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, the total volume of mentions about parties in the last week has significantly decreased compared to the previous week, a trend mainly determined by the reduced visibility of PSD in relevant online sources.

The last 7 days have brought new opinion polls regarding the elections in Bucharest, the official submission of candidacies for the position of General Mayor, as well as new media appearances of electoral competitors. In parallel, governance themes have returned to the attention of the press: discussions within the coalition have taken place regarding the draft law concerning the retirement of magistrates and measures for reforming central and local administration. In Parliament, the legislative package modifying local taxes was re-voted, and the new leadership of the public Television and Radio was validated – a moment that generated new confrontations between the coalition and AUR.

Despite the intense political context, PSD has recorded a massive decrease in the number of mentions compared to the previous interval – approximately 36%. PNL has also recorded a moderate decrease, USR has practically remained at the level of last week, while AUR has followed the downward trend of the main parties in the coalition. The only party for which the number of mentions has increased is UDMR, which this week surpassed AUR in the total volume of mentions.

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.

The total number of mentions about parties decreases by almost 2,000, but the total impact of mentions this week is only 2 million lower. This relatively small difference in impact indicates that the main parties have continued to be covered by online sources with high potential audiences.

The coalition parties maintain dominance in relation to AUR: they generate 95% of the total mentions and 93% of the projected impact. At the same time, although the global impact of mentions about AUR remains low, it still exceeds that of mentions about UDMR – even though UDMR has almost 100 more mentions in this interval.

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:

• An important segment of the online conversation is dedicated to the elections in Bucharest, where PNL is in the spotlight, being associated with terms such as Bucharest, City Hall and with the names of some very visible candidates (Daniel Băluță, Ciprian Ciucu, Cătălin Drulă, Anca Alexandrescu).
• Another area of the online conversation is built around USR and, in particular, the relationship of this party with the president Nicușor Dan. The president appointed Vlad Voiculescu, one of the most well-known figures from USR, to the position of presidential advisor; at the same time, Nicușor Dan has ended collaboration with Ludovic Orban, the press speculating that one of the reasons for the decision would be his criticisms of the USR campaign for Bucharest.
• Another segment, dominated by PSD, is connected both to the elections in Bucharest and those in Buzău, where Marcel Ciolacu, former prime minister, is running for the position of president of the Buzău County Council. Marginally, the conversation in this area continues to surprise the tensions within the coalition.
• Finally, a smaller segment of the online conversation, in which AUR is also present, targets parliamentary activity, focusing on the Legislative's decisions regarding the leadership of TVR and public Radio. These decisions have been contested by the formation led by George Simion.

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

What the analysis shows:

• PSD, first of all, USR and PNL are the parties that are most often mentioned in tense/negative contexts. This type of media coverage in online sources is determined both by the (pre)campaign in Bucharest, which is intensifying, and by the disputes within the coalition, on governance issues.
• Again, the main political actors – leaders and parties – are present in online sources in mixed contexts, but the overall tone of the online conversation about parties continues to turn negative.

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