Navigating technology, digital participation and political communication. A perspective of the 2024 European Parliamentary elections.

The objective of the panel is to present and discuss the findings of the EU-PEOPLE2024 project, as well as to consider their implications for future research. Subsequent to the 2024 European Parliament election, which took place in early June 2024, we conducted empirical studies in seven countries. The countries selected for study were France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Spain. The objective was to contribute to the collection of data and research on the transformation of political communication practices, parties, campaigns, and voters by digital technology. A representative sample of approximately 1,500 respondents aged 18 and above, who were registered to vote, was surveyed in each country. This research strand has primarily focused on the increasing reliance on digital decision-making and communication methods by traditional political parties, as well as the growing engagement with digital political participation by party members and citizens. Consequently, the fieldwork in this area was informed by the collection of comparative survey data on media consumption during election campaigns and data on digital political participation.
The case selection was based on the variation in the main control variable, namely the degree of digitalisation of the economy and society at the national level. Furthermore, additional macroeconomic variables were taken into account during the selection process, including the geographical region within Europe, the political system (effective number of parties and political polarisation, perception of corruption, turnout at the last general and European elections), the economy (DESI and GDP indices), and parameters linked to digital inequalities (internet penetration rate, median age, Facebook users and Facebook users in relation to the size of the population). Multivariate statistical techniques will be employed to ascertain the principal consequences of the aforementioned factors on digital political participation and electoral behaviour.
The panel addresses the relevance of digital media consumption, online political participation and voting. Panelists will refer to a selected set of identified problems and practices, including internet use and the ideological gender gap, political disaffection and digital participation patterns, and campaign experiences in the context of populist practices. It is expected that the panel will enable the presentation of several country studies and a comparative theoretical paper related to the research study.