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

The campaign for the Bucharest elections started last week, but the media coverage of the candidates in relevant online sources in Romania is experiencing a new setback – it is the second consecutive week in which both the number of mentions and the projected impact are declining.

Although the campaign continues to be fueled by the public appearances of the candidates – including debates among some of them – new polls providing insights into voting intentions, and intensified attacks among the main competitors, the online visibility of the electoral battle remains, as we mentioned, in decline.

ONLINE VISIBILITY: VOLUME AND IMPACT. According to data analyzed using the NewsVibe platform, an AI-supported media monitoring tool, all candidates are experiencing declines in both the number of mentions and the estimated impact. None exceed the threshold of 800 mentions, and the hierarchy changes again: Cătălin Drulă returns to third place, behind Daniel Băluță, who is in second position, with the ranking still led by Ciprian Ciucu. Just like the previous week, Anca Alexandrescu closes the ranks.

Cătălin Drulă and Anca Alexandrescu also record the largest declines in the number of mentions compared to the previous interval, of over 50% and over 44%, respectively.

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. According to data analyzed using the NewsVibe platform, the only candidate predominantly present in positive media contexts is Daniel Băluță. The negative tone of mentions intensifies in the case of Ciprian Ciucu and Anca Alexandrescu, while for Cătălin Drulă, the intensity of this tone decreases. However, in the case of the USR candidate, online media coverage remains dominated by negative or polarizing contexts.

COMPARATIVE RHYTHM OF APPEARANCES. The evolution of the number of mentions indicates a noticeable slowdown in the pace after the halfway point of the analyzed interval. The decline is consistent for all candidates, with only two moments interrupting this trend: the announcement by Forța Dreptei, through Ludovic Orban, regarding the support for Ciprian Ciucu for the position of General Mayor of the Capital, and the attack launched by POT president, Anamaria Gavrilă, against Anca Alexandrescu, against the backdrop of the emergence of polls indicating an increase for the candidate supported by AUR.

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

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS. Evaluating the comparative weight of the volume and impact of mentions, the competitive analysis engine created by NewsVibe assesses the strength of political actors to penetrate the online space, directly related to their competitors.

Compared to the previous week, the decrease in the number of mentions is massive: in the last seven days, there are approximately 1,400 fewer mentions about the candidates for the Capital City Hall. At the same time, the projected impact of these mentions is nearly 40 million views lower. Thus, we have a clear phenomenon of diminishing media coverage of the campaign in online sources, both in terms of the volume of mentions and the interest of sources with very large audiences.

This dynamic indicates a gradual erosion of the attention of online sources, possibly explained by a disengagement of the press (in general) and relevant online sources (in particular), in the absence of major political moments or strongly mobilizing themes.

In terms of both the number of mentions and the estimated impact of these, the candidate in first place in both rankings, Ciprian Ciucu, records double values compared to the candidate in last place, Anca Alexandrescu. The report highlights very clear visibility differences among candidates, influenced both by public appearance strategies and by the distribution of media interest around them.

Overall, the picture suggests that the media discourse about the campaign is entering a phase of "information fatigue," in which only events with potential conflict or narrative breaks – such as new endorsements, direct attacks, or the emergence of surprising polls – manage to generate peaks of visibility.

NewsVibe Charts. The share 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.