Discontentment trumps Euphoria: Interacting with European Political Elites’ Migration-Related Messages on Social Media

This study investigates user engagement with political elite’s migration discourses on social media. In particular, we study the effects of message framing and user attitude strength on user interactions on Facebook and Twitter in five European countries. We combine an automated content analysis of social media messages and voter survey data in a multilevel negative binomial regression approach. Findings show that migration-related messages tend to elicit more user interactions than other kinds of messages. Furthermore, the presence of a security frame in a migration-related message positively relates to the number of interactions that message will receive. However, additional analyses suggest that constituents’ attitudes towards the addressed frames are even more important. The more negatively users feel about a specific frame, the greater their engagement with the respective message. The findings have important implications for communication strategies of political elites and the state of migration discourses on social media more generally.