The Obama Effect The Perception of Campaigning 2.0 in Swedish National Elections 2010 (original) (raw)
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Policy & Internet, 2011
It is often argued that new technology will increase centralization of political parties but Internet-based technologies, especially the social media, provide individual candidates with opportunities to run campaigns more independently of the central party. This article argues that the effect of new technology depends on the contextual characteristics of the campaign, most importantly the nomination process and the electoral system. It investigates the effect of online social media on individual candidate campaigning through a study of parliamentary candidates'use of social media in the 2009 Norwegian election campaign, a campaign environment with few incentives for candidates to undertake individualized campaigning, using the 2009 Norwegian Candidate Study. Findings reveal that online social media are much appreciated by candidates and are used to a great extent. The technological effect on individual campaigning appears small as candidates who consider social media important do not focus on their own candidacy to a greater extent than other candidates. However, candidates with an individualized candidate focus are more inclined to use Facebook and consider social media important for their campaign communication. Consequently, although social media in the short run are not likely to increase individualized campaigning as such, candidates with a candidate focus have been offered a new channel for selfpromotion.
Online and Undecided: Voters and the Internet in the Contemporary Norwegian Election Campaign
Scandinavian Political Studies, 2010
This article addresses the Internet as a campaign communication channel, and the approach is to explore voters' use of the Internet for electoral information in the contemporary Norwegian campaign.Theoretically it is argued for a distinction between party-controlled and uncontrolled online communication channels, and this distinction proves important as patterns of use differ between these two types of the new media. Based on digital inequalities and assertions of web campaigning being 'preaching to the converted', the article explores the factors that contribute to the use of the Internet for electoral information, and to what extent online voters are available on the electoral market. The article finds that the Internet was an important information source for a relatively small, but nonetheless substantial, part of the electorate. However, most other channels of communication were considered more important. Digital inequalities related to socioeconomic status and gender are mostly about following the campaign on online newspapers (uncontrolled), not acquiring information from party websites (controlled). Moreover, while the youngest, most inexperienced voters visited party websites to a greater extent than their older cohorts,they did not follow the campaign on online newspapers to a greater extent.Furthermore, online voters are not 'converted' to a party, but are available on the electoral market.
Can the Internet Swing the Vote? Results from a study of the 2007 Danish parliamentary election
2008
This article investigates whether political use of the Internet affects users politically. Using a combination of log- and survey data from a study of Internet use during the Danish 2007 parliamentary election, and inspired by theories on agenda setting and on the active/interactive user, three hypotheses are tested: 1) that those who use the Internet most intensively politically are also the most politically affected, 2) that "net activists" (web 2.0 users) are affected more by their political Internet use than "information seekers" (web 1.0 users), and 3) that those who are somewhat or little interested in politics are those most affected by their political Internet use in an election period. All three hypotheses are verified with some modifications. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that socio-demographic factors like age, gender, education and income are of little importance in explaining variation in how voters are affected by their political Internet use. Rat...
New Hopes for Democracy or a Pirated Elite? Swedish Social Media Users and Political Mobilisation
2010
In this study, a group of Swedish social media users -politically active as well as "unpolitical" users -are interviewed in focus groups as well as individually about their attitudes towards online political participation, providing a deeper, more informed view of how social media participation works. Sweden, with its high levels of voluntary participation and with an avant-garde position in Internet, broadband and social media penetration, could indeed function as a most-likely case for studying whether social media has any positive effects on participation. The participants in the study are well-educated, young and comfortable using the Internet, further increasing the probability of finding individuals engaged in digital activism.
Social media campaigning in Europe: Mapping the terrain
Journal of Information Technology & Politics
The evolution of political communication as a practice has seen political actors constantly adapting to communication technologies. Scammell (1994) documents how, as a gubernatorial candidate, Theodore Roosevelt exploited the potential of embedded pictures in print news, and how UK prime minister Stanley Baldwin employed actors to help him develop the appropriate tone of voice for radio to match the news he was imparting. Later, Ronald Reagan pioneered the televisual performance, while in the UK Margaret Thatcher was redefining prime ministerial media management. While mainstream political figures innovated with traditional media the pioneers of Internet campaigning were largely outsiders; challengers to the US two-party system. When former wrestler Jesse Ventura crowdsourced support for his 1998 insurgent campaign that won him the Governorship of Minnesota, he demonstrated how an outsider could challenge the establishment using digital technology. The unsuccessful but ground breaking campaign of Democrat candidate Howard Dean in 2003 demonstrated the utility of an online crowdfunding strategy. It was Dean's innovative style that would inform the Obama campaign of 2007-8, who would harness the full potential of social media to reach out to voters, earn donations as well as building a campaign infrastructure across the US by harnessing the enthusiasm of his young support base (Lilleker & Jackson, 2011) as well as an established progressive online activist network (Karpf, 2012; Kreiss, 2012). While the history of innovative use of technology has a US-centric flavour, one should not underestimate the impact of these developments across Western democracies. Campaign strategists travel the world learning how to campaign and what innovations work, shopping around to learn the latest tactical advantages (Plasser & Plasser, 2003) and then adapting them for competitive advantage in their home nations (Lees-Marshment & Lilleker, 2012). The developments have largely seen digital technology employed to further the objectives of the campaign, not creating interactive spaces where citizens and politicians can meet or where political issues of the day are debated (Lilleker & Vedel, 2013). Hence, technology is employed to meet the requirements of a campaign with minimal adaptation to the content of political communication. The communication forms appropriate to technologies, with Twitter and Facebook as was formerly the case with radio and television, become incorporated into the toolboxes and repertoires of political campaigners. In turn, as digital technologies increasingly become embedded in political communication, research has burgeoned with works exploring the way in which email, websites and more recently the plethora of
E-Electioneering 2007–13: Trends in Online Political Campaigns over Three Elections
Media International Australia
Following the 2004 US presidential election campaign, which was described as 'a critical turning point' in use of social media, and particularly the 2008 Obama campaign, there has been increasing focus on use of social media for political campaigning and what is termed eelectioneering and e-democracy. However, studies of election campaigns between 2010 and 2012 in a number of countries have identified what Steve Woolgar (2002) calls cyberbole in relation to social media for political engagement. With substantive patterns of change in political communication yet to be identified, a quantitative and qualitative study of social media use in the 2013 Australian federal election campaign was conducted using the same methodology as studies of the 2007 and 2010 campaigns to gain comparative longitudinal data. This identified trends in the volume of e-electioneering and the ways in which social media are being used for political communication and democratic engagement.
ePart conference/Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series, 2014
Online campaigning has been on the agenda of Norwegian political parties since 2001. In 2007, there were some early attempts at online campaigning through social networking systems (SNS) during the municipal elections. 2009 was the first time SNS’ were used for campaigning on a national level by all the political parties represented in parliament. This study follows up an earlier study of the 2009 election by examining the communication genres being used by Norwegian political parties in the 2013 parliamentary election. The 2009 study concluded that a genre system for online campaigning was emerging in SNS’, and presented an overview of this system. This paper shows that the genre system is slowly moving towards an established system, and that while still not fully sorted out, previous issues, such as a lack of two-way communication, is being addressed by the parties. The study concludes that campaigning in SNS’ is slowly moving more and more towards the objectives of politics 2.0.
New Media Amp Society, 2012
Sweden, with a high level of political participation and an avant-garde position regarding internet access, broadband and social media penetration in the population, is a critical case for studying social media in relation to political participation. Three types of users -members of political parties, members of interest organizations, and non-members -are interviewed in focus groups about their attitudes to political content in the social network site Facebook. The discussions show that although practices and attitudes vary, using social network sites alone does not drive previously inactive respondents to political participation. Respondents who are members of interest organizations view social network sites as valuable tools for participation, whereas respondents who are not refrain from sharing political views with their friends. They are exposed to political content and requests for participation, but prefer generally to remain passive.