From the beginning of social media use in politics, academics have asked whether it would enhance direct communication between politicians, journalists, and citizens. This direct communication could indicate a more participative or, to quote Habermas, a more "public sphere-like" democratic space (Habermas
1991; Ferree et al.
2002; Dahlgren
2005; Colleoni
2014; Ekman and Widholm
2015; Rau und Stier
2019).
2 In several studies, there was no consistent indication of increased communication between political 'elites' and citizens, but politicians and journalists communicate primarily with each other in public (Grant et al.
2010; Verweij
2012; Nielsen and Vaccari
2013; Oelsner and Heimrich
2015; Jensen
2017). Within these online spaces, candidates, political representatives, and parties communicate with the public, and journalists and citizens interact with these messages (Gibson et al.,
2014). Concerning the capacities for campaigning and the central questions of which target groups political communication reaches, social media differ significantly due to mediation effects based on their varying structures, communication mechanisms, and user audiences (Bossetta et al.
2018, Stier et al.
2018b, Bronstein et al.
2018). In Germany, for instance, Facebook reaches a much broader demographic group than Twitter
3 and parties may leverage social media to reach young voters (Copeland and Römmele,
2009). On Twitter, however, elite actors such as politicians react to trends such as rising hashtag debates and aim to influence media reporting, meaning that journalists cover their political messages, which has multiplier effects in reaching the public (Larsson and Kalsnes,
2014; Kreiss
2018). In general, studies question whether social media lead to interactions between voters and politicians (Graham et al.
2013; Oelsner and Heimrich
2015; Caton et al.
2015). During campaign periods, politicians, such as members of parliament in Germany, tend to use Twitter more actively and differently to non-campaigning times. For instance, they refer more often to the broader election topics or hashtags instead of sharing content from their personal lives (Nuernbergk and Conrad
2016).
With regards to election campaigns, social media play a multifaceted role. Social media as digital tools for political elites affect political campaigning practices mainly by their four main functions (1) organizational structures and work routines, (2) presence in online information spaces, (3) support in resource collection and allocation, and (4) symbolic uses in the sense of political marketing (Jungherr
2016). Symbolic uses and presence in online information have been the focus of scholars working on populism, extremism, and media research. For extreme parties and their political narratives, social media offer additional channels for political communication in which extreme political actors do not need to follow the values and norms of traditional mass media and are thus able to spread their respective ideologies (Engesser et al.
2017). The ideology of right-wing populist parties builds on the rhetoric construction of (1) anti-elitism/establishment, (2) anti-migration, and (3) anti-Muslim stances. Notably, these three pillars of right-wing populist rhetoric and policies polarize voters against something and, in particular, against certain groups of people (Mudde
2004; Mudde and Kaltwasser
2013). Social platforms and messengers are desirable for right-wing populist and radical-right parties as political challengers who often have a hostile attitude toward established media and sometimes limited access to traditional media channels (Engesser et al.
2017; Jungherr et al.
2019; Koc-Michalska and Klinger
2021). Thus, right-wing populist actors and movements have benefited disproportionately from the emergence of social media since they can circumvent traditional media and communicate directly to their target audiences (Stier et al.
2018b; Jacobs
2018). Besides, direct contact with political actors and the represented ideologies enables the self-socialization of citizens into right-wing populist beliefs and worldviews (Krämer
2017; Schumann et al.
2021).
Furthermore, social media also provides an opportunity for top-down leadership claims for populist parties and politicians. Social media provided additional channels for communication with and between political elites, partisans, and the electorate. Hashjacking of political adversaries and the strategic hashtags use of broader discourses increase the representation of populist messages on social media (Darius and Stephany
2019,
2022). What remains unclear is whether strategic hashtag use and hashjacking also increase online polarization during campaign times.