Rune Karlsen

Candidate campaigning in parliamentary systems Individualized vs. localized campaigning

The individualization of politics is usually studied in relation to party leaders. Using new data from the Norwegian Candidate Survey 2009 and in-depth interviews with 29 top candidates, in this article we study whether candidates in the Norwegian 2009 parliamentary election ran party-centred or individualized campaigns. We distinguish between the organizational aspects and the communicative focus of the candidates’ campaigns. Moreover, we argue theoretically and show empirically how campaigns can be localized but still party-centred. The analysis shows that there are low levels of individualized campaigning in Norway, but that there are differences between candidates, especially based on party affiliation. Moreover, the differences are first and foremost related to the communicative focus, not the organizational aspects. While candidates highlight the importance of localizing the campaign, the results show that this is mostly about ‘translating’ the national campaign strategy to the regional or local level, not about independent local strategies.

Fear of the Political Consultant Campaign Professionals and New Technology in Norwegian Electoral Politics

In the digital age it is claimed that political parties do not have the capacity to deliver the advanced technical services that modern campaigning demands, and that much of the campaign work is better handled by political consultants. Based on the ‘hybridization’ view of campaign change, the article explores to what extent ICTs increase the need for campaign professionals, and what type of professional the technology creates a demand for. A typology of four types of campaign professionals is developed and applied to the Norwegian case. The article finds that in-house professionals are involved concerning both technical and strategy assistance, while external campaign professionals are mostly involved concerning technical assistance. The external campaign professional is a generalist specializing in his or her field, not in political communication. The in-house campaign professional seems more of a political specialist, trusted to play a role in developing campaign strategy. Parties approach the increasing prominence of ICTs in campaigning based on these existing practices: expertise is integrated in the party organization while at the same time external professionals are used for technical assistance.

A Turn to the Right: The Norwegian Parliamentary Election of September 2013

The parliamentary elections on Monday, 9 September 2013, resulted in the election defeat of the ‘red–green’ coalition of Labour, the Centre Party, and Socialist Left. After nearly eight years in government, the three centre-left parties lost majority in the Norwegian Storting. The result did not come as a big surprise, as the four opposition parties in Parliament had for a long time been in the lead according to the opinion polls, and all of them had promised not to support a new Labour-led government. On 16 October, a new coalition government headed by the Conservatives’ party leader, Erna Solberg, took office, and Norway’s new-right populist party, the Progress Party, entered government for the first time. The government is supported by the Christian People’s Party and the Liberals in Parliament. How and why did this happen?

Styles of Social Media Campaigning and Influence in a Hybrid Political Communication System Linking Candidate Survey Data with Twitter Data

Social media have the potential to influence power relations in political parties as they allow individual candidates to campaign more independently of the central party. In this paper, we scrutinize the relationship between individualization and digital social media in a study that combines the 2013 Norwegian Candidate Survey with candidates’ Twitter data. We ask, first, to what extent are social media used as an individualistic campaign tool? Second, does an individualized social media campaign style increase influence in the Twitter sphere? Third, what constitutes success on Twitter? We found two main styles of social media campaigning: a party-centered and an individualized style. Moreover, an individualized style did increase the possibility of being active on Twitter, but it had a negative effect on Twitter influence. The Twitter influentials are young, male, and relatively centrally placed in their parties. In a hybrid communication system, it appears that the candidates who gain influence in social media are those who are able to create a synergy between traditional media channels and social media.

Still Broadcasting the Campaign: On the Internet and the Fragmentation of Political Communication with Evidence from Norwegian Electoral Politics

ABSTRACT This article addresses the fragmentation of political communication in the context of Norwegian election campaigns. The fragmentation thesis refers to two distinguishable, interrelated tendencies: New technology providing incentives to tailor campaign communication to specific voter categories, and the audience fragment due to increasing number of media outlets. The consequence is asserted to be fragmented voter agendas. The findings undermine the fragmentation thesis as a general tendency. Norwegian parties hardly use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to multi-tailor campaign messages to different voter categories. The voters who considered online sources important for electoral information also identified traditional sources as important. Furthermore, the analysis offers no evidence that the voter agenda has fragmented over time, and online voters are preoccupied with the same issues as the rest of the electorate. The article addresses how both general countervailing forces as well as context-specific factors such as aspects of the law and the lack of existing practices concerning voter targeting curb the push towards fragmentation. Moreover, the campaign coverage in advanced democracies is proposed as a general constraint towards fragmentation of campaign communication.

Followers are opinion leaders: The role of people in the flow of political communication on and beyond social networking sites

One of the defining characteristics of the increasingly essential social networking sites is the network structure of the new medium. Opinion leaders are essential for the flow of communication in networks and consequently should be crucial for the flow of communication on social networking sites. Hence, to assess the political role and impact of social networking sites in electoral politics, we must find out more about the followers of parties and politicians. The aim of this article is therefore to investigate to what extent opinion leaders are more likely than others to follow parties and politicians on Facebook and whether opinion leaders are especially active in their online and offline networks, using a unique national representative web survey with more than 5700 respondents. The findings show that followers of parties and politicians on Facebook to a great extent are opinion leaders and that these opinion leaders are especially active in online and offline networks. This increases the significance of social networking sites and increases the role of opinion leaders in the flow of political communication in the society.

Obama's Online Success and European Party Organizations: Adoption and Adaptation of U.S. Online Practices in the Norwegian Labor Party

ABSTRACT The article addresses the influence of U.S. online campaign practices on West-European party organizations. The empirical case is the Norwegian Labor Party: To what extent did Labor adopt the online practices of the Obama campaign, and in what sense was the online strategy adapted to fit existing campaign and organizational structures? Based on the diffusion of technology and a hybridization perspective on campaign change, it is suggested that the literature on political parties and the network party model in particular is helpful to understand this process. The findings show that the Norwegian Labor Party was highly influenced by Obamas online campaign and U.S. online practices. However, the practices were adjusted to an existing campaign style and organizational structure. Moreover, an essential part of the online strategy was a thematic network structure that aimed to lower the threshold for participation and thereby engage and activate party members, as well as recruit new members. Hence, U.S. campaign practices diffuse to Norwegian electoral politics, and the adopted U.S. practices are implemented based on the ideals of the network party.

Does new media technology drive election campaign change

In the last decade or so the influence of the new information and communication technologies has received increasing attention in studies on election campaigning. However, little has been done to link the influence of ICTs on campaigning with the extensive literature on the impact of technology on society. My main concern in this paper is to relate a discussion of technological influence on society to a discussion of campaign change. In so doing I emphasize that the influence of new media technology is constrained by countervailing forces that restrain and shape the effects. Furthermore I argue that such countervailing forces will differ from one political system to the next depending on the features of the campaign environment. Hence, I relate the influence of technology in general and the influence of the new ICTs in particular to the hybridization perspective of campaign change, and discuss the influence of technology on the essential features of the so called third stage of campaigning in this perspective. I argue that new technologies shape and are shaped in interplay with existing campaign practices and traditions - maintaining distinct national patterns of campaigning.

Echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates

In this article, we take issue with the claim by Sunstein and others that online discussion takes place in echo chambers, and suggest that the dynamics of online debates could be more aptly described by the logic of ‘trench warfare’, in which opinions are reinforced through contradiction as well as confirmation. We use a unique online survey and an experimental approach to investigate and test echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates. The results show that people do indeed claim to discuss with those who hold opposite views from themselves. Furthermore, our survey experiments suggest that both confirming and contradicting arguments have similar effects on attitude reinforcement. Together, this indicates that both echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics – a situation where attitudes are reinforced through both confirmation and disconfirmation biases – characterize online debates. However, we also find that two-sided neutral arguments have weaker effects on reinforcement than one-sided confirming and contradicting arguments, suggesting that online debates could contribute to collective learning and qualification of arguments.

Political values count but issue ownership decides? How stable and dynamic factors influence party set and vote choice in multiparty systems

This article addresses the relationship between latent predispositions and political campaign communication. We propose that political values are decisive in a voter’s calculation of which parties she may consider voting for, constituting his or her party set. Furthermore, we argue that the theory of issue ownership contributes to explaining the choice of party within the party set. In addition to investigating salient single issue ownership, we relate issue ownership to parties presenting voters with comprehensive policy packages and study the effect of cumulative issue ownership, that is, issue ownership in several policy areas. We test the hypotheses using data from the Norwegian Election Study of 2009. Our findings support our expectations: stable elements affect which parties are included in the party set, and issue ownership affect the choice between the parties within the set. However, political values also affect the choice between parties in the set. Finally, our data show that cumulative issue ownership has a greater effect than issue ownership of one particularly salient issue. The final section of the article discusses the implications for the theory of issue ownership in general and the model presented in this article in particular.