Download - Please like me! Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 elections

Please like me!Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 elections!

Anders Olof Larsson Postdoctoral Fellow [email protected]!

Presentation at New trends in the public sphere? !Second Åsgårdstrand Conference on Institutional Change.!June 10-11, 2014!

http://www.firsttimeorangecounty.com/images/famous-debate-with-kennedy.jpg!

Politicians Online"-  Hyped concepts all around!

-  ”Third age of political communication” (Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999)!-  ”Postmodern campaigning” (Farrell and Webb, 2000)!-  ”New politics” (Calenda and Meijer, 2009)!

-  Nevertheless, digital media provide unique opportunities for elected officials!

-  But how often are they acted upon? And in what way?!-  ”The Internet may have the potential to change the nature of […] politics,

but we doubt that it will” (Margolis, Resnick and Tu, 1996)!

-  Influx of so-called social media!

http://mashable.com/2010/01/18/obamas-first-real-tweet/!

- How did the Norwegian party leaders make use of their Facebook presences during the 2013 ”short campaign”?

- What types of engagement (likes, shares, comments) did these

uses result in?!

Method"-  Data collection!

-  Netvizz!-  ”Short Campaign” – Aug 1st – Sep 10th, 2013 (Sep 9th election day)!-  Facebook Pages rather than Facebook Profiles!

-  For ethical reasons!-  For practical reasons!

-  548 posts!-  Small N?!-  Relevent time period!!

-  Data analysis!-  Content analysis – inter-coder reliability (Krippendorf’s α) = .81!-  Main themes coded!-  SPSS!

- Politicians providing content online -"

" Acknowledgements! Campaign Reports! Informing! Critique! Mobilization! Personal! Total"

Grande!

Hareide!

Jensen!

Lysbakken!

Marcussen!

Navarsete!

Nissen!

Solberg!

Stoltenberg!

Total"

" Acknowledgements! Campaign Reports! Informing! Critique! Mobilization! Personal! Total"

Grande! 3.7 44.4 33.3 0 11.1 7.4 100

Hareide! 1.7 41.4 15.5 1.7 13.8 25.9 100

Jensen! 2.1 29.2 27.1 16.7 20.8 4.2 100

Lysbakken! 3.1 23.4 48.4 0 18.8 6.3 100

Marcussen! 3.3 50.0 6.7 6.7 23.3 10.0 100

Navarsete! 2.6 22.1 35.1 6.5 3.9 29.9 100

Nissen! 4.2 33.3 25.0 0 29.2 8.3 100

Solberg! 3.2 34.4 23.7 3.2 15.1 20.4 100

Stoltenberg! 2.4 58.3 12.6 0.8 11.8 14.2 100

Total" 2.7 38.5 24.6 3.6 14.4 16.1 100

- Popularity of party leaders – … in terms of likes, shares, comments!

- Popularity of themes –… in terms of likes, shares, comments"

Some concluding remarks"-  Least employed themes appear as most popular!

-  Impact on strategic communication in a professionalized political environment? (Strömbäck, 2007)!

-  Attention-raising capabilities… intermedia spill-over-effects…!-  From a normative democratic perspective?!!

-  ’Liking’ compared to ’sharing’ and ’commenting’!-  The capacity to ’go viral’ needs to be reassessed!-  Less demanding forms of engagement appear as most common!-  Presence of ”clicktivists” (Karpf, 2010) – ”Slacktivism” (Morozov, 2011)!

-  Limitations!-  What is actually being said in the comments made?!-  Contexts of sharing et.c.!

Thank you for your attention.!

Anders Olof Larsson Postdoctoral Fellow [email protected]!