Educating for political campaigning on social media via enhancing technical expertise: An analysis of the candidate education practices in a Finnish conservative-liberal party

Social media are increasingly impacting election campaigns, presenting challenges for political parties when educating their candidates regarding campaigning during general elections. Consequently, this study aims to elucidate the educational grammar at play in the candidate education practices related to social media within a Finnish conservative-liberal parliamentary party. Our idea of educational grammar draws on practice theories and the Foucauldian perspective on the entanglement of power and knowledge. The research question is: How is educational grammar concerning social media constituted in the studied political party’s candidate education practices? The empirical material comprises online educational resources available on YouTube, produced by the National Coalition Party for its candidates in the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election. The analysis reveals three perspectives on how the grammar of technical expertise is constituted—requesting culturally and discursively constituted authenticity from candidates, paying attention to the materially and economically constituted measurability of campaign work, and requiring socially and politically constituted goal-orientation when approaching the public. Consequently, the educational grammar concerning campaigning on social media is constituted as an issue of technical expertise through the interplay between calls for authenticity and assessment, advocating for moderation to represent a key feature of both the ideal candidate and the ideal campaign.