DIGITAL DUEL by NewsVibe. The ranking of candidates for the Capital City Hall – visibility and online impact

Although the campaign for the Bucharest elections officially started on Friday, November 21, both the number of mentions about the main candidates and their estimated impact have decreased compared to the previous week.

In recent days, Ciprian Ciucu and Daniel Băluță have organized public events to politically launch their candidacies and present their electoral programs, while new polls regarding the percentages of the main candidates have emerged on the market. During the same period, there have also been withdrawals of candidacies, which were counted in support of Daniel Băluță by Liviu Negoiță or Anca Alexandrescu by Makaveli.

ONLINE VISIBILITY: VOLUME AND IMPACT. According to data analyzed with the help of NewsVibe, an AI-supported media monitoring platform, the events of the last few days have caused a new change in hierarchy regarding visibility for the four main candidates. Thus, Cătălin Drulă rises to second place in the ranking, narrowly surpassing Daniel Băluță and with almost 300 mentions – ahead of Anca Alexandrescu.

The estimated impact of the mentions places Cătălin Drulă in first place. Although mentions about Ciprian Ciucu are more numerous, those about Drulă have an estimated impact of over 2.5 million views more.

These developments in the hierarchy of candidates' visibility come against the backdrop of a global decrease in both the number of mentions about them and their estimated impact.

NewsVibe Chart. Online visibility benchmarks of the main candidates in the race for PMB, in the last week: volume (number of mentions), impact (estimated views), sentiment analysis

THE TONE OF ONLINE CONVERSATION. The candidates most frequently mentioned in negative or polarizing contexts continue to be Anca Alexandrescu and Cătălin Drulă, the latter being the candidate generating the highest level of emotion in digital debates. This phenomenon has intensified in recent days, against the backdrop of increasingly tense remote disputes between Cătălin Drulă and Ciprian Ciucu (the latter's name is also discussed more in negative contexts). Additionally, the public appearances of the USR candidate are marked by direct and constant attacks, especially against the PSD and PNL candidates.

COMPARATIVE RHYTHM OF APPEARANCES. The public events organized by candidates to mark the political launch of their candidacies and to present their electoral programs in a structured manner, along with the new data from the polls that have emerged on the market and the reactions generated by them, have determined the most significant peaks of visibility for Ciprian Ciucu, Daniel Băluță, and Cătălin Drulă.

In the case of Anca Alexandrescu, the moment that generated the most significant peak of visibility in recent days was Makaveli's withdrawal from the electoral race in favor of the journalist from Realitatea Plus.

NewsVibe Chart. Evolution in the number of mentions about the main candidates in the race for PMB, in the last week

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS. By comparing the weight of the volume and impact of mentions, the competitive analysis engine created by NewsVibe evaluates the strength of political actors to penetrate the online space, directly compared to their competitors.

Both the number of mentions and their estimated views significantly decrease compared to the previous week. Against the backdrop of these notable decreases, the impact of mentions about Cătălin Drulă increases overall – even if other candidates register fluctuations, these are much smaller and do not change the overall hierarchy.

This evolution indicates two relevant analytical trends. The first is that general interest in the Bucharest campaign enters a phase of volatility. The second is that polarization around Cătălin Drulă becomes a main driver of online visibility. Even in a context of general decline, the USR candidate manages to capture a disproportionately high level of impact, which shows that his public presences and direct conflict with other candidates are reflected by digital sources with a large audience.

NewsVibe Charts. The weight of the number of mentions (left), respectively the impact of mentions (right) about each of the four candidates, from the total cumulative mentions about all

*****Summary created with the help of a data stream provided by the media monitoring platform NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data, and images presented have been enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.