Election Focus: Călin Georgescu, in the presidential runoff. How the shock is being felt online in Romania
The first round of the presidential elections in Romania produces an unprecedented shock in Romanian politics after 1989, a shock that brings with it several firsts: for the first time in the post-decembrist democratic history, an independent candidate qualifies for the second round of the presidential elections, and not by winning the first round; and also for the first time, the Social Democratic Party has no qualified candidate in the presidential final.
According to data analyzed with the help of NewsVibe, an innovative media intelligence platform, in the last month, in the most relevant online sources, interest in Călin Georgescu was minimal, until the BEC decision - a few days before the elections - when he was asked to remove from his online accounts the electoral videos that violated the law. The number of mentions and their impact explode in the last two days - election day and the aftermath, full of reactions to the shock result.
Of the 3000 mentions of Georgescu, over 2800, at the time of analysis, were only the days of November 24 and 25. Also, in terms of the potential impact of mentions, of the total of over 31 million views estimated, over 27 million are associated with the interval November 21-25.
These data show that Georgescu was largely ignored by the most relevant web sources, and was not considered a major player in the presidential election until close to voting day.
Grafic NewsVibe. Changes in the number of mentions of Călin Georgescu and their total impact over the last month
Predominant sources
The top of the sources that mentioned Călin Georgescu the most in the last month is dominated by news websites - stiripesurse.ro, Ziare.com, Adevarul and PS News stand out, with more than 50 mentions of the surprise candidate of the first round of the presidential election. The only Facebook pages that break into this top are Ziare.com and the official page of Călin Georgescu.
Grafic NewsVibe. Top relevant online sources that have reported on Călin Georgescu in the last month
Top keywords mentioned
Among the entities most frequently mentioned in the context of references to Călin Georgescu, in Facebook posts or articles, the names of other candidates stand out, first and foremost Elena Lasconi, Marcel Ciolacu and George Simion, but also terms such as Romania or PSD. Secondly, terms such as Russia or NATO also stand out, the most relevant web sources starting to emphasize Georgescu's controversial positions towards North Atlantic Alliance or his appreciative ones towards Russia. The comments on Tiktok are also noteworthy.
Graphic NewsVibe. Top entities mentioned in association with Călin Georgescu in the last month
Emoji and Hashtag
The most commonly used emoji in posts on Facebook pages indicate alertness, bewilderment, symbols associated with Romania, but also with the concept of a poll or the idea of a shocking situation.
Grafic NewsVibe. Top emoji used on Facebook in conversations about Călin Georgescu in the last month
The most used hashtags on Facebook are descriptive, such as #calingeorgescu, #vot, #alegeri; sloganistic, such as #refacemromania; but some also appear that refer to program elements (#sanatatearepernational, #educatiarepernational).
Grafic NewsVibe. Top hashtags used on Facebook in conversations about Călin Georgescu in the last month
Local resources
Over 30% of all mentions of Călin Georgescu come from local sources. Most of these are in the counties Cluj, Timiș, Constanța and Iași. An important number of mentions are also recorded in the counties of Prahova, Argeș, Olt, Sibiu or Brașov.
Grafic NewsVibe. Relevant local sources that mentioned Călin Georgescu in the last month
The surprise result of the first round of the presidential election, with an independent candidate in the lead, was followed by an intense amplification of online chatter about Călin Georgescu, who managed to become a central topic of public debate in record time.
*****Syndicated using a monitoring feed provided by NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data and images presented were enhanced with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.
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