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

According to aggregated data analyzed with the help of NewsVibe, an AI platform for real-time media monitoring, the last 7 days have brought an explosion of both mentions about parties and their estimated impact, compared to the previous period, in the most relevant online sources.

The peak moment of the last week was undoubtedly represented by the elections that took place in several areas of the country on December 7, with a special focus of online sources on the electoral race for the Capital City Hall. However, other elections with both political and symbolic stakes also mattered, such as the elections for the presidency of the Buzău County Council, won by former Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

The moment of the elections was followed by significant media coverage of the results and the political reactions generated by them, which kept the parties in the spotlight of the most important online sources. In the context of starting the internal analysis process that parties conduct in the post-electoral moments, PSD announced that it will make a decision regarding its maintenance within the governing coalition in the immediate following months.

Against the backdrop of the last week, other media-impacting topics continued to develop, such as the water supply situation in several localities in Prahova and Dâmbovița counties. Developments on this subject involved an intensification of public disputes between representatives of the opposition and those of USR, but also, very visibly, between USR and PSD.

Although the volume and impact of mentions about parties have seen major increases, they were not uniform. AUR and UDMR recorded very modest positive developments, while the increase in the number of mentions was mainly capitalized by PSD, PNL, and USR. PSD recorded an increase of over 130%, PNL nearly 118%, and USR about 48%. These unequal developments also led to a change in the hierarchy compared to the previous period, with PSD returning to first place, while USR dropped to third place, being surpassed even by PNL.

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

Compared to the previous period, the number of mentions about parties increased by over 6,000, and their estimated impact by over 70 million. Regarding the governing parties, only mentions about USR had an estimated impact that, as a share of the total, is slightly higher than the actual share of mentions in the overall conversation about parties.

In the case of AUR, a significant difference stands out: the estimated volume of views represents about 12% of the total, while the actual share of AUR mentions among all mentions about parties is only 5%.

Among PSD, PNL, and USR, there is a relatively balanced level of impact of mentions, although the number of mentions about PSD is notably higher than that recorded by PNL and USR.

This dynamic indicates that the visibility of parties is not determined solely by the volume of appearances, but also by the ability of political actors to generate interest among high-impact sources. In the case of AUR, the disproportionate impact suggests a recurrent presence in sources with high audience or in highly publicized contexts, even in the absence of a comparable quantitative increase in mentions.

At the same time, the balance of impact between PSD, PNL, and USR, despite the differences in volume at the level of mentions, shows a relatively homogeneous attention of high-impact online sources towards the three formations, a characteristic specific to the ends of electoral campaigns, when media interest is similarly distributed among the main political actors.

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

What the analysis shows: 

• A clearly defined segment of the online conversation about parties is focused on the elections for Capital City Hall. The most visible actors within this segment are PNL and Ciprian Ciucu, closely associated with names such as Cătălin Drulă, Anca Alexandrescu, or Daniel Băluță, as well as with recurring thematic entities, such as Bucharest and Capital City Hall. This segment of the online conversation has strong connections with the area built around USR.
• A distinct area of online discourse about parties is dominated by PSD, around which names such as Marcel Ciolacu, Sorin Grindeanu, Diana Buzoianu, Ilie Bolojan, but also political actors from the opposition, such as AUR, gravitate. The area of online conversation dominated by PSD is influenced by several major topics: the elections in Bucharest, the elections in Buzău, as well as the recurring disputes between PSD and USR regarding the water supply situation in Prahova and Dâmbovița. PSD, as a central actor in this segment, presents strong connections both with the area of conversation about the elections in Bucharest and with that defined around USR.
• The area of online debate dominated by USR includes actors such as Nicușor Dan or Dominic Fritz.

SENTIMENT. The NewsVibe platform has created an advanced automated sentiment analysis system that 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 Graph. The automated evaluation of the tone of the online conversation about the main 5 parliamentary parties, in the week

What the analysis shows: 

• PSD, in particular, and USR are the political actors most frequently mentioned in negative contexts by the most relevant online sources. This type of media coverage is both an effect of how the elections in Bucharest were interpreted as defeats for the two parties, as well as of the public disputes between the two formations.
• Ciprian Ciucu is the actor most frequently presented in positive media contexts, a fact enhanced by his victory in the electoral race for the position of Mayor of Bucharest.
• However, there are no actors whose presence in online sources is characterized exclusively by a single type of media context. The political scene remains tense, not only as a result of the recently concluded electoral moments but also against the backdrop of intense discussions about government policies, which generate visible tensions even among the governing parties.
• Therefore, the forecast for the upcoming period is that the tone of the online conversation about parties will continue to be characterized by negativity, tension, and polarization.

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