How Forum voor Democratie puts itself in the spotlights

The (political) impact of media, and in particular social media, can no longer be denied in our lives. This article will show how Forum for Democracy (the Netherlands) has put itself in the spotlights by constructing their message on Facebook.

Every day we are constantly in contact with media. Not a day goes by without it. One of the biggest types of media we are attached to, are social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube… Each platform has its own features and benefits. Political organizations use social media to achieve their goal, and so did Forum for Democracy.

Since March 2017, this new political party has been represented in the House of Representatives. It is remarkable that this party has only been a political party since 2016. What does their social media performance has to do with this popularity growth? 

This article shows how Forum for Democracy made use of Facebook to construct their message and therefore puts itself in the spotlights.

Message, format and new media

The media and their developments are not standing still. What is called new media a decade ago, is nowadays seen as self-evident (Thompson, 2005). New media nowadays are considered internet-based media. The rise of the internet and other digital technologies reinforce the meaning of new forms of visibility, and at the same time makes them more complex (Thompson, 2005). The management of visibility on the internet is  atwenty-four hours a day, seven days a week - job. In this new world of management of visibility, making action visible is an important tool for shaping your message in political campaigns.

It is important to know that the meaning of message in the context of this article goes beyond ‘content’. In politics, message is even more than just the themes a candidate is literally communicating. Message is about “the politician’s publicly imaginable ‘character’ presented to an electorate, with a biography and a moral profile crafted out of issues rendered of interest in the public sphere” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012). Style and image are an comprehensive part of the politician's message.

A message has to be sold to an audience, just like a brand. That is why politicians (and their managers and campaign teams) are building their ‘brand’ by managing their visibility in mainstream and social media. The goal is to construct a positive message that creates a strond‘brand’ with which people recognize their own needs and feelings.. This message construction affects the whole country, and it is exeptional that one party monopolize its own brand. Brand or message is constructed in interaction with different parties within society (Maly, 2016). In this interaction the party or the politician has to maintain a discourse and build a moral biography that is 'on message', that produces an image of a candidate that can be trusted. They need to be convinced that the candidate can do good for them. The report is always constructed in a specific time and space, where it makes sense for some, but also excludes others (Maly, 2016).  

Because of the decline of old ideological politics, society feels insecure about how the massive and complex problems in today’s world has to be tackled (Thompson, 2005). As a result, the character and the trustworthiness of the candidate becomes more and more important. How a politician acts in his or her daily life, applies as a reflection of their integrity. For that reason, we have to investigate how the message is reconstructed, mediated and organized by them who use it (Blommaert, 2005).

Facebook's

Facebook does not use a chronological timeline. Instead, what you see in your newsfeed is determined by an algorithm that sorts things based on what Facebook thinks you want to see. If a Facebook member likes and follows a page, Facebook starts to include the posts that page makes on the news feed. And if this is not a fixed rule. In the last years we'v see that Facebook suppresses news from pages (if they don't promote their posts) and further individual posts. The result is the same, it are the algorithms of Facebook that edit 'the news'. 

The personalization algorithms of Facebook create a filter bubble. That is obvious in the fact that liking one page, results in Facebooksuggesting similar pages which can also be liked and be followed. In this way, a filter bubble is created. Algorithms will only process and present data which is relevant for you. Because of these algorithms, you only see want you want to see and because of that, it fits into your ideological view of the world (Eli, 2011).

A new feature of Facebook is that you can not only like a post, nowadays you can also share your emotions with one click. By doing so, Facebook has more nuanced information on your feelings and preferences and can thus create a more 'personalized' environment (and sell your data to advertisers that can use it to target you better). Besides like, you can now also laugh, love, be amazed, be angry or be sad. And that is something the politician can respond to. Not only the likes are included in the algorithm, but also the “angry’s” or the “sad’s”. It therefore can make sense to post provocative messages, photo’s or video’s. When someone from the opposite clicks at “angry” or another emotion, this is also something the algorithm includes which contributes to pushing the message to virality. As a result, the post is further distributed and more people are reached. This shows how the algorithmic nature of platforms like this can become a political fact.

Thierry Baudet

Thierry Baudet also has a personal Facebook account. Thierry Baudets’ personal Facebook account has 15.626 followers. At his account, you are not able to see his amount of friends, but looking at the shares and shares he has a substantial amount of 'friends'.  In the first two weeks of march, the period before the Dutch elections, he published 11 Facebook posts in total. To get a brief overview of how he shows he’s message on Facebook, the most striking post and the most popular post will be analyzed.

Cube of Truth Manchester, UK Facebook

The post as shown in figure 1 stands out the most. In this post, Baudet shares a link of an article which has a quote as a title: Baudet (FvD): ‘Rutte and Dijsselbloem are juggling with numbers, very sad’. The post had 178 likes and 50 people shared the post. That is one in 3,5 people. This means that the content of the post affects the readers enough to do something with it. These people reproduce the voice of Baudet and as such become part of his Message.

As Lempert and Silversten (2012) said, the meaning of message goes beyond just content. Message is also about the politician’s imaginable ‘character’ presented to an electorate. By giving an interview in which Baudet is accusing high-ranked politicians for juggling with numbers, and then sharing it on Facebook himself, Baudet shows that he is not afraid of confrontation. He dares to be confront and positions himself as anti-establishment: as somebody who dares to say what needs to be said The comments as seen in figure 1 says: “A really good story you got there! You’ve got my vote!” and “You’re goingup!”. The relatively high amount of ‘shares’ and the positive comments show that this way to ‘sell’ the message works out in a positive way, at least for the audience he is targetting.

Cube of Truth Manchester, UK Facebook

The most popular post that appeared on Baudet's’ timeline in the first two weeks of March is again a shared link  (Fig. 2) to an article about Baudet. The title of the article is again aquote of Baudet: ‘The Dutch are sick of being lied to’. The post had 517 likes and was shared 73 times. The fact that both posts link to a newsmedium that use a quote from Baudet as a title, is already an index of the sensational nature of his discourse. The quotes are chosen as title because the news media consider them 'clickeable'. The quote is a good summary of his populist discourse. He accuses 'the elites' to be liars. And he presents himself, implicitly, as the voice of the people.

The title of the article thus communicates the key message of Baudet: that he won't lie, that he wants to stand up for the Dutch society. According to Thompson (2005), feelings of insecurity about the massive and complex problems in today’s world is rising and someone as Baudet tries to convert these feelings in electoral capital. . For this reason, the trustworthiness is more important than ever. 

With a post like this, Baudet communicates himself as a person won’t let people down, even though it is through a shared link. 

Forum for Democracy

Besides the personal Facebook page of Thierry Baudet, Forum for Democracy has its own Facebook page. There are 140.012 people who like the page, and 145.310 people who actually follow the page. In the two weeks before the elections, Forum for Democracy published over 50 Facebook posts in total. The post which stands out the most and the most popular post will be analysed in order to show how Forum for Democracy tried to construct their message.

 

The duet and react feature in TikTok

(Fig, 3)

 

The most popular post that appeared on the timeline of Forum of Democracy, is again a  shared link. This link leads to an article with as a title: 50 reasons why you should not vote on the VVD. As accompanying text the post says: '50 reasons not to vote for the unreliable VVD of Mark Rutte. Wednesday, March 15 we will finish Rutte! Get your vote back! Vote for Forum for Democracy!' The post had over 7.000 likes and was shared 2.621 times. What's strikes about this post is that the article in the link does not have a direct linkwith Forum for Democracy. Then why is this message shared?

According to Maly (2016), a message has to be sold like a brand. Placing yourself as the opposite of the biggest competitor, is also a way of selling a brand. Politicians and their management are creative in searching for ways to build their message into social media (Maly, 2016). This usually happens by distributing positive messages about themselves and negative messaging about there oponents. The shared opinion piece in this post is an example of such negative messaging about the biggest mainstream competitor of Forum for Democracy. What gives it extra authority is that it is not written by the party itself or one of its politicians, but a seemingly non-partisan writer (even though it is clearly written by a writer with radical right symphaties).

The success of the article triggers the algorithm Facebook's. We see that many people ,share a Take for example the comments as shown in figure 3. They say: “BYE VVD” and “Rutte, once a liar, always a liar”. The reaction co-construct the message that the VVD and especially Rutte are liars. By posting these comments they push the message outside the filter bubble and potentially, they will receive recommendations to like sites that advocate similar points of view (Eli, 2011). The result of these shares and likes will also be that more Forum of Democracy posts will be visible in someone’s timeline. Another consequence is that Facebook friends can see what the Facebook member has liked. In this way, the range of the post is greatly increased.

 

The sharing options and save video feature in TikTok

(Fig. 4)

 

In the post as shown in figure 4, Forum for Democracy posted a short video which features a scene of Theo Hiddema as a guest at the Dutch talk show RTL late night. In the video, the host asks the question: What would be the limit of freedom of speech? Hiddema speaks up for the people and says that everyone is fed up with a lawsuit for every small “racism problem”. He says that these actions ruin the debate and that it's are precisely these actions that create a separation in society. As stated in the accompanying text:  FVD co-star Theo Hiddema does not turn his hart into a murder pit: “All that complacency and emaciation, the Netherlands is all done with it. On March 15, we’ll make it happen trough the ballot box”.

As Lempert and Silverstein (2012) said, message is not only about the actual message, but also about how the politician’s publicly imaginable ‘character’ is presented to an electorate. This also contains a biography and a moral profile, crafted out of issues rendered of interests in the public sphere. Sharing a video is a very smart way to show a politician’s character. In the video, Hiddema is clearly frustrated about the way things go. Unless you are a great actor, that is not something you can fake. Hiddema clearly positions himself at the radical and even extreme right side of the political spectrum: not racism is the problem, but the people who take action against racism.

Hiddema is not only givinggiving clear arguments, explicitely positioning the party at radical right, he also communicates identity. As Thompson (2005) said, society feels insecure about how the massive and complex problems in today’s world has to be tackled. Not only the character, but also trustworthiness has never been more important. He is a lawyer, and it is clear that he has extensive knowledge. By appearing on national television in such a way, Hiddema shows that he and his party can be trusted, that they know what they are doing and that they are willing to do best for society.Hiddema and Baudet aim at convincing the right wing side of the VVD, and the people who voted for Wilders but now want a 'decent alternative'.

 

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How Forum for Democracy put itself in the spotlights

As Baudet once said in an interview with Volkskrant (2017): “The established parties mainly campaign through the traditional media. We quickly noticed: f***, we will never intervene! That is why we started to specialize in conducting an online campaign. It was a virtue of necessity.” And so they did. If we look at the amount of posts that have been placed, it is clear that the campaign mainly conducted from the official Forum for Democracy account. In the posts different ways have been used to get the message across the public. From standing up for the people and naming what they want to do better, to showing how it is not going to work in this society.

The way Forum for Democracy has constructed their message is solid. With their stubborn and provocative way of doing things, they know how to create a wide range. They show courage and therefore win the trust of the public. Their targeted and sometimes provocative statements fit into the formats of commercial mass media and are picked up by the algorithms of social media. As the fastest growing political party on Facebook, they clearly know how algorithms work and they are not afraid to use it as a strategy.

 

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References

Blommaert, J. (2005). Ideology. Discourse. A Critical Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 158-202

Lempert, M. and Silverstein, M. (2012). Creatures of politics. Media, message and the American presidency. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Mali, I (2016). Why Trump won. Retrieved on 16 november 2017

Mebius, D (2017), Thierry Baudet: 'Ik ben erg door Fortuyn geïnspireerd, maar kan niet in zijn schaduw staan. Retrieved on 8 december 2017

Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You, Penguin Press (New York, mei 2011) 

Thompson, J, B. (2005). The new visibility. Theory, culture & society. 22 (6), 31-51. doi: 10.1177/0263276405059413