Great workshop, great people, great mountains! ✨

Final sessions of this semester’s PolCom Classics are here 🎬

Join us for:
👉Apr 14 – Stuart Soroka: Negativity Bias
👉May 28 – Nayla Fawzi: Populist Media
👉Jun 24 – Sanne Kruikemeier: Artificial Intelligence

Free to attend. Register via QR code - links sent after signup 🔗

📢 CALL FOR PAPERS

PoliticologenEtmaal 2026

Join us at the third edition of our workshop Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps: Gender, Challenges and Transformations in Democratic Representation

➡️ Full call: politicologenetmaal.eu/workshops-20...

🗓 Deadline: March 15, 2026

🚨Last few days to submit a paper to PolEtmaal 2026

📣 SAVE THE DATE 📣

Prof. Dr. Richard Katz (Johns Hopkins) will deliver a lecture at Ghent University on 19 March 2026 on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate.

📍 Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Ghent (Room 3.1)
🕑 2:00–3:00 PM

Open to all (registration required): tinyurl.com/3w95646v

🚨 Next GASPAR Guest Lecture Series 🚨

📢 Call for Papers 📢

Working on gender, representation and democratic processes?

Join us in Ghent for the next PolEtmaal (11-12 June) and the third “Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps” workshop!

📅 Submission Deadline: March 15, 2025

👉 More information: politicologenetmaal.eu/workshops-20...

Could not recommend this more! Stellar Summer School ✨

Last days to register 🚨

BJPolS abstract of a scholarly article discussing the influence of legislators' gender on the questioning behaviors in parliamentary activities.

NEW -

Gender Bias in Legislative Oversight: Do Parliamentarians Control Women Ministers More Tightly than Men Ministers? - https://cup.org/45Rm9Z6

- @corinnakroeber.bsky.social, @lenastephan.bsky.social, @sarahdingler.bsky.social & @camilamontero.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

🚨 Last days to register! 🚨

The first PolCom Classics of the year is happening.
🗓️ online, January 29, 17:00 CET

Amber Boydstun will focus on agenda-setting, a key topic of interest for the PolCom community. Don't miss out!

Registration closes January 28!

📣 It’s time for the first PolCom Classics of the year!

We’re diving into agenda-setting with Amber E. Boydstun from UC Davis.

🗓 January 29, 17:00–18:00 CET, online
(note the time change due to time differences)

📲 Register via the QR code or the link down below 👇

We hope to see you there! ✨

🚨 SAVE THE DATE 🚨

Brain full after a day of ETMAAL papers? 🧠

Join us for the first PolCom Quiz Night - a short, fun, low-key networking quiz to wind down before heading to the reception.

🎟️ Free registration via QR code or link
🗓️ Feb 5 | 17:45–18:30

✨ Early career researchers especially welcome!

Playing nice? A longitudinal analysis of gender differences in negative campaigning on social media This study offers a multidimensional analysis of gendered patterns in online negative campaigning during the 2019 and 2024 Belgian elections. Drawing on six months of Twitter data – all 25,111 twee...

🎉 NEW ARTICLE

I'm excited to share my latest research, now out in Journal of Information Technology & Politics.

Seems like all politicians go negative - but some go more negative than others, and in different ways.

📊 25k tweets - 437 candidates, two elections and six months of campaigning

It's already time for the third session of our PolCom Classics!

This round, we’re diving into mediatization & media logic with none other than @jesperstromback.bsky.social

🗓 November 27
⏰ 12:00–13:00 CET

📲 Register via the QR code or the link below — hope to see you there!

If you survive Deutsche Bahn, I'm gonna buy you not one but two coffees!

Time flies! Almost halfway through my research stay at the University of Amsterdam with @aissr.bsky.social, hosted by Daphne van der Pas.

Great conversations, good progress, a half-marathon and even some rain-free days ☀️

I’ll be here until mid-December and happy to connect for a coffee or chat!

Waarom sommige partijleden actiever zijn dan anderen Deze blogpost is een herwerkte versie van de paper van Hannelore Huyghe, Andreas De Coninck, Camille Goeminne en Lara Reyskens. Bachelorstudenten Bestuurskunde en Publiek Management aan de Universi…

Trots op het werk van onze studenten! 🎓

Waarom zijn sommige partijleden actiever dan anderen?

Vier van onze studenten BPM onderzochten dit vorig semester voor het vak ‘Samenleving en Politiek’. Dit leverde hen de prijs op voor beste paper 🥇

Lees meer: gasparblogt.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/w...

Thanks to everyone who joined our inaugural PolCom Classics webinar with @rensvliegenthart.bsky.social !
🎥 The recording’s up on YouTube — see flyer for details.

Next up: @solecheler.bsky.social on Framing, now on Nov 6, from 12:00 - 13:00 CET.

📲 Register via the QR code or the link below

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

🚨New Online First Article!🚨

From Marginalized to Mainstream? An International Comparative Analysis of Gender Differences in Social Media Adoption and Activity by Politicians in Non-Election Times

By @elisestorme.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

The broader goal: to map how gender shapes political communication on social media - from who posts, to what they post, to how citizens respond. Stay tuned! 🚀

This paper is only the first step. Next up:

🔎 A content analysis of 250,000+ social media posts → do women & men post differently?
🧪 A survey experiment with AI-generated images → how do voters react to different communication styles?

Taken together, our findings complicate sweeping claims that digital media either flatten or entrench power hierarchies. In routine times, Twitter/X does not widen gender gaps, but neither does it dramatically close them.

Results (unexpected!):

❌ No significant gender differences
❌ No systematic cross-country variation

Do two forces cancel each other out? Equalization (women gain access) vs. Normalization (established actors’ resources & algorithms) + hostile online environments may still deter women’s activity.

Hypotheses:

▶️Women politicians are more likely to adopt
▶️Women politicians are more active users
▶️Gender gaps are larger in countries where women hold less political power

📊 The data: 1,246 MPs in Finland, Belgium, Germany & Ireland → 4 countries with different levels of political power for women

I collected whether each MP had a Twitter/X account and measured their activity (Tweets, Quote Tweets and reactions) for the whole year of 2022.

Unlike most studies (which focus on campaigns), I looked at non-election times - the everyday politics that shape reputations & long-term visibility.

Why this matters:

Traditional media & party gatekeepers restrict women’s visibility. Social media has been hailed as a possible equalizer. But does it really level the playing field?

From Marginalized to Mainstream? An International Comparative Analysis of Gender Differences in Social Media Adoption and Activity by Politicians in Non-Election Times - Elise Storme, 2025 Traditional media and party gatekeepers are found to restrict women's visibility and influence in politics. Social media, however, is seen as a potential m...

🚀🎉 Thrilled to share that the first paper of my PhD dissertation is now published in Political Studies Review: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Does social media help women politicians overcome barriers in visibility - or does it just replicate old hierarchies?

A short 🧵