ELECTIONS TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT THROUGH THE PRISM OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN ELECTORAL RESOURCE

The article considers the social media as a relatively new tool for electoral and political activities for creating a positive image of political parties and candidates (on the example of the European Parliament). The social media are becoming increasingly important in the nowadays world politics due to the growing number of the Internet users, the fall in the popularity of traditional media, and the fast spread of new media as well as the transformation of the Internet into the area for active political actions. The key role in the formation of the political image belongs to political institutions (parties, government agencies), certain politicians and public figures, as well as to representatives of the electorate, i.e. population. The analysis of the efforts of various political actors in the social media allows to identify their three basic functions: a tool to increase voter turnout; a tool to increase the popularity of candidates and parties; a tool to increase public awareness of the political and electoral processes in general. Currently the most serious obstacle for strategic studies of social networks is the tremendous pace of their technological development that complicates long-term predictions in the field. However, despite the lack of universally accepted criteria for assessing the efficiency of political activities in the social media, the author believes that the key success factor is the so-called "permanent presence" of electoral subjects in the Internet.