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This article contributes to the emerging literature on wedge issues and on electoral strategies in multiparty electoral systems by studying the implementation and effectiveness of a concerted electoral communication strategy deployed by... more
This article contributes to the emerging literature on wedge issues and on electoral strategies in multiparty electoral systems by studying the implementation and effectiveness of a concerted electoral communication strategy deployed by the Conservative party of Canada around the elimination of the gun registry, in the late 2000s. First, using a quantitative content analysis of the Parliamentary debates from 2006 to 2011, it reveals how the Conservatives exploited the issue in order to create divisions amongst opposing opposition MPs and amongst targeted segments of partisan voters of other national parties. Secondly, using georeferenced pool data from Vote Compass, it finds empirical evidence that the Conservatives’ efforts won them new support in the 2011 federal elections, especially amongst cross-pressured voters and within the ridings that were targeted during the debates. In doing so, the article provides a rare empirical example of wedge politics carried in a multiparty system.
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The increasing adoption of blogs by Internet users during the last seven years, has contributed to the restructuration of the online political mediascape in many national contexts. Based on an analysis of the socio-political behavioural... more
The increasing adoption of blogs by Internet users during the last seven years, has contributed to the restructuration of the online political mediascape in many national contexts. Based on an analysis of the socio-political behavioural profile of French-speaking Quebec political bloggers in the spring of 2008, this article provides an assessment of the multidimensional challenges and opportunities linked to the constitution of social media research samples through non-probabilistic viral or decentralized strategies. More specifically, it argues for the development of more methodologically-rigorous quantitative and qualitative investigation approaches that can deal with the constantlyevolving structural and functional particularities of the Web 2.0 political media environment. This is especially relevant considering the rising popularity of blogs, social networking services (SNS) and other Web 2.0 tools as objects of research among the international scientific community.
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While many scholars have recently conducted quantitative and qualitative investigations of the structure and content of A-list politically-oriented weblogs, few have focused on the civic involvement of their authors which are often... more
While many scholars have recently conducted quantitative and qualitative investigations of the structure and content of A-list politically-oriented weblogs, few have focused on the civic involvement of their authors which are often defined as opinion leaders. Based on data collected through a Web-based survey conducted in April 2008, this paper proposes a detailed socio-political portrait of 56 members of the Quebec political blogosphere. The Internet-savvy population of the Canadian province of Quebec, which is characterized by its linguistic, political and cultural specificity, constitutes a well-defined research environment enabling the production of highly-representative results. The description of Quebec-based bloggers’ involvement in content dispersion and social Web-based networks as well as their participation in offline political activities will help to produce a detailed socio-political behavioural portrayal of the influential players within the Quebec political blogospher...
Submission to the Inquiry into the Impact of Social Media on Elections and Electoral Administration, Electoral Matters Committee, Parliament of Victoria (Australia). According to Garnett and James (2020), three fundamental principles are... more
Submission to the Inquiry into the Impact of Social Media on Elections and Electoral Administration, Electoral Matters Committee, Parliament of Victoria (Australia). According to Garnett and James (2020), three fundamental principles are requisite in a democracy: deliberative opportunities, equal participation, and electoral management. All three are challenged by digital technologies. We take these principles as the anchor of our submission. Based on the results of our recent research focusing mainly on political actors and their campaigns in Quebec and Canada, our objective is to present how social media contributes to changing elections from the perception of electoral organizations – candidates, strategists, and activists. How campaigning on social media using data-driven techniques affect their role and their actions? How can these changes impact elections and democracy? Have the main actions taken by the governments of Quebec and Canada been sufficient?
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ABSTRACT Online technologies are viewed as a potential equalizer of opportunities for marginalized groups because they may help reduce inequality and oppression through their educational, social and professional capabilities. While many... more
ABSTRACT Online technologies are viewed as a potential equalizer of opportunities for marginalized groups because they may help reduce inequality and oppression through their educational, social and professional capabilities. While many forms of political participation are increasingly mediatized by online technologies, very few studies have examined the extent to which citizens with disabilities use them to engage in democracy. This article addresses this challenge by examining how internet access for people with disabilities compares to others, whether people with disabilities are equally or more likely to use the internet to participate in politics, and the digital skills of users with disabilities. It draws on a phone survey conducted among a representative sample of the Canadian population. We find that Canadians with disabilities are less likely to access online technologies and that disabled users with low digital skills face additional barriers. However, disabled users whose knowledge allows them to make the most of the Internet are as likely – or even more likely – as non-disabled users to participate online in politics.
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Research Interests: Political Campaigns, Political Science, Public and Political Communication, Political communication, Canadian Politics, and 8 moreElection Campaigning, Political Marketing, Internet and politics, Canadian and Quebec Politics, Political campaigning, Internet Policy, Public Communication. Political Communication, and Internet Society
Les usages des technologies numériques dans la sphère politique constituent un objet de recherche largement investi en science politique, cependant en langue anglaise plus qu’en français. Ce numéro spécial de Politique et Sociétés... more
Les usages des technologies numériques dans la sphère politique constituent un objet de recherche largement investi en science politique, cependant en langue anglaise plus qu’en français. Ce numéro spécial de Politique et Sociétés s’emploie à rétablir l’équilibre, en présentant et en mettant en perspective les résultats d’un projet comparatif franco-québécois sur les campagnes en ligne, enpolitique.com. L’introduction propose une synthèse de la littérature universitaire concernant trois domaines : les usages du web et des médias sociaux comme outils de campagne électorale, la constitution d’équipes spécialisées dans la communication politique numérique, et les appropriations des dispositifs de campagne par des citoyens, sociologiquement spécifiques, et politisés. L’introduction présente aussi une synthèse des résultats français et québécois discutés dans le numéro, qui montrent que l’expansion des technologies numériques ne fait pas disparaître les logiques antérieures de structurat...
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Cet article examine les objectifs stratégiques assignés aux campagnes électorales en ligne dans le discours de membres des équipes de campagne de l’élection présidentielle française et de l’élection générale québécoise (toutes deux en... more
Cet article examine les objectifs stratégiques assignés aux campagnes électorales en ligne dans le discours de membres des équipes de campagne de l’élection présidentielle française et de l’élection générale québécoise (toutes deux en 2012). L’analyse est menée à partir de 37 entretiens semi-directifs réalisés avec différents types de personnels de campagne au Québec et en France. En mobilisant le concept d’hybridité des campagnes électorales, les objectifs stratégiques de campagne tels qu’ils ressortent des entretiens sont divisés en trois catégories : objectifs de diffusion de contenus ; objectifs politiques et de mobilisation ; objectifs de marketing et d’animation de communautés. L’analyse indique que les objectifs de diffusion de contenus liés à la dissémination et au contrôle des messages sont les plus souvent mentionnés. Également, des différences contextuelles apparaissent. D’abord, le Québec est la démocratie où les discours sur la diffusion de contenus, et dans une moindre...
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This article investigates the extent to which provincial political parties made use of social media in their strategy, organization and communication in order to achieve their electoral goals during the Quebec 2012 general election. Using... more
This article investigates the extent to which provincial political parties made use of social media in their strategy, organization and communication in order to achieve their electoral goals during the Quebec 2012 general election. Using data from a series of 19 interviews conducted with online strategists and campaign directors from the five leading parties active in the 2012 election, we identify the strategic objectives these organizations followed when developing their social media campaigns. The strategists' narratives reveal that social media became a central component of electioneering and that parties were carrying out, in various forms, hybrid campaigns that combined traditional and emergent communication technologies and employed both old and new types of organizational principles.
Research Interests: Political Campaigns, Political Science, Social Media, Canadian Politics, Québec Studies, and 9 moreElection Campaigning, Electoral Campaign, Canadian and Quebec Politics, Digital Politics, Communication Campaigns, Electioneering, Quebec Politics, Political communication online, and Canadian Political Science
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RésuméCet article étudie la stratégie de communication gouvernementale lors du mouvement de grève étudiante de 2012 au Québec. Six ans après la fin du conflit, et malgré la production d'un volume important d'analyses et de... more
RésuméCet article étudie la stratégie de communication gouvernementale lors du mouvement de grève étudiante de 2012 au Québec. Six ans après la fin du conflit, et malgré la production d'un volume important d'analyses et de réflexions sur cette crise sociale, aucune étude empirique n'a recensé systématiquement le contenu de la stratégie communicationnelle du gouvernement. Par le biais d'une analyse de contenu quantitative des interventions publiques des membres de l'exécutif, cette étude relève les cadres argumentaires au cœur de la stratégie de communication gouvernementale. S'inspirant de la théorie de l'activation en cascade d'Entman, l'analyse montre comment le gouvernement a tenté de définir les problèmes, les solutions et les protagonistes impliqués dans le conflit sociétal qu'a traversé le Québec en 2012. Notre analyse met en lumière l’échec gouvernemental à maintenir au fil des évènements l'initiative du cadrage de la crise, et le c...
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From March 2006 to May 2008, the province of Québec engaged in a contentious public debate on diversity and reasonable accommodation practices. This study examines the evolution of press coverage in eleven Québec dailies dedicated to the... more
From March 2006 to May 2008, the province of Québec engaged in a contentious public debate on diversity and reasonable accommodation practices. This study examines the evolution of press coverage in eleven Québec dailies dedicated to the issue of reasonable accommodation over the intensive twelve-month period during which the concept entered the public agenda. We examine the “media tsunami” hypothesis, an expanded version of the media hype theory developed by Vasterman (2005). The hypothesis posits that the media, in dealing with an emergent social issue in a relatively short period of time, amplify the importance of the issue through successive waves of press coverage that gain in intensity and magnitude over time. In doing so, they can manufacture social “crises.”RÉSUMÉ De mars 2006 à mai 2008, le Québec a été secoué par un débat sociétal sur la question de la gestion de la diversité culturelle et du principe d’accommodement raisonnable. Cette étude s’intéresse à l’évolution de l...
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Scientific interest in political ads has been growing in recent years and has fuelled an important body of research, focusing mostly on the United States. Yet many issues associated with the impacts and contents of electoral ads remain... more
Scientific interest in political ads has been growing in recent years and has fuelled an important body of research, focusing mostly on the United States. Yet many issues associated with the impacts and contents of electoral ads remain unexplored, especially within the Canadian context. This article investigates the immediate and simultaneous effects of positive, negative, and mixed-content electoral ads. It presents data drawn from a series of pre-tests of an experimental design carried out with 31 voters during the Canadian federal election of 2011. Participants viewed ads selected for their argumentative content and nonverbal components. The impacts of the ads were tested using an innovative multimethod approach combining physiological and cognitive measures. Among its contributions, this novel method helped generate a more nuanced and precise evaluation of the effects of negative advertising on viewers.Bien que le nombre d’études portant sur la publicité électorale—pour la plupa...
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Quelle image veulent projeter les politiciens au cours d’un debat televise ? Arrivent-ils a maintenir cette image pendant tout le debat ? L’analyse repond a ces interrogations en etudiant le cas du debat de langue francaise diffuse... more
Quelle image veulent projeter les politiciens au cours d’un debat televise ? Arrivent-ils a maintenir cette image pendant tout le debat ? L’analyse repond a ces interrogations en etudiant le cas du debat de langue francaise diffuse pendant la campagne electorale canadienne de 2000. Les resultats presentes sont tires d’entrevues menees aupres de conseillers politiques ayant participe a la preparation des leaders au debat et d’une analyse de contenu des composantes non verbales de l’image projetee par chaque leader au cours des echanges. L’analyse permet d’explorer la communication politique canadienne sous un nouvel angle en s’interessant a la problematique de la gestion de l’image des politiciens en prevision de debats televises electoraux.
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Over the last decade, very few studies have examined how of the Internet and social media are used by political journalists, particularly in non-US contexts and outside of election campaigns. Traditionally, past research has depicted... more
Over the last decade, very few studies have examined how of the Internet and social media are used by political journalists, particularly in non-US contexts and outside of election campaigns. Traditionally, past research has depicted political news as a construct negotiated primarily between journalists and political officials. However, journalistic sources have been diversifying: the Internet now provides political actors, media and citizens with the opportunity to interact and negotiate publicly and in real time the construction of political news. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses of tweets broadcasted by the parliamentary press over a period of two weeks, this article investigates how Quebec political journalists use social media, specifically Twitter, in their daily routines and their professional discourse. First, our analysis reveals both the prevalence of routines characteristic of mass media as well as the emergence of new journalistic practices. The d...
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Les quelques études réalisées au Québec sur les présences partisanes en ligne indiquent les partis politiques québécois, à l’instar des partis politiques ailleurs dans le monde, s’inscrivent davantage dans une logique de hiérarchisée de... more
Les quelques études réalisées au Québec sur les présences partisanes en ligne indiquent les partis politiques québécois, à l’instar des partis politiques ailleurs dans le monde, s’inscrivent davantage dans une logique de hiérarchisée de diffusion d’information que de communication ou de coproduction. La situation s’est-elle transformée lors de l’élection de 2012? Quelle est l’approche privilégiée par les partis politiques québécois dans leur stratégie de communication en ligne : une approche citoyenne qui valorise et encourage réellement la participation et l’interaction avec l’électeur, ou une approche de marketing qui s’exprime dans l’utilisation unidirectionnelle des outils à de simples fins d’émission d’information, sans rétroaction. Ce chapitre offre répond à ces questions à partir de données tirées d’un vaste exercice d’analyse du contenu de l’usage de Twitter par les six principaux partis politiques (PLQ, PQ, CAQ, QS, ON, PV) lors de la dernière campagne électorale. L’analyse...
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Research Interests:
Quelle image veulent projeter les politiciens au cours d’un debat televise ? Arrivent-ils a maintenir cette image pendant tout le debat ? L’analyse repond a ces interrogations en etudiant le cas du debat de langue francaise diffuse... more
Quelle image veulent projeter les politiciens au cours d’un debat televise ? Arrivent-ils a maintenir cette image pendant tout le debat ? L’analyse repond a ces interrogations en etudiant le cas du debat de langue francaise diffuse pendant la campagne electorale canadienne de 2000. Les resultats presentes sont tires d’entrevues menees aupres de conseillers politiques ayant participe a la preparation des leaders au debat et d’une analyse de contenu des composantes non verbales de l’image projetee par chaque leader au cours des echanges. L’analyse permet d’explorer la communication politique canadienne sous un nouvel angle en s’interessant a la problematique de la gestion de l’image des politiciens en prevision de debats televises electoraux.