes• beneficial relationships and reputations

with its key public• distinctive from public relations in general

( Stromback & Kiousis)

“Reputation”

• referred to as “government popularity”• public evaluation and opinion of a

government are a government’s reputation• indicators such as levels of trust in the

political actor/institution, leadership andperformance

(Canel&Echart, 2011)

Jay Townsend’s Roadmap

1. Information• Crucial - what makes the candidate “tick”• suggestive, coherent and comprehensive

manner• the reason for wanting the position• the plan they have for after they gain it• “clear, crisp and concise”

+ their personal story

2. The medium

• a website (entertaining and compelling)• its homepage is updated frequently• has a “contribute” button• information about the candidate, press

releases, videos etc.• attract audiences to the website by using

Social Media

Reasons for focusing on onlinecommunication

• many voters no longer watch broadcastTV

• 2.5 million Romanians had Internet in2014, with a 39% percentage increasefrom the previous year

• very efficient, cost effective, easytool to reach, target audiences andreceive a quick response

Hypothesis

• Clash between the old and the new• Klaus Iohannis – a small town mayor from

Transylvania, managed to beat hisopponent.

• His opponent was the country’s PrimeMinister

• H: The success is owed to a better organizedPR crew putting social media to good useand a well-informed team that aimed to reachthe online community and thus, won theelections.

Methodologycomputer assisted (internet)

Klaus Iohannis and Victor Ponta:• the website• video spots• social media presence and engagement

– Facebook– Twitter– Hashtags

• press articles

Data analysis

1. The website Entertaining Compelling “contribute” button info about the

candidate videos really easy to get

to the presidentialprogram

newsroom is on the other page(PSD)

lacks a “contribute” button not entertaining good search engine INTERESTING FACT: both

candidates display only men intheir cover photos

2. The Campaign Video Spot

• Klaus Iohannis’ promised Sibiu’s citizensthat things will work “as well as a clock” intheir city

• sending the message that as hisgrandfather was good at making clocks, sois the candidate good at running the city

• The final quote is: “Another type ofPresident: Normal”

• Mr. Ponta’s video: analogy with the man,using both hands: the right and the left.

• Mr. Ponta will unite everyone (making anappeal to Romania’s long history ofdesiring to unify).

• The final slogan is “Victor Ponta: ThePresident that unites”.

• desire to unite the left and right parties-> he wants to control/unify them ->

ruins the principle of multiple partiesand centralizes all the power in oneplace.

The Social Media Presence

ConclusionsPONTA IOHANNIS

Website is harder to use The video spot can be easily

interpreted in a negative manner Did not succeed in rebranding

himself Ignored the social media and the

diaspora Hashtag #nuponta was used almost

as much as #ponta (meaning thatsome of the #ponta hashtags couldhave had a negative connotation)

Lost despite the following:

Country’s prime minister Greater financial resources Controlling the majority of street

banners and some TV stations

Better website Coherent and compelling video spot Professional branding More social media appreciation Sympathy from the diaspora (online) Effective online response to events Likeability Won despite the following facts:

Little known before the elections Ethnical minority in a country that

struggles with nationalism Protestant in a majoritarian orthodox

country