Although it is positive that it is still able to connect different fragments, in terms of content it is negative that during the pre-election period it had comparatively little amount of information on election campaign, parties and candidates. However, a very popular media outlet competing with television was the biggest internet news portal, which had a huge amount of information on elections. The article also includes analysis of agenda fragmentation in the audience which revealed the tendency of internet users to have a more fragmented agenda than the part of the audience that doesn't use the internet. However, in comparison to similar Norwegian data on agenda fragmentation, the agenda of the Lithuanian audience could not be regarded as fragmented. In the future, the analysis of audience fragmentation will be dependent on the collection of comparable data, since it would provide data for comparison and assessing the trends of fragmentation in time. These data would also help to solve some methodological issues that are also discussed in the article, like choice of criteria for assessment and having a point of comparison.
Political communication, and election campaigns coverage in the press has been analyzed in many studies. However, the topic is still not exhausted, and becomes a more actual issue of the media political orientation. While public opinion researchers argue that the political sympathies of the population depends on many other things and the media only strengthens without affecting formed an opinion, it is part of democracy. The aim of this work is to reveal the trends of the activity of Valdas Adamkus during the election campaign in the daily newspaper "Lietuvos rytas". Were defined the concepts of agenda-setting, objectivity and bias, the trends observed by other media researchers were analised. It was concluded that the agenda is still have an impact on society because it indicates the important topics. However, this process is not governed only by the media staff, the authority and the electoral campaigns as well as candidates for the presidency try to participate in it. They almost always rely on the public relations specialist support, whose aim is often the access to the media and communicate their message. Therefore, TV or newspaper's editors receive a written version of the press releases with a lot of pseudo-events, news about minor candidate actions, the arim of which is to be carried out in the public and join the attention of journalists. Such cases have been identified during the investigation of the trends of informatikon transmition of V. Adamkus daily activities in "Lietuvos rytas", and especially huge ammount of these posts was published in the 2002-2003 when he was a president of Lithuania. The analysis of scientific literature has reported cases of expression of negativity upward trend in electoral campaigns and generally in the news. That trend could be determined in V. Adamkus business presentation only in 2004 during the election campaign. The analysis of bias elements showed that modern mass media have to balance between government, business and public spheres of interest. Often that interests are incompatible. It was found that the most frequently mentioned principal of objectivity is impossible task in practice the fact is that journalists have their own opinion and outlook, which is present in the selection of the data and their creative product. The objectivity is also impossible because of the media owners and editors influence, but they are likely to be influenced by customers – the developers of advertising spaces, and government. It is hard to tell who has the greatest influence, but the connections between these institutions are clear andclose.
Political communication, and election campaigns coverage in the press has been analyzed in many studies. However, the topic is still not exhausted, and becomes a more actual issue of the media political orientation. While public opinion researchers argue that the political sympathies of the population depends on many other things and the media only strengthens without affecting formed an opinion, it is part of democracy. The aim of this work is to reveal the trends of the activity of Valdas Adamkus during the election campaign in the daily newspaper "Lietuvos rytas". Were defined the concepts of agenda-setting, objectivity and bias, the trends observed by other media researchers were analised. It was concluded that the agenda is still have an impact on society because it indicates the important topics. However, this process is not governed only by the media staff, the authority and the electoral campaigns as well as candidates for the presidency try to participate in it. They almost always rely on the public relations specialist support, whose aim is often the access to the media and communicate their message. Therefore, TV or newspaper's editors receive a written version of the press releases with a lot of pseudo-events, news about minor candidate actions, the arim of which is to be carried out in the public and join the attention of journalists. Such cases have been identified during the investigation of the trends of informatikon transmition of V. Adamkus daily activities in "Lietuvos rytas", and especially huge ammount of these posts was published in the 2002-2003 when he was a president of Lithuania. The analysis of scientific literature has reported cases of expression of negativity upward trend in electoral campaigns and generally in the news. That trend could be determined in V. Adamkus business presentation only in 2004 during the election campaign. The analysis of bias elements showed that modern mass media have to balance between government, business and public spheres of interest. Often that interests are incompatible. It was found that the most frequently mentioned principal of objectivity is impossible task in practice the fact is that journalists have their own opinion and outlook, which is present in the selection of the data and their creative product. The objectivity is also impossible because of the media owners and editors influence, but they are likely to be influenced by customers – the developers of advertising spaces, and government. It is hard to tell who has the greatest influence, but the connections between these institutions are clear andclose.
Mediatization marks a change of roles in communication. The most importantly it marks the change of medium role because in the nowadays conditions everyone can create an original content. Despite all positive changes it brings this process also causes issues as huge amount of unnecessary information and danger to personal information. However it allows to bypass media institutions and original content to be created by its user. New rules of how to submit the information online shift the attitude to various fields of living including political communication. Mediatization in its original form was created for politics and to describe the changing needs of political processes to fit the changing image of politician. To changing ways of communication also it is important to take in consideration all surrounding smart device spreading (not forgetting that people are getting more comfortable in using them in all life situations). This condition makes online communication a necessity especially when talking about political one because if voters are online all the time politicians should be too. Therefore politicians have a space to communicate more easy than ever before but on the same time citizens have better opportunities for individual communication with politicians as well. Political elections communication of other countries suggests that politicians should look more responsibly to social networks communication. New rules for communication changed the view to various sectors of life including the politics. This research is aimed to analyse the communication of candidates during mayoral elections in 2015 on Facebook website. This was done by analyzing candidates accounts on social network. Mediatization processes encourages politians into new ways of communication so a significant part of communication is taking part in social media space. It is very clearly visible in pre-election period. Social networks replaces traditional eye-to-eye campaign and puts it to virtual space (which functions in ways of community relations, emotion-based content creation and short messages) so political communication has to cope and adopt new communication model and act correspondingly. However analysis results suggest that candidates of mayoral election do not communicate actively on Facebook. Even though the number of active accounts is considerably big conclusion is made that candidates did not communicated on Facebook active enough. Candidates mostly used personal accounts rather than public pages which could of helped to make existing communication more professional. Even though analysis was not orientated to research party communication on Facebook it is recommended for to look into that on organizational level. There are exceptionally good examples of individual communication but more attention to social networks should be considered in each party and more financial and human effort it should be provided for this matter. Another important thing is the emotional factor in communication which most cases of analyzed politicians lacks. Research results were reached by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative research showed that from the whole number of mayoral election candidates (there were 434 candidates in 60 districts) 69,1% were using Facebook, also 75% of candidates who won had an active account on Facebook. More active usage of Facebook among the candidates detected in the area of Vilnius and around it, among main cities candidates and also among the candidates of resort cities (like Neringa, Klaipėda). The least active on Facebook were candidates from border districts. Qualitative analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of candidate communication among main Lithuanian cities candidates. This was conducted creating the factors in which the effectiveness is measured. The results from this analysis showed that less than a half of the candidates used Facebook effectively (44 from 59 cases were considered ineffective communication). These results also are confirmed by numbers of the followers/friends in each case.
Mediatization marks a change of roles in communication. The most importantly it marks the change of medium role because in the nowadays conditions everyone can create an original content. Despite all positive changes it brings this process also causes issues as huge amount of unnecessary information and danger to personal information. However it allows to bypass media institutions and original content to be created by its user. New rules of how to submit the information online shift the attitude to various fields of living including political communication. Mediatization in its original form was created for politics and to describe the changing needs of political processes to fit the changing image of politician. To changing ways of communication also it is important to take in consideration all surrounding smart device spreading (not forgetting that people are getting more comfortable in using them in all life situations). This condition makes online communication a necessity especially when talking about political one because if voters are online all the time politicians should be too. Therefore politicians have a space to communicate more easy than ever before but on the same time citizens have better opportunities for individual communication with politicians as well. Political elections communication of other countries suggests that politicians should look more responsibly to social networks communication. New rules for communication changed the view to various sectors of life including the politics. This research is aimed to analyse the communication of candidates during mayoral elections in 2015 on Facebook website. This was done by analyzing candidates accounts on social network. Mediatization processes encourages politians into new ways of communication so a significant part of communication is taking part in social media space. It is very clearly visible in pre-election period. Social networks replaces traditional eye-to-eye campaign and puts it to virtual space (which functions in ways of community relations, emotion-based content creation and short messages) so political communication has to cope and adopt new communication model and act correspondingly. However analysis results suggest that candidates of mayoral election do not communicate actively on Facebook. Even though the number of active accounts is considerably big conclusion is made that candidates did not communicated on Facebook active enough. Candidates mostly used personal accounts rather than public pages which could of helped to make existing communication more professional. Even though analysis was not orientated to research party communication on Facebook it is recommended for to look into that on organizational level. There are exceptionally good examples of individual communication but more attention to social networks should be considered in each party and more financial and human effort it should be provided for this matter. Another important thing is the emotional factor in communication which most cases of analyzed politicians lacks. Research results were reached by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative research showed that from the whole number of mayoral election candidates (there were 434 candidates in 60 districts) 69,1% were using Facebook, also 75% of candidates who won had an active account on Facebook. More active usage of Facebook among the candidates detected in the area of Vilnius and around it, among main cities candidates and also among the candidates of resort cities (like Neringa, Klaipėda). The least active on Facebook were candidates from border districts. Qualitative analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of candidate communication among main Lithuanian cities candidates. This was conducted creating the factors in which the effectiveness is measured. The results from this analysis showed that less than a half of the candidates used Facebook effectively (44 from 59 cases were considered ineffective communication). These results also are confirmed by numbers of the followers/friends in each case.
Mediatization marks a change of roles in communication. The most importantly it marks the change of medium role because in the nowadays conditions everyone can create an original content. Despite all positive changes it brings this process also causes issues as huge amount of unnecessary information and danger to personal information. However it allows to bypass media institutions and original content to be created by its user. New rules of how to submit the information online shift the attitude to various fields of living including political communication. Mediatization in its original form was created for politics and to describe the changing needs of political processes to fit the changing image of politician. To changing ways of communication also it is important to take in consideration all surrounding smart device spreading (not forgetting that people are getting more comfortable in using them in all life situations). This condition makes online communication a necessity especially when talking about political one because if voters are online all the time politicians should be too. Therefore politicians have a space to communicate more easy than ever before but on the same time citizens have better opportunities for individual communication with politicians as well. Political elections communication of other countries suggests that politicians should look more responsibly to social networks communication. New rules for communication changed the view to various sectors of life including the politics. This research is aimed to analyse the communication of candidates during mayoral elections in 2015 on Facebook website. This was done by analyzing candidates accounts on social network. Mediatization processes encourages politians into new ways of communication so a significant part of communication is taking part in social media space. It is very clearly visible in pre-election period. Social networks replaces traditional eye-to-eye campaign and puts it to virtual space (which functions in ways of community relations, emotion-based content creation and short messages) so political communication has to cope and adopt new communication model and act correspondingly. However analysis results suggest that candidates of mayoral election do not communicate actively on Facebook. Even though the number of active accounts is considerably big conclusion is made that candidates did not communicated on Facebook active enough. Candidates mostly used personal accounts rather than public pages which could of helped to make existing communication more professional. Even though analysis was not orientated to research party communication on Facebook it is recommended for to look into that on organizational level. There are exceptionally good examples of individual communication but more attention to social networks should be considered in each party and more financial and human effort it should be provided for this matter. Another important thing is the emotional factor in communication which most cases of analyzed politicians lacks. Research results were reached by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative research showed that from the whole number of mayoral election candidates (there were 434 candidates in 60 districts) 69,1% were using Facebook, also 75% of candidates who won had an active account on Facebook. More active usage of Facebook among the candidates detected in the area of Vilnius and around it, among main cities candidates and also among the candidates of resort cities (like Neringa, Klaipėda). The least active on Facebook were candidates from border districts. Qualitative analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of candidate communication among main Lithuanian cities candidates. This was conducted creating the factors in which the effectiveness is measured. The results from this analysis showed that less than a half of the candidates used Facebook effectively (44 from 59 cases were considered ineffective communication). These results also are confirmed by numbers of the followers/friends in each case.
Political advertising becomes a simultaneous part of electoral process for all political parties, as common independent elections are approaching and the citizens of a country are going to vote for their representatives to the government. This process becomes especially important to political parties, as recent evidence proves that every political force in Lithuania can potentially apply for the same electors in Lithuania, as they are not devoted to one exact party. The number of such voters, who make up their decision on who to vote during the elections, is increasing. The expression and influence on the electors of political advertising in the media has widely been analysed, however, the process of creating political advertising has not been thoroughly researched in Lithuania. Therefore, the concept of political advertising is comparatively new in our country. The objectives of this work – is to analyse and explain the procedure of creating political advertising – in the process of planning, organizing and realizing it. Besides, the purpose is to research the legal regulations of political advertising on the basis of Lithuanian legitimate system. The object for the research is political advertising itself as well as the process, structure and peculiarities of creating it. The study relies on the analysis, filing and classification of Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature. In addition, the qualitative investigation, i.e. partly structural interview, is carried out. The latter method has been chosen, in order to discover the organizational characteristics of the process of creating political advertising in political communication in Lithuania, as well as to ground and illustrate the analysed theoretical studies. Lithuanian politicians or people, working in electoral headquarters during the elections, have been chosen as research objects (see appendix no.), as well as the representatives of advertising companies and specialists of public relations (see appendix no.), working in the field of creation of political advertising. In order to achieve the clear evidence, Lithuanian and foreign advertising experts have been interviewed. Political advertising in Lithuania is not supported by stable background of legal regulation. In European Union and other foreign countries every single move of political advertising is governed by statutes. In Lithuania the problem is connected with having a general system of legal regulation of political advertising. For some time political advertising was not legally governed at all. Even though the Statute of Advertising 2001 was adopted, it is not applicable for political advertising. For the first time the concept of political advertising, it's propagation means and restraints were defined in 2004 when the Parliament of Lithuania in urgent order and special session adopted the Statute of Financing and Financing Control of Political Parties and Political Campaigns. The study has proved that the model chosen by the political parties in Lithuania this year will be common to post-modern electoral campaigns. The characteristic features were reflected in the interviews with the respondents. This is a long period of campaign, the major part of work being accomplished by professional advisers and not by the party authorities; moreover, a wide range of media is employed. Electoral campaigns are concentrated on the needs of electors, whereas, the comprehensive analysis of electors or their groups provides the possibility to form effective political offer. The hypotheses raised in the study proved out only partly. The research confirmed that the common concept of political advertising in Lithuania does not exist. The data of the qualitative research allows to state that the representatives of Lithuanian political parties and the specialists of public relations are aware of the fact, political advertising performing the function of persuading. Moreover, political advertising is the process of communication, during which a political party or a candidate gets the possibility to send political news via the media channels and to influence political views of the recipients of that information. The second hypothesis appeared to be untrue, as the process of creating political advertising does take place during the electoral campaign. Representatives of bigger parties claimed that it is necessary to start the preparatory work as soon as the elections are over.
Political advertising becomes a simultaneous part of electoral process for all political parties, as common independent elections are approaching and the citizens of a country are going to vote for their representatives to the government. This process becomes especially important to political parties, as recent evidence proves that every political force in Lithuania can potentially apply for the same electors in Lithuania, as they are not devoted to one exact party. The number of such voters, who make up their decision on who to vote during the elections, is increasing. The expression and influence on the electors of political advertising in the media has widely been analysed, however, the process of creating political advertising has not been thoroughly researched in Lithuania. Therefore, the concept of political advertising is comparatively new in our country. The objectives of this work – is to analyse and explain the procedure of creating political advertising – in the process of planning, organizing and realizing it. Besides, the purpose is to research the legal regulations of political advertising on the basis of Lithuanian legitimate system. The object for the research is political advertising itself as well as the process, structure and peculiarities of creating it. The study relies on the analysis, filing and classification of Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature. In addition, the qualitative investigation, i.e. partly structural interview, is carried out. The latter method has been chosen, in order to discover the organizational characteristics of the process of creating political advertising in political communication in Lithuania, as well as to ground and illustrate the analysed theoretical studies. Lithuanian politicians or people, working in electoral headquarters during the elections, have been chosen as research objects (see appendix no.), as well as the representatives of advertising companies and specialists of public relations (see appendix no.), working in the field of creation of political advertising. In order to achieve the clear evidence, Lithuanian and foreign advertising experts have been interviewed. Political advertising in Lithuania is not supported by stable background of legal regulation. In European Union and other foreign countries every single move of political advertising is governed by statutes. In Lithuania the problem is connected with having a general system of legal regulation of political advertising. For some time political advertising was not legally governed at all. Even though the Statute of Advertising 2001 was adopted, it is not applicable for political advertising. For the first time the concept of political advertising, it's propagation means and restraints were defined in 2004 when the Parliament of Lithuania in urgent order and special session adopted the Statute of Financing and Financing Control of Political Parties and Political Campaigns. The study has proved that the model chosen by the political parties in Lithuania this year will be common to post-modern electoral campaigns. The characteristic features were reflected in the interviews with the respondents. This is a long period of campaign, the major part of work being accomplished by professional advisers and not by the party authorities; moreover, a wide range of media is employed. Electoral campaigns are concentrated on the needs of electors, whereas, the comprehensive analysis of electors or their groups provides the possibility to form effective political offer. The hypotheses raised in the study proved out only partly. The research confirmed that the common concept of political advertising in Lithuania does not exist. The data of the qualitative research allows to state that the representatives of Lithuanian political parties and the specialists of public relations are aware of the fact, political advertising performing the function of persuading. Moreover, political advertising is the process of communication, during which a political party or a candidate gets the possibility to send political news via the media channels and to influence political views of the recipients of that information. The second hypothesis appeared to be untrue, as the process of creating political advertising does take place during the electoral campaign. Representatives of bigger parties claimed that it is necessary to start the preparatory work as soon as the elections are over.
Political advertising becomes a simultaneous part of electoral process for all political parties, as common independent elections are approaching and the citizens of a country are going to vote for their representatives to the government. This process becomes especially important to political parties, as recent evidence proves that every political force in Lithuania can potentially apply for the same electors in Lithuania, as they are not devoted to one exact party. The number of such voters, who make up their decision on who to vote during the elections, is increasing. The expression and influence on the electors of political advertising in the media has widely been analysed, however, the process of creating political advertising has not been thoroughly researched in Lithuania. Therefore, the concept of political advertising is comparatively new in our country. The objectives of this work – is to analyse and explain the procedure of creating political advertising – in the process of planning, organizing and realizing it. Besides, the purpose is to research the legal regulations of political advertising on the basis of Lithuanian legitimate system. The object for the research is political advertising itself as well as the process, structure and peculiarities of creating it. The study relies on the analysis, filing and classification of Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature. In addition, the qualitative investigation, i.e. partly structural interview, is carried out. The latter method has been chosen, in order to discover the organizational characteristics of the process of creating political advertising in political communication in Lithuania, as well as to ground and illustrate the analysed theoretical studies. Lithuanian politicians or people, working in electoral headquarters during the elections, have been chosen as research objects (see appendix no.), as well as the representatives of advertising companies and specialists of public relations (see appendix no.), working in the field of creation of political advertising. In order to achieve the clear evidence, Lithuanian and foreign advertising experts have been interviewed. Political advertising in Lithuania is not supported by stable background of legal regulation. In European Union and other foreign countries every single move of political advertising is governed by statutes. In Lithuania the problem is connected with having a general system of legal regulation of political advertising. For some time political advertising was not legally governed at all. Even though the Statute of Advertising 2001 was adopted, it is not applicable for political advertising. For the first time the concept of political advertising, it's propagation means and restraints were defined in 2004 when the Parliament of Lithuania in urgent order and special session adopted the Statute of Financing and Financing Control of Political Parties and Political Campaigns. The study has proved that the model chosen by the political parties in Lithuania this year will be common to post-modern electoral campaigns. The characteristic features were reflected in the interviews with the respondents. This is a long period of campaign, the major part of work being accomplished by professional advisers and not by the party authorities; moreover, a wide range of media is employed. Electoral campaigns are concentrated on the needs of electors, whereas, the comprehensive analysis of electors or their groups provides the possibility to form effective political offer. The hypotheses raised in the study proved out only partly. The research confirmed that the common concept of political advertising in Lithuania does not exist. The data of the qualitative research allows to state that the representatives of Lithuanian political parties and the specialists of public relations are aware of the fact, political advertising performing the function of persuading. Moreover, political advertising is the process of communication, during which a political party or a candidate gets the possibility to send political news via the media channels and to influence political views of the recipients of that information. The second hypothesis appeared to be untrue, as the process of creating political advertising does take place during the electoral campaign. Representatives of bigger parties claimed that it is necessary to start the preparatory work as soon as the elections are over.
2009 Lithuanian presidential elections were an important political event. In comparison with previous presidential elections the most visible distinction was one candidate's strong leadership and media domination. At the beginning of the official elections campaign it was clear that D. Grybauskaitė has a sizeable public support and definitely will win. This article argues that the role of the outside factor, particularly mass media, in pre-election campaign was one of the most valuable resources in D. Grybauskaitė's presidential elections communication strategy. Exclusive domination in headlines before the official elections campaign had begun framed permanent mass public support and set up an agenda and priorities which during an official campaign was unbeatable resource – preconceived advantage.
2009 Lithuanian presidential elections were an important political event. In comparison with previous presidential elections the most visible distinction was one candidate's strong leadership and media domination. At the beginning of the official elections campaign it was clear that D. Grybauskaitė has a sizeable public support and definitely will win. This article argues that the role of the outside factor, particularly mass media, in pre-election campaign was one of the most valuable resources in D. Grybauskaitė's presidential elections communication strategy. Exclusive domination in headlines before the official elections campaign had begun framed permanent mass public support and set up an agenda and priorities which during an official campaign was unbeatable resource – preconceived advantage.
2009 Lithuanian presidential elections were an important political event. In comparison with previous presidential elections the most visible distinction was one candidate's strong leadership and media domination. At the beginning of the official elections campaign it was clear that D. Grybauskaitė has a sizeable public support and definitely will win. This article argues that the role of the outside factor, particularly mass media, in pre-election campaign was one of the most valuable resources in D. Grybauskaitė's presidential elections communication strategy. Exclusive domination in headlines before the official elections campaign had begun framed permanent mass public support and set up an agenda and priorities which during an official campaign was unbeatable resource – preconceived advantage.
In this article we analyze the legal regulation and scientific research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The aim is by analyzing the research on political fundraising carried out in the United States and Europe, to find out the main trends and lack of research. This analysis is relevant because it helps better understand the context of political finance in the United States and Europe, also to identify the trends and the need of future research. Moreover, the analysis and the introduction of topics of political finance research can become the basis of future research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The analysis of legal regulation of political finance suggests that the laws on political finance in the United States and European countries are often distinct, but in most cases the conditions for fundraising is good in both instances. The analysis of scientific research helped identify the main directions of the research in the United States and Europe. It was found out that the main research direction in which European countries fall behind the United States is fundraising from individual donors, and especially using internet as the channel of communication for fundraising. It was noticed that there is a lack of research analyzing fundraising from the perspective of communication, also analyzing the possibilities of improving fundraising mechanisms to raise more funds from individual donors, especially using the power of internet.
In this article we analyze the legal regulation and scientific research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The aim is by analyzing the research on political fundraising carried out in the United States and Europe, to find out the main trends and lack of research. This analysis is relevant because it helps better understand the context of political finance in the United States and Europe, also to identify the trends and the need of future research. Moreover, the analysis and the introduction of topics of political finance research can become the basis of future research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The analysis of legal regulation of political finance suggests that the laws on political finance in the United States and European countries are often distinct, but in most cases the conditions for fundraising is good in both instances. The analysis of scientific research helped identify the main directions of the research in the United States and Europe. It was found out that the main research direction in which European countries fall behind the United States is fundraising from individual donors, and especially using internet as the channel of communication for fundraising. It was noticed that there is a lack of research analyzing fundraising from the perspective of communication, also analyzing the possibilities of improving fundraising mechanisms to raise more funds from individual donors, especially using the power of internet.
The process of interactive electoral communication initiated by politicians in social media is the object of the dissertation. The aim of the paper is to develop a comprehensive research approach to politicians' electoral communication in social media and to use the approach in describing the specificity of electoral communication taking place in social media, determining the features of expression of the candidates' electoral objectives, and making an analysis of the communication that took place in an interactive environment during the elections to municipal councils in 2011. In the first part of the thesis, the notion of interactive electoral communication in social media is defined, development of electoral communication in a virtual environment is discussed, and an in-depth analysis of the features of interactive electoral communication in social media is presented. In the second part of the thesis, a process model of interactive electoral communication in social media is formulated and objectives of electoral communication in an interactive environment are identified and analysed, including a detailed examination of their practical application. The third part of the thesis is an empirical study into interactive electoral communication, where the electoral campaign that took place in an interactive environment during the 2011 elections to municipal councils is comprehensively analysed using the process model of the electoral communication objectives.
