From policy debates to election campaigns: digital communication of political parties

Feat. Isabelle Borucki of Philipps-Universität Marburg | 21 November 2023

Our everyday communication has become radically digitalised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturally, political parties and their members have also had to reorganise themselves: Entire party conferences were held virtually at times, and debates and decision-making also had to succeed with digital tools, which are now being retained and continue to supplement face-to-face dialogue. But even beyond the exceptional situation of a pandemic, parties are experimenting with opening up new opportunities for collaboration as part of modernisation measures. Attempts are being made to reach voters on social media, but above all to improve the inner organisation of the party through digitalisation. How the political parties in Germany are approaching their own digital transformation, what their priorities are and what their respective prerequisites are, of course, varies greatly: the number of members, budgets and different political guiding principles all play a role.

Isabelle Borucki is Professor for Methodology and Philosophy in digital transformation at Philipps-Universität Marburg and researches political organisations in particular. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, the expert describes her observations from studies and surveys that provide insights into the current digitisation processes of political parties. She explains the similarities and differences between the parties and contextualises them in terms of their respective characteristics and framework conditions. With hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Borucki discusses how digitisation can make participation in political processes easier but also more complex, how members and established structures react to digitisation processes, what challenges social media poses for PR departments – and how parties have responded to the technical possibilities for digital election campaigns.