The presidential candidates on Twitter during the 2009 Romanian elections

What changes introduced Twitter in political communication? Which are the advantages and disadvantages of Twitter usage in electoral communication for candidates and for voters? As the specialized literature barely mentions the use of Twitter in the Romanian elections, we shall answer the question regarding the way in which the 2009 presidential candidates used their own Twitter accounts. This article starts from the assumption that presidential candidates use the online communication tools in order to convey negative messages about their opponents. The hypothesis of the study was that the candidates used Internet, especially social media, in the negative campaign for attacking the competitors. The hypothesis was contradicted by the results of the research, which was conducted on the official Twitter accounts of the presidential campaign candidates.