Contents of the study
1Health in general
Key takeaways Health share of voice by candidate Political positioning Timeline & news Before / after Covid Health versus other topics25 themes
Key takeaways Hierarchy of themes Candidate × theme heatmap Consensus / dissensus Key verbatims⭐Health influencers
Key takeaways Candidate radar (matrix) Health lobbies: who cites them? Ranking by theme Who carries the topics?§Methodology
Methodology & limitationsHealth in the candidates’ words
Do they speak about health? How, from what angle and with what political positioning? Has what they say changed since Covid? Do they react to the news?
Share of posts devoted to health, by candidate
“Do the candidates speak about health topics?” - % of the candidate’s posts that match the health queries (colour = political bloc)
From what angle is health approached?
“Alone or in connection with another topic?” - co-occurrence of health posts with other registers
A health post can combine several angles. “Health only” = no other register detected.
Political positioning
“Analysis of positioning (left, right, centre, extremes)” - % of health posts by bloc
Monthly volume of health posts and news
“Are positions taken in reaction to the news or proactive?” - hover over the orange dots to see the events (PLFSS, Covid, TikTok committee…)
Before / after Covid (March 2020)
“Has there been more speaking out since Covid?” - % health before vs after Covid (candidates most active on health)
Which network carries health the most?
“Does one network stand out from the others?” - number of health posts by network (volume; the network’s % health on hover)
Is health a priority? Comparison of topics
“Which topics interest them more than health?” - % of each candidate’s posts devoted to each topic (top 16 candidates by volume)
Thematic lexicons applied to all posts. A post can cover several topics.
The 5 health themes
Access to care · Healthy ageing · e-health · Environmental health · Mental health - who speaks, on what, in what register? Where are the consensuses and dissensuses?
Hierarchy of the 5 themes
“Which is the most important vs the least important?” - volume of posts by theme
Monthly trend by theme
How each theme evolves over time
Candidate × theme heatmap
“Which candidate talks the most about each theme?” - number of posts (green = high volume). Top 20 health candidates.
Register: factual vs emotional
“Reports and figures, or emotion?” - share of health posts containing factual markers (figures, reports, studies) vs emotional ones (top 15 health candidates)
Lexical heuristic, indicative. The two registers can coexist in the same post.
Consensus / dissensus by political bloc
“On certain topics, consensus? dissensus?” - % of the bloc’s health posts devoted to each theme
Key verbatims
Most engaging health posts by theme (likes + comments + shares)
Parliamentary activity (Follaw)
“Behaviour in the institutions: amendments, private member’s bills, written questions, speeches”
Part 2 - coming soon Cross-referencing with the parliamentary activity of candidates who are MPs or senators (Guedj, Vallaud, Faure, Autain, Batho, Lucas, Le Pen…) via Follaw: amendments and written questions tabled on health texts (PLFSS, end of life, Valletoux law) vs statements on social media - to identify who acts in the institutions and who communicates.
The candidates’ ecosystem
Who can influence the candidates? Built from the followings graph (X, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, Threads) - whom do the candidates follow, and who is present in several ecosystems?
The accounts with the most influence among the candidates
“Who has the capacity to influence the candidates? Are some people present in several ecosystems?” - indegree = number of candidates who follow the account
Audience categories in the ecosystems
“Isolating categories: public health, pharma, health professionals, journalists, influencers, wellness”
Engagement on health posts
“Does health get the communities reacting?” - average engagement (likes + comments + shares) on health posts vs other posts, by network
Graph communities
“Interactive map” - communities detected (Louvain) on the merged graph of 5 networks: 1,468 nodes, 9,527 links
Full interactive map: Sigma graph available - and the corpus can be browsed in Connexia.
Do they reshare health posts?
“Candidate engagement: do they reshare health posts?” - share of reposts among the candidate’s health posts
Health influencers & experts
By default, this view shows only genuine health profiles (doctors, carers, experts) active on the theme - period , ranked by engagement, with the political leaning of their ecosystem (Social Impact Score model). The Connexia corpus (1,327 accounts, heavily political and media-oriented) tracks only a handful of them: this is a limitation of the corpus, not of the analysis. The “all profiles” view shows who else carries these topics (politicians, civil society…) - they are relays, not health influencers.
🩺 Health influencers on the candidates’ radar
Health accounts (corpus + proposed list of 89 French health players: influencers, professionals, patient associations, lobbies/unions, federations, mutual insurers and health companies) that the candidates follow on social media - an influence signal independent of posts, drawn from the followings graph. A strong finding: no candidate follows a single health lobby, association or company; only the individual medical figures below are on their radar.
How to read: one dot = at least one of the candidate’s accounts (X, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, Threads) follows this profile; the colour indicates the candidate’s political bloc. Candidates in columns, sorted from left to right on the political spectrum. Hover over a dot to see the network concerned.
Top engagement
The accounts in the current view that generate the most engagement on the selected theme
Most followed on the theme
Cumulative audience across all networks (Connexia followers_total) of the accounts in the current view active on the theme
Who carries the topics? Breakdown by profile
“Health professionals, influencers…?” - breakdown of the theme’s engagement by type of player
Health lobbies & organisations
The candidates do not follow any health lobby, association or company (see the Influencers tab) - but do they cite them in their posts? Mentions of the 57 health organisations on the list (unions, professional bodies, federations, patient associations, pharma, institutions, mutual insurers, companies).
🏛️ Health lobbies in the candidates’ words
Mentions in the posts by the candidates, 2019 → 2026.
Who cites whom? Mentions by candidate
How to read: number of posts by the candidate (column) citing the organisation (row). Intensity = volume. Most-cited organisations shown; candidates sorted from left to right on the political spectrum. ⚠️ A mention is not an endorsement: Pfizer is cited above all… by vaccine-sceptic accounts.
Breakdown by organisation
Detection by exact expressions (word boundaries, strict case for ambiguous acronyms such as AIDES/HAS/FHF). Roche is undercounted (name too common). Organisations never cited do not appear.
Health posts - explore
The posts classified as “health”, with the themes applied (health sub-themes + narrative angle) - to check and understand the classification. Filter by candidate, theme, angle or network, or search for a word.
Classification: health sub-themes = Connexia expert queries (green chips); narrative angle = indicative lexicon (blue chips). 120 cards displayed, sorted by engagement - refine the filters; the full export of the 3,376 posts is in the Excel workbook (“Posts” tab).
🏛️ Parliamentary health activity - offline (Follaw)
Beyond social media, the legislative health activity of the candidates who are parliamentarians: written and oral questions and amendments mentioning health (source: Follaw Gateway, health lexical filter, indicative). A speech is not a stance.