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

According to the data extracted and analyzed with the help of NewsVibe, an AI media monitoring platform, we are witnessing, in the last week, a new moment of growth in the total mentions about parties, as well as their estimated impact, compared to the previous interval.

The appointment of Oana Gheorghiu as Deputy Prime Minister, despite the controversy generated, continued to provoke tense reactions from the social democrats, while the announcement of the withdrawal of a part of the American troops stationed in Romania also triggered political and institutional reactions.

The main parties included in the top are approaching the race for the Bucharest City Hall, and the situation of several possible candidates has been clarified institutionally: PNL and USR have statutorily designated their candidates, while AUR decided to support journalist Anca Alexandrescu. At PSD, the decision regarding Daniel Băluță's participation in the electoral race has already been communicated.

The picture of the week was completed by new divergent signals within the coalition, on important topics such as public administration reform or the retirement of judges.

Although the week was politically intense, not all parties evolved similarly. Although it remains in first place regarding the number of mentions, PSD recorded a slight decrease compared to last week, as did UDMR. In contrast, PNL, USR, and AUR recorded significant increases in the number of mentions: PNL by almost 18%, USR by approximately 45%, and AUR by over 90%.

NEWSVIBE GRAPHIC. Top 5 parties by 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.

Both the total number of mentions about parties and their estimated impact are higher in this interval compared to the previous one. The performer of the week is AUR, which has almost doubled its number of mentions, having an impact over 50% greater than in the previous week.

If the total number of mentions about the coalition parties continues to exceed 90% of the total, their impact—affected by AUR's growth—does not exceed 85%.

Furthermore, both the number and the impact of mentions about PSD and PNL exceed 50% of the total, confirming the central role of the two formations regarding the online media coverage of political parties.

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

What the analysis shows: 

• A segment dominated by PSD, around which entities such as Ilie Bolojan, Sorin Grindeanu, Oana Gheorghiu, USA or Chamber of Deputies gravitate. This segment is mainly influenced by the tensions between PSD and PNL generated by the appointment of Oana Gheorghiu as Deputy Prime Minister, but also by PSD's call for the Prime Minister to Parliament to provide explanations regarding the partial withdrawal of American troops stationed in Romania.
• A zone where the dominant actors are PNL and USR, in proximity to the terms Nicușor Dan, Bucharest, Capital City Hall, Ciprian Ciucu and Cătălin Drulă. This segment of the online conversation about parties is dedicated to the elections for the Bucharest City Hall, where PNL and USR have officially designated their candidates, and Nicușor Dan participated in the event organized by USR for Cătălin Drulă.
• Finally, a distinct area, centered around AUR, which captures both the online conversations about the support given by the party to Anca Alexandrescu in the race for the Bucharest City Hall, as well as those regarding George Simion's request to benefit from the protection of SPP, after the AUR headquarters in Bucharest was vandalized.

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 relevant entities for an online conversation.

NewsVibe Graphic. Automated evaluation of the tone of the online conversation about the main 5 parliamentary parties, in the week

What the analysis shows: 

• PSD, USR, PNL and Ilie Bolojan are the political actors most frequently covered in negative or polarizing contexts in the last week. This type of online coverage is influenced both by disputes within the coalition on issues such as the appointment of the new Deputy Prime Minister or government measures, as well as by mutual attacks between representatives of the parties, generated by the approach of the campaign for the Bucharest elections.
• Negative tone remains dominant in the online conversation about parties, marking a new moment where balanced media coverage of political actors becomes secondary in relation to tensions and public confrontations.

*****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.