Parliamentary Elections in Brazil: The Use of Twitter in the Search for Votes

Abstract

Since the use of new technologies in the 2008 US elections, Twitter has become a platform for political activities, creating a channel for interaction between politicians and voters. Political communication with the use of social media is part of today’s congressional activities. In addition, Twitter has become an important means for gaining popularity for election purposes. This article’s research question is to verify how parliamentarians’ behaviors influence the use of Twitter in the search for votes in elections to the National Congress. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyze Brazilian politicians’ different behaviors in this virtual environment before, during and after the parliamentary elections of 2014. Data was collected on the use of Twitter by the parliamentarians four times between December 2013 and April 2015. Politicians were compared according to their electoral aspirations and to the different appropriations of the social network. Data indicate that politicians in electoral campaigns make greater and more frequent use of the new technologies, in the sense of constructing political images within the electoral context. As a result, these politicians got more attention from Twitter users, which is directly related to a higher number of votes obtained in the election process. JEL Classification Codes: L82, L86, D72.

legislative elections; social networks; Twitter; National Congress