Ethnic politics in the digital sphere

How do organizations that represent ethnic groups communicate on the Internet? The open access dataset of a research team at the University of Konstanz opens up new possibilities for investigating the online communication behaviour of these organizations.
© Pixabay, Alexandra Koch

Frederik Gremler and Nils B. Weidmann from the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz have compiled an open access dataset from over 2000 websites as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X channels of 265 political groups: Ethnic Organizations Online (EO2). It is based on the comprehensive Ethnic Power Relations database and enables researchers to study different questions related to elections, politics and ethnic groups – for example, in peace and conflict research or communication studies.

In an open access article accompanying the EO2 dataset, the Konstanz researchers provide answers to specific questions: What are the connections between the political goals of groups on social media and the content they publish? Do elections influence how frequently social media channels are used? Are there different patterns in autocracies and democracies? How does a group's status in the political power structure (e.g. if they are part of the ruling government) affect the content of its online communications?


The EO2 dataset (doi: 10.7802/2612) and corresponding code book are freely available in the GESIS-Repository.


The article (doi: 10.1177/00223433241231844) was published open access in the Journal of Peace Research.

Amélie Kroneis

By Amélie Kroneis - 01.07.2024