Facebook Profile of the Macedonian Voter

Ilija Hristoski; Dusica Nedelkoska; Milena Boskoska Klisaroski

Ilija Hristoski University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia
Dusica Nedelkoska University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia
Milena Boskoska Klisaroski University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

Abstract

The world’s upward trend of increasingly intense involvement and use of modern Web 2.0-based services, aimed at addressing politics and political campaigns, has been definitely manifested in the Republic of Macedonia recently. The Internet and social media have exhibited a gradually greater impact on Macedonian politics and political marketing than ever before. During the last presidential and parliamentary elections held in April 2014, Facebook, being a social network with a leading role in the country, has promoted itself as an extremely important arena for intensive political activism. The majority of Macedonian voters have shared both politicians’ and political parties’ posts through this social medium. This phenomenon can be considered a definite confirmation of the great role Facebook has in the country, not only regarding the dissemination of political ideas among the electorate, but also in the process of mobilizing potential voters, including the act of making a voting decision, especially regarding the politically undecided citizens. To the best of our knowledge, the paper presents a first attempt to describe the typical Facebook profile of a Macedonian voter, the level of his/her political engagement or indifference, as well as the most important features of his/her online behaviour during election campaigns, in correlation with his/her demographic and socio-economic characteristics. This profile is built up based on the results of an online survey being carried out during a time period of one month among Macedonian Facebook users, in the dawn of the 2014 political elections. The research has undoubtedly affirmed the fact that the virtual support Macedonian Facebook users give to individual politicians and political options during political campaigns can not only be strongly felt, but can also significantly affect the election outcomes, regardless of Macedonian Facebook users’ ‘alleged’ indifference towards political Facebook posts and numerous contradictions held within the survey answers.
Keywords: Facebook profile, voter, political campaigns, political marketing, Republic of Macedonia

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Author Biographies

Ilija Hristoski, University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

Dusica Nedelkoska, University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

Milena Boskoska Klisaroski, University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

University st. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Macedonia

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