Chris Hipkins’ Covid test last weekend wasn’t the only positive thing to come out of the Labour election campaign, according to the latest results from the New Zealand Social Media Study.
More than 1550 Facebook posts by political parties and their leaders have been analysed by a team from Victoria University of Wellington, with National proving to be far more negative than Labour during this election campaign so far.
When subtracting negative posts from positive posts between September 11-24, 63% of Labour’s Facebook posts included positive self-presentation.
Meanwhile, just 5.5% of National’s posts are positive.
These results are not unexpected, given Labour is the incumbent and National is wanting to change the government, says Dr Mona Krewel, who is leading the study.
“Results show National is far more negative than Labour, which is campaigning from an incumbent’s position and that means mostly staying positive and trying to emphasise achievements in government,” she said.
Krewel adds negative campaigning is not necessarily a bad thing and can be part of the job description for challenger parties.
“Criticising a government, or pointing out public mismanagement, and providing voters with electoral alternatives are key functions of democratic campaigning and may help voters to make informed voting decisions,” she said.
Similar trends have emerged when looking at Facebook posts by Labour leader Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon.
“As the opposition leader, Luxon attacks more frequently than Hipkins, though the difference is less pronounced than in posts by their parties,” Krewel said.
“There is a clear division of tasks in the case of National here: Luxon leaves it to his party to attack and does so less frequently himself.”
Most of the negative Facebook posts from both sides of the political divide have been about the economy and each party’s ability to manage it.
Has Facebook actually been nicer than the real world?
Overall, Krewel says social media campaigning appears to be far less negative than the campaigning out on the road.
“From what we’re seeing on the campaign trail, you get the impression we are dealing with a pretty rough campaign this time,” she said.
“Election billboards are being vandalised. Labour candidate Angela Roberts got slapped in the face at a local election debate. Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke reported break-ins at her home and an intruder leaving a threatening message.”
But on social media, positive campaigning currently still outweighs negative campaigning so far.
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