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Campaign Teams and Campaign Managers in the Digital Party

Cyber Politics
Political Parties
Campaign
Adrià Mompó
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Oscar Barberà
University of Valencia
Adrià Mompó
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Abstract

Political campaigning in the digital era is featured by the growing importance of data collection, online communication technologies, and personality-based targeting. Alongside this, we are witnessing the rise of third-party actors, such as non-member supporters, who seek to participate in campaigns and influence their outcomes (Roemmele and Gibson, 2020; Dommet et al., 2024). The aim of this paper is to analyze how political parties are adapting to digital campaigning, focusing on the transformation of their campaign staff and the professional expertise of campaign managers. We hypothesize that the roles of data analysts and online communication experts are becoming increasingly significant, often at the expense of more traditional profiles, such as press journalists. In addition, we examine the organisational challenges associated with this shift, including the involvement of third-party actors and how parties integrate their efforts into a coordinated strategy. We expect to find a preference for internally-trained staff in the long run, regardless of the eventual collaboration of external supports. Our data is drawn from press archives and a survey conducted with key members of the campaign teams of Spain’s main political parties, both at the national and regional levels.