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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews
@wiebkedrews.bsky.social
270 followers 130 following 25 posts
Post-Doctoral Researcher at UniBw M 📚 PhD from EUI 👩‍💻 Research on digital campaigning, party competition and political communication at project SPARTA 🗳️ https://www.wiebkedrews.com/ https://dtecbw.de/sparta?lang=en
www.wiebkedrews.com
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
1/6 📢 New Publication Alert!

Avoiding the Elephant in the Room: Echo Chambers and the (De-)Politicization of COVID-19 during the 2021 German Election on Twitter

Co-authored with @jasminriedl.bsky.social & Friederike Richter

👉 Read here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/pol...
Frontiers | Avoiding the elephant in the room: echo chambers and the (de-)politicization of COVID-19 during the 2021 German federal election on Twitter
www.frontiersin.org
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · 2d
🌍 Why it matters
Our findings show that negative campaigning in multiparty systems is not random mudslinging. It’s a functional response to ideological crowding, shaped by issue salience and competition.

#PolCom #Elections #DigitalPolitics #CSS #NLP
wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · 2d
📌 Key Findings
1️⃣ On salient, contested issues (economy, ecology) → higher spatial pressure = more negativity
2️⃣ On low-salience or depoliticized issues (culture, COVID-19) → higher spatial pressure = less negativity
3️⃣ Negativity is thus a strategic tool to stand out, when the issue context allows it
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · 2d
🛠️ Methods & Data
- 166,402 tweets 🐦 from 1,228 party accounts (7 Bundestag parties)
- NLP pipeline: Named Entity Recognition, stance detection (XLM-RoBERTa), issue dictionary
- A new measure of “spatial pressure” capturing issue-specific ideological crowding
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · 2d
🔍 What we explore
How parties used negative campaigning on specific issues during the 2021 German federal election – and how crowded ideological space (“spatial pressure”) shapes when parties go negative.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · 2d
📢 New Publication Alert!

Thrilled to share our latest article with @jasminriedl.bsky.social & Johannes Steup
👉 Topical Negative Campaigning Under Spatial Pressure: Party-Level Strategies for Attacks Across Multiple Issues
🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0964...
Topical Negative Campaigning Under Spatial Pressure: Party-Level Strategies for Attacks Across Multiple Issues
This paper investigates how spatial party competition shapes topical negative campaigning during Germany's 2021 federal election. We define topical negative campaigning as attacks on opponents that...
doi.org
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
6/6 🌍 Why It Matters
How pivotal issues like COVID-19 are (de-)politicized on social media impacts the quality of democratic discourse in digital spaces.

Our findings stress the need to tackle echo chambers&foster critical, inclusive debates online.

#PolCom #COVID19 #BTW25 #EchoChambers #CSS #NLP
wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
5/6 📌 Key Findings (cont’d):
2️⃣ Depoliticization:
Political actors largely avoided COVID-19 in electoral debates, sidelining critical public health discussions.

3️⃣ Selective politicization:
Health policy leaders like Lauterbach (SPD) & Spahn (CDU/CSU) couldn’t avoid the issue due to their roles.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
4/6 📌 Key Findings:
1️⃣ Polarization via echo chambers:
Two groups dominated:
• “Safety-first” (strict measures)
• “Freedom-first” (anti-restrictions).

COVID-19 became a battleground for ideological divides.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
3/6 📊 Methods & Data
Analyzed X/Twitter data:
• 7.37M posts mentioning the election.
• 3.19M posts about COVID-19.

We calculated Echo Chamber Scores (ECS) based on retweet networks and studied political actors’ engagement in COVID-19 debates.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
2/6 🔍 What we explore:
How COVID-19 was discussed—or avoided—on X/Twitter during the 2021 German federal election campaign.

The pandemic was polarizing, debated within ideological echo chambers. Yet, many political actors strategically depoliticized the topic to avoid alienating voters.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Dec 10
1/6 📢 New Publication Alert!

Avoiding the Elephant in the Room: Echo Chambers and the (De-)Politicization of COVID-19 during the 2021 German Election on Twitter

Co-authored with @jasminriedl.bsky.social & Friederike Richter

👉 Read here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/pol...
Frontiers | Avoiding the elephant in the room: echo chambers and the (de-)politicization of COVID-19 during the 2021 German federal election on Twitter
www.frontiersin.org
1 1 3
Reposted by Wiebke Drews
lucykinski.bsky.social
Lucy Kinski @lucykinski.bsky.social · Nov 28
⭐I am looking for a Postdoc in Computational Social Science in my ERC project INCONEX at University of Salzburg!
More on the project: sites.google.com/view/inconex...

Applications due by 8 January 2025.

Full ad: sites.google.com/view/inconex...

#EUsky #poliscijobs #computationalsocialscience
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Nov 28
Explore #EUDigiParty and download it here: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...
dataverse.harvard.edu
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Nov 28
🧵2/3: Designed for researchers in #polcomm, #partypolitics, & #CSS), #EUDigiParty supports in-depth analysis of digital party campaigns across Europe. It includes handles for #Facebook, #Instagram, #TikTok, #X / #Twitter, and #YouTube, plus Partyfacts-IDs for easy linking to other datasets.
dataverse.harvard.edu
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Nov 28
🧵1/3: 🚨 New dataset out - Social Media profiles of 400+ European parties 📊 🇪🇺 🗳️

Together with @philippdarius.bsky.social, Andreas Neumeier, & @jasminriedl.bsky.social, we’ve launched the #EUDigiParty dataset, which provides social media profiles, website links etc. for 401 European parties.
dataverse.harvard.edu
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
projekt-sparta.bsky.social
SPARTA research project @projekt-sparta.bsky.social · Nov 27
Schärft eure Augen – unser neues Logo kommt bald.
Neugierig? Bald seht ihr mehr! #ProjektSPARTA
Verschwommenes Bild mit einem blauen Kreis in der Mitte und orangefarbenen Elementen am Rand.
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
cberger.bsky.social
Cathleen Berger @cberger.bsky.social · Nov 27
Liebe Wahlbeobachtungs-Desinformation-Community, welche Plattformen schaut ihr euch zur #BTW25 an und wo braucht ihr Unterstützung? Mein Team und ich planen eine Serie und helfen gern dabei eure Arbeit zu amplifizieren. Ping me!

@projekt-sparta.bsky.social’s Arbeit zu X hab ich bereits entdeckt.👏
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
Dominik Stecuła @stecula.bsky.social · Nov 20
Took a crack at the Political Communication starter pack. Sorry for all the great folks I undoubtedly missed

go.bsky.app/J1U6jVe
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
msaeltzer.bsky.social
Marius Sältzer @msaeltzer.bsky.social · Nov 20
I can offer you ze german bubble
@ulrikeklinger.bsky.social
@sophiahunger.bsky.social
@jasminriedl.bsky.social
@wiebkedrews.bsky.social
@sebstier.bsky.social
@mikecowburn.bsky.social
@corinnaoschatz.bsky.social
@favstats.eu
@benguinaudeau.bsky.social
and myself ;)
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
projekt-sparta.bsky.social
SPARTA research project @projekt-sparta.bsky.social · Nov 25
Die Social-Media-Strategie von @robert-habeck.de auf X scheint voll aufzugehen: Seine Erwähnungen sind zuletzt stark angestiegen, wie unsere Auswertung eindrucksvoll zeigt! Ein bemerkenswerter Trend im Kontext der #btw25
#ProjektSPARTA
Grafik zeigt die Anzahl der Erwähnungen von Robert Habeck auf X seit dem 17.10.2024. Auffällig ist ein steiler Anstieg in den letzten Tagen, der deutlich über dem sonstigen Niveau liegt. Die Erwähnungen von Robert Habeck liegen dabei viel höher als die von anderen politischen Akteuren, was auf eine erhöhte öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit hinweist.
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
projekt-sparta.bsky.social
SPARTA research project @projekt-sparta.bsky.social · Nov 22
Die Vorbereitungen für die #btw25 sind in vollem Gange! Gestern startete unser Label-Prozess: In den nächsten 2 Wochen versehen wir 12.000 Tweets mit präzisen Labels für unsere stance detection. So stellen wir sicher, dass unser LLM top trainiert ist! #ProjektSPARTA
Das Bild zeigt eine Übersicht von farbigen Labels zur Kategorisierung von Tweets in einem Label-Prozess. Jedes Label beinhalten jeweils die möglichen Haltungen gegenüber den Parteien SPD, CDU/CSU, Grüne, FDP, AfD, BSW und Linke sowie deren jeweiligen Spitzenkandit:innen. Diese Haltungen können sein: „strongly_against ", "slightly against", "neither", "slightly favor" und "strongly favor". Am unteren Rand ist ein Bereich mit einem verschwommenen Abschnitt, der als „Target Tweet“ gekennzeichnet ist. Dieser Bereich enthält einen Tweet, dessen Inhalt unkenntlich gemacht wurde.
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Reposted by Wiebke Drews
projekt-sparta.bsky.social
SPARTA research project @projekt-sparta.bsky.social · Nov 22
Hallo Bluesky! Ab heute informieren wir auch hier über unser
Projekt SPARTA.
Folgt uns, um spannende Einblicke in unsere Echtzeit-Social-Media-Analyse zur #btw25 zu erhalten:
👉 Aktivität und Wahrnehmung von Parteien & Kandidierenden
👉 wichtigste Themen & Top-Hashtags
#ProjektSPARTA
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Apr 24
🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨 Join us at @projekt_sparta! We're looking for a research assistant (PhD/Post-Doc/100%) specializing in party and/or electoral research, especially in GER. Focus on social media analysis & digital election campaigns, including real-time monitoring of #btw25.
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Mar 2
🚨 STELLEN-ALERT 🚨 Arbeite mit uns im Projekt SPARTA dtecbw.de/sparta
Wir suchen eine*n WiMi (PhD/Post-Doc/100%) Parteien- und/oder Wahlforschung, insb. DEU. Fokus auf Social Media Analysen & digitale Wahlkämpfe, u.a. Echtzeit-Monitoring der #btw25. Zunächst befristet bis Dez. 2026. PM for more!
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wiebkedrews.bsky.social
Wiebke Drews @wiebkedrews.bsky.social · Oct 7
Wir analysieren alle (Re-)Tweets der Kandidierenden von @AfD_Bayern, @Gruene_Bayern, @fdpbay, @BayernSPD, @fw_bayern und @CSU für ein Mandat im Landtag. 🗳️📊🐦
Unsere Echtzeitanalysen finden Sie hier: dtecbw.de/sparta
#ltwby23 #Bayernwahl2023 #Bayernwahl (4/4)
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