DIGITAL DUEL by NewsVibe. TOP 5 parties in the Romanian online space, in the last week

In recent weeks, the evolution of the main parliamentary parties continues to be fluctuating. According to data collected and analyzed by NewsVibe, an AI media monitoring platform, the total number of mentions about parties, as well as their estimated impact in the most relevant online sources in Romania, has increased compared to the previous period. This overall increase, however, did not mean a uniform evolution for the formations included in the top.

Parties like AUR have recorded consistent declines after surpassing the moment of the censure motion from last week, while USR has significantly increased, after having fallen to 4th place in the previous period.

External events, such as the assassination of American conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, as well as security-related issues, such as the incursions of Russian drones into NATO countries' airspace, along with governance themes, have shaped the media context in which the parties have manifested in the last week. Although some of the formations or their leaders have manifested in the public space on the mentioned themes, the effect on visibility has been uneven. The volume of mentions about AUR has decreased significantly, by over 40%, that of UDMR - by almost 45%, while mentions about USR have increased by almost 49%. These are the largest differences compared to the previous period regarding the number of mentions about parties in the most relevant online sources.

NEWSVIBE GRAPH. Top 5 parties based on the volume of mentions in relevant online sources and social media (sources validated by the NewsVibe platform), in the last week.

VISIBILITY AND COMPARATIVE IMPACT. The competitive analysis engine created by NewsVibe evaluates the ability of political actors to penetrate the online space, directly compared to their competitors.

The number of mentions about the parties in the governing arc exceeds again 90% of the total, while their estimated impact approaches 90% of the total impact of mentions about the analyzed parties. The impact of mentions about AUR decreases by about a third compared to last week, when the censure motions initiated by this formation were debated.

At the same time, the share of the impact of mentions about USR has increased by over 45%, being equal to that of mentions about PNL. USR is close to PNL in terms of the number of actual mentions.

NewsVibe Charts. The share of the number of mentions (left), respectively the impact of mentions (right) about each of the parties from the total cumulative mentions about all five

NETWORK ANALYSIS. The tool created by NewsVibe - semantic network analysis - uses advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning methods to build interaction maps that highlight: the central actors of a conversation, the connections between them, the groups (clusters) of themes, concepts, and influencers (personalities and organizations) that have formed around an event, subject, or idea.

NewsVibe Chart. The semantic network associated with the online conversation about the main 5 parliamentary parties, in the last week 

What the analysis shows: 

• A very consistent thematic core formed around PSD, connected with terms such as Ilie Bolojan, Government, or Sorin Grindeanu. The intense connections within this core are mainly determined by disputes between PSD and the prime minister regarding local administration reform or some governance measures already adopted but now contested by social democrats.
• A second core of debates shaped around USR and PNL, with strong connections to the one around PSD. These connections are generated by disputes within the coalition on governance issues, but also on political issues - such as the organization of elections for the Capital City Hall.
• A third thematic segment, constituted around AUR, where important associations are with topics related to Charlie Kirk - AUR imposed the support of a moment of silence in the Romanian Senate, dedicated to the American personality assassinated a few days ago.
• The node Romania remains a connection point with most of the cores.
• Marginally, there is an institutional core, which is linked to the activity of Parliament.

SENTIMENT. The NewsVibe platform has created an advanced automated sentiment analysis system, which uses specially trained AI algorithms and LLM tools to detect tonal nuances - favorable, unfavorable, or neutral - in the context of references to entities relevant to an online conversation.

NewsVibe Chart. The automated assessment of the tone of the online conversation about the main 5 parliamentary parties, in the week

What the analysis shows: 

• PSD remains the political actor for which the media contexts are most visibly dominated by tension and confrontation. The media context for PSD remains the most unbalanced in this regard, at the level of the last week, compared to other political actors.
• USR is also quite present in negative/tensioned conversational contexts, at the level of the last week, just like PNL.
• In general, however, most political actors (parties, party members, etc.) benefit from more balanced online media contexts in the last week (similar to the situation in the previous period).
• The lack of entities mentioned with a considerable frequency in positive contexts is highlighted.

*****Summary created with the help of a data monitoring flow 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.