From Agenda Setting to Melding: How Individuals Part of Certain On-line Groups Change Their Electoral Behavior amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Do certain on-line groups influence the individual’s behavior? Moreover, do certain on-line groups tend to influence his or her electoral behavior amid the COVID-19 pandemic? This article aims to assess how or whether being a specific on-line group member (Facebook, WhatsApp, or the equivalent) could hold any influence regarding the individual’s trust in authorities, voting behavior, and if these groups can be a catalyst in this sense. The theoretical part of the article begins with explaining how public perception and its emotional-based elements work, proceeds with analyz- ing throughout agenda setting, priming, framing, second-level agenda-set- ting to agenda melding theories. The practical part of the article consists of explaining how the on-line groups influence the individual throughout sev- eral focus groups involving young politicians and people involved in daily politics. The overall context focuses on local elections in Romania. This ar- ticle proposes an explanation via aforementioned communication theories, on how mass media manages to shape the individuals’ set of opinions and eventually their behavior and how some individuals tend to change their beliefs influenced by certain groups. Mass media holds the ability to stir the public perception by using various techniques such as agenda-setting – by emphasizing different effects of the Corona crisis, priming – by setting several topics’ evaluation frameworks such as infection rates, hospitals’ situation, framing – by using specifics frames and filters to picture the cur- rent pandemic and even pushing individuals to meld their own sets of val- ues and doxies with the ones from familiar social groups. In other words, making them question whether it is safe to go and vote.