Inform, explain, persuade: pre-election campaigns of Latvian political parties and advertising materials for the 2024 European Parliament elections

• In Event: Media and Political Communication

Abstract

The 2024 European Parliament elections are one of the largest democratic elections in the world. Political candidates need to decide how to make "second-order elections" important for voters (Kovar and Kovar, 2012; Auers, 2019), but in times of media fragmentation, false information and a crisis of public trust - to persuade voters to vote for them. On the other hand, voters should choose candidates who are able to defend their opinion in the international arena in times of populism, economic, security and migration challenges. The world and the European Union as a whole are facing significant external and internal challenges, therefore parties and candidates should adapt to modern political communication practices, carefully developing election messages to be able to identify and address different target audiences.
The purpose of the report is to analyze the election campaigns of political parties from Latvia, the pre-election materials created during them. The data collected with the digital tools during the pre-election period. The report analyzes and compares political communication and pre-election narratives not only in the context of Latvian parties, but also in the context of trends in other European Union countries.
Report is a part of European Election Monitoring Center work leading by Roma Tre University.

Short Bio

Mārtiņš Pričins (martins.pricins@lu.lv) is an assistant researcher in the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute and a lecturer in the University of Latvia. He is working on doctoral thesis about political communication of parties and their narratives during election campaigns. His research interests are political communication, election campaigns, political narratives, media literacy, public trust.

Author

• Mārtiņš Pričins, University of Latvia