Account selection & observation
Defined monitoring universe
Monitoring begins with a defined universe of accounts rather than an uncontrolled keyword sample. Accounts are selected according to electoral relevance, institutional role, party representation, audience size and observable social-media activity.
All contesting parties with relevant social accounts are included after their electoral status is verified. Political leaders are included. For parties with at least approximately 1% support in credible recent polling, additional leading candidates are selected by candidate-list position, followership, posting frequency and political relevance. Larger electoral forces receive broader candidate coverage.
Platform selection
- availability on the platform
- followers/subscribers
- activity level
- political relevance
- comparability of available metrics
The same actor may be monitored on more than one platform.
Influencers
Influencers are never auto-enrolled. Inclusion requires a written justification based on political audience, election-related activity, amplification behaviour, engagement and/or recurring network prominence.
Engagement
Each post is compared with the average engagement of posts from the same account and platform during the preceding three days.
LOW: more than 10% below baseline.
MEDIUM: within ±10%.
HIGH: more than 10% above baseline.
The baseline window, tolerance, minimum observations and follower normalisation are configurable.
Coding provenance
Machine-generated coding and human-verified coding are stored separately. Human correction does not erase the earlier machine result.