Sosiaalinen media ja kampanjointitapojen muutos : Pekka Haavisto ja presidentinvaalit 2012

Authors

• Veikko Eranti
• Juho Lindman

Abstract

Following the overseas examples of the campaigns of Howard Dean and Barack Obama, Pekka Haavisto (Green) pioneered the usage of social media in an unprecedented scale during the Finnish presidential election of 2012. Although Haavisto ultimately lost the election, the campaign is a landmark in how it used social media. This article aims to describe in detail how the campaign used social media for communication and fundraising. Our empirical material is collected from key person interviews as well from the different action groups of social media. We analyze what the campaign looked like and what new conflicts emerged from the setting that included 1) the campaign office, 2) party headquarters and most importantly 3) hundreds of volunteers. Our findings indicate a move from a centralized traditional campaign office towards more agile and decentralized forms of networked campaigning especially regarding funding and communication.