Lula highlights social issues and engages less than Bolsonaro – 04/10/2023 – Politics

Social agendas, such as human rights, health and the fight against hunger, gained prominence in the communication of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the first hundred days of his third government, completed this Monday (10).

About 42% of the publications made by the president’s Twitter profile since taking office deal with this thematic group, against only 17% of the predecessor’s posts in the same period —Jair Bolsonaro (PL) took office in January 2019.

Even with the efforts of Lula’s team to make PT communication more dynamic, Bolsonaro was well ahead in terms of engagement during the period. Lula published more, but the former president managed to garner more likes and interactions with the public on the social network.

Bolsonaro’s digital strategy was also supported in his weekly lives, always broadcast on Thursdays on YouTube. Lula’s team rehearsed a premiere of the president on a podcast, but still haven’t closed a “digital agenda” with their audience. He should start broadcasting live, just like his predecessor.

DeltaFolha analyzed the behavior of both on Twitter because the social network is the only one whose platform for programmers allows automated data extraction. In addition, it is the most used tool to measure public debate, as publications reach people beyond followers.

With an account created four years earlier (2010), Bolsonaro has 11.2 million followers, while Lula (2014) has 7.5 million. Bolsonaro’s messages in the first hundred days of government have an average of 33,200 likes and 4,198 retweets. Lula’s profile registers 16,600 and 1,603, respectively.

The report analyzed the 1,570 publications that Lula and Bolsonaro add up in the initial stretch of their respective mandates – retweets and direct responses to followers were disregarded.

The messages were categorized based on keywords linked to the specific performance of each government ministry, in an automated way, with the help of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence model. Afterwards, these topics were grouped by the report into four major themes (politics, economy, society and environment).

The first hundred days are considered decisive for a new government. It is when the ruler tries to take advantage of the higher popularity ratings after the election to establish agreements and define guidelines.

The PT had a communication more focused on topics related to human rights and racial or gender equality (15%), poverty and social assistance (8%), education and health (6% each).

Bolsonaro, in turn, wrote more about infrastructure and transport (8%), security (7%) and economy (6%).

In his profile, Lula recognized the priority given to social issues and, in a second moment, to the economic agenda focused on the middle class.

“When we complete the 100 days, we will have returned with all the public policies that we created and that worked in this country”, he wrote on March 20. “From there, we are going to show other things, above all to improve the purchasing power of the middle class,” he added.

In common, both used the network mainly to highlight government measures or comment on institutional or party policy issues, in addition to foreign relations – the two met with other heads of state and made four international trips in the period, recording many of these agendas. on the platform.

Bolsonaro explored direct interaction with followers much more than Lula – 9.3% of his publications were daily greetings without much pomp, thanks, emojis and calls for events and live broadcasts. Lula’s profile only did this in 1.7% of the posts.

Despite having published less, Bolsonaro’s page has almost triple the number of hashtags and direct mentions of other users compared to Lula’s. The former president made 591 posts in the period, compared to 979 for the current one.

Lula’s average is pulled up by some tweets that went viral, but Bolsonaro’s profile shows greater constancy of popularity.

In addition to engaging more, Bolsonaro attacked the press and opponents more frequently, following former US President Donald Trump’s digital playbook.

The analysis shows that 7.9% of Bolsonaro’s publications were about attacks on the press, ideology and party or media polarization, compared to 2.6% for Lula in the sum of these same topics.

The current president has a more institutional presence in the network. Some messages are accompanied by the hashtag #EquipeLula, indicating that the post was made by advisors. Bolsonaro’s social media strategy was led by his son Carlos Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro councilor for the Republicans.

One of the frequent uses –and which helps to explain the weight of social issues in the PT profile– is the publication of official speeches, often in full. This happened at the inauguration, on International Women’s Day and at the relaunch of Bolsa Família, for example.