Work

Comparing Gendered Exposure and Impact in Online Election Violence: Tunisian Political Candidates Targeted on Facebook

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Election violence is increasingly taking place online. However, we still do not know much about how such attacks affect the representation of politically marginalized groups such as women. This article develops and applies strategies for analyzing (gendered) exposure to and impacts of online attacks against political candidates. It focuses on the 2019 parliamentary election campaign in Tunisia and combines manual analysis of Tunisian candidates’ public Facebook pages with candidate interviews. We find no gendered patterns in exposure to online election violence in the Facebook data and a low general exposure to attacks. The interview data nevertheless suggests gendered perceptions and impacts of attacks, as well as a perception among the candidates that online election violence is widespread and problematic. These discrepancies highlight that we need a combination of methods and materials to capture the multifaceted nature of online election violence, and in particular those that directly link candidate exposure to impact.

Source: Politics & Gender

DOI: 10.1017/s1743923x24000163

Authors: Malin Holm, Elin Bjarnegård, Pär Zetterberg

Institution: Uppsala University

Language: English

Topic: Gender Politics and Representation

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450