How to Sell Democracy Online (Fast)

Social media is dominated by populist and sometimes far-right content – with consequences for young people in particular. We investigate how political actors can become more successful online.

Young people are usually not reached by politics. They feel neither heard nor addressed. On the part of political actors, there is a lack of seriousness in understanding them as participants and contributors to the democratic process. Although social media is not a panacea for this, the role of the platforms is undeniable: a third of young people in Germany between the ages of 14 and 24 only use the social networks Instagram and TikTok to find out about current world events.

The problem is that trustworthy sources are currently losing the battle for attention on social media. Studies show how distorted, sometimes anti-democratic content and fake news dominate Instagram, TikTok and the like. This has consequences for the democratic mindset of young users: By adopting these positions, some can become more authoritarian or easily susceptible to disinformation.

Therefore, the friends of liberal democracy must reclaim digital discourse spaces and give young people the feeling of being seen. But the question is not: Should democracy take place on social media? But rather: How can we quickly become more successful on social media with attractive, high-quality content and thus take one of many necessary steps to strengthen democracy? In short:

How to Sell Democracy Online (Fast)?

The project How to Sell Democracy Online (Fast) by Das Progressive Zentrum in cooperation with Bertelsmann Stiftung and funded by Stiftung Mercator aims to sensitise and strengthen the organisations, institutions and minds of our representative democracy in their outreach to young people. Which communication strategies are successful and reach young people, and by which features and factors? To this end, we are systematically analysing the content of around 600 political social media accounts and around 25,000 short videos on TikTok and Instagram.

In addition to this comprehensive analysis of the status quo, we also collect data that provides us with insights into the behaviour, perception and, in particular, the expectations of the young people addressed with regard to political communication. We then work together with young people to identify deficits and best practices among the clips. In a final step, we jointly develop specific recommendations for a successful and target group-orientated approach to young people on social media. Throughout the course of the project, we also work with two political youth committees who support us as sparring partners and ‘reality checks’.

Contributors

Amber Jensen | Bertelsmann Stiftung

Amber Jensen has been working as a project manager in the Bertelsmann Stiftung‘s ‘Democracy and Cohesion’ programme since 2023. She is interested in political communication on social media and initiated an influencer campaign to mobilise voters for the 2024 European elections. She also heads the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Youth Community for Democracy and Cohesion programme. She studied psychology, vocational training with social pedagogy and educational science.

Sibylle Gröbel | Bertelsmann Stiftung

Sibylle Gröbel has been working as a project manager in the Bertelsmann Stiftung‘s Education & NextGeneration programme since 2023. Her focus is on political communication and campaign work. In addition to empirical research on how young people can be better reached with political content, she is responsible for the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s target group approach to young people on gennow.de. Before joining the foundation, she worked as a consultant at Scholz & Friends and Jung von Matt, where she supported award-winning campaigns in the public sector. She studied political communication as well as communication and cultural studies.

Dr Regina von Görtz | Bertelsmann Stiftung

Dr Regina von Görtz is Director of the Bertelsmann Stiftung‘s ‘Democracy and Cohesion’ programme. Her special focus is on the topics of youth, democracy and social justice. Since joining the foundation in 2013, she has been committed to equal opportunities, strengthening the participation of young people and social cohesion. She completed her doctorate in 2013 at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer in the field of political science and economics and publishes regularly on the topics of social justice, prevention, child and youth participation, social engagement and young people’s understanding of democracy.

Hannah Fecher | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Hannah Fecher is a research assistant at the Chair of Political Communication at the Institute of Journalism Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She holds a Master of Science in Communication Science with a specialisation in Political Communication from the University of Amsterdam. Her research focusses on the use and effects of new technologies and social media platforms in political campaign communication. Her focus is on how digital innovations influence strategies, content and perceptions of modern election campaigns and what effects this has on the formation of political opinion.

Dr Pablo Jost | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Dr Pablo Jost is a communication scientist at the Institute of Journalism Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he completed his doctorate on ‘Popularity indicators in political communication research’ in 2022. He is currently researching and teaching as a visiting professor at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Research at the University of Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover. As co-founder and strategic advisor to the federal working group ‘Against Hate on the Net’, he investigates the mobilisation of radical and extremist protest movements on digital platforms and their offline effects. His research interests also include the media representation of social controversies, the communication of political actors and their adaptation to the conditions of digitalisation.

Yannick Winkler | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Yannick Winkler has been a research associate in the Computational Communication Science research area at the Institute of Communication Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since November 2022. Previously, he worked on the project ‘Multilevel Flows of Political Communication on Facebook – A Computational Approach Using Individual Digital Traces’, which was based at JGU and the University of Hohenheim. As part of the project, the communication behaviour of political actors and users on Facebook was investigated. In his current research, he is primarily concerned with the use of large language models (LLMs) in communication science. Prior to his academic career, he worked for members of parliament at state and federal level.

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