Abstract

Digital political communication has undergone a revolution due to the emergence of new digital media platforms, significantly impacting electoral campaigns. However, there remains limited understanding of the implications of digital communication in local elections and its correlation with territorial vote concentration. The objective of this study is to investigate these relationships during the 2020 regional elections in Campania. Specifically, the focus is on four candidate profiles from the outgoing president’s political list. The employed methodology follows a quantitative approach, entailing a secondary analysis of an extensive dataset encompassing the candidates’ digital profiles and electoral outcomes within the Naples district. The digital content from their public Facebook pages is extracted using Api strategies, encompassing textual aspects, language style, political communication sentiment, and follower engagement. Through spatial analysis of the candidates’ obtained votes, potential relationships between the geographical distribution of votes and candidates’ digital activity are identified and summarized using the Digital activity index. The findings suggest promising avenues for future research concerning the evolution of political communication in the digital era and its interplay with electoral outcomes.