POLITICS, GENDER ISSUES AND MEDIA. AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE 2019 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION CAMPAIGN

The 2019 European elections campaign was characterized by an intensive use of social media and a great production of electoral materials published on these digital platforms by national political parties and candidates.Considering this scenario, the paper aims to analyze the political communication carried out by the political parties of the 28 EU Member States on social media during the four weeks before the 2019 European Election Day. Using data collected by the "European Elections Monitoring Center", the authors identify the most important issues dealt with in the new digital arenas in a comparative perspective.In particular, the focus is on the "social issues" that were included in the European political debate. After an overview of the most discussed issues by the political parties during their election campaigns, similarities and differences are investigated according to the European macro-region and the European parliamentary group.