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Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

ONLINE,  ALL  THE  TIME?  A  QUANTITATIVE  ASSESSMENT  OF  THE  PERMANENT   CAMPAIGN  ON  FACEBOOK       Anders  Olof  Larsson   Department  of  Media  and  Communication   University  of  Oslo     andersoloflarsson.se   [email protected]     ABSTRACT   Many  claims  have  been  made  regarding  the  influence  of  social  media  like  Facebook  on   activities  undertaken  by  political  actors.  While  the  study  of  online  political   communication  provides  a  rich  body  of  research,  few  studies  have  attempted  to  uncover   tendencies  of  so-­‐called  permanent  campaigning  in  online  environments.  The  term   signifies  campaign-­‐like  activities  at  the  hands  of  politicians  also  during  non-­‐election   periods  and  has  spawned  a  number  of  conceptual  discussions.  The  present  paper   presents  an  exploratory  effort,  studying  traces  of  permanent  campaigning  in  two  similar   countries  –  Norway  and  Sweden.  As  the  former  of  these  countries  underwent  a   parliamentary  election  during  the  studied  period,  the  study  provides  insights  into  ‘the   election  effect’  –  heightened  levels  of  online  activity  among  the  Norwegian  parties  and   politicians  that  can  perhaps  best  be  understood  in  relation  to  an  ongoing  election.                          

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

INTRODUCTION   The  suggested  democratic  and  parliamentary-­‐political  aspects  of  so-­‐called  new  media   are  recurring  themes  in  the  literature  on  online  political  communication.  As  the  Internet   has  “vexed  academics  and  commentators”  (Wright  2011:  245)  since  its  popularization  in   the  mid-­‐1990s,  mixed  results  and  interpretations  regarding  the  role  of  the  online  for   political  purposes  have  been  put  forth.  Indeed,  in  an  early  study  from  1996,  Margolis  et.   al.  suggested  that  “the  Internet  may  have  the  potential  to  change  the  nature  […]  of  world   politics,  but  we  doubt  that  it  will”  (1996:  75).  While  many  such  claims  of  unearthed   potentials  seem  to  hold  true  also  in  later  studies  (e.g.  Larsson  2013a,  Karpf  2012,   Dahlgren  2005),  echoing  the  often-­‐discussed  normalization  hypothesis,  scholars  have   also  found  support  for  what  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  its  antithesis  –  the  equalization   hypothesis,  suggesting  traces  of  the  Internet  functioning  as  some  form  of  political   engagement  panacea,  “allowing  new  forms  of  political  participation  which  previously   did  not  exist”  (Anduiza  et  al.  2009:  862).     The  study  of  citizens  online  has  been  complemented  with  scrutiny  of  the  Internet   activities  of  those  holding  or  seeking  parliamentary  power  –  i.e.  politicians  up  for   election.  While  hosting  your  own  web  site  has  become  “virtually  mandatory”  (Druckman   et  al.  2007:  426)  for  those  seeking  office,  recent  developments  towards  a  supposed  2.0   paradigm  of  web  publishing  has  reinstated  the  necessity  to  maintain  an  active  online   presence.  This  time  around,  the  focus  lays  not  on  self-­‐hosted  web  pages,  but  rather  on   so-­‐called  social  media  like  Facebook  or  Twitter  –  ready-­‐made  platforms  were  users   supposedly  come  to  socialize  and  communicate.  Moreover,  while  the  notion  of  the   permanent  campaign,  suggesting  blurred  lines  between  campaigning  and  governing  was   first  coined  in  the  1970s  (e.g.  Blumenthal  1980),  the  ‘always-­‐on’  logic  of  social  media  has   led  to  suggestions  that  such  continuous  endeavors  by  politicians  might  be  on  the  rise   (e.g.  Klinger  2013,  Tenscher  2013,  Vergeer  et  al.  2011).  Employing  an  overarching,   structural  approach,  the  present  study  employs  a  series  of  quantitative  analyses  in  order   to  assess  the  degree  to  which  political  actors  make  use  of  their  Facebook  Pages  outside   of  as  well  as  during  election  periods  –  and  how  this  use  is  reflected  in  their  online   following.  Taking  the  aforementioned  normalization  and  equalization  hypotheses  as   conceptual  starting  points,  this  exploratory  study  traces  tendencies  for  both  hypotheses   with  specific  regard  to  the  issue  of  permanent  campaigning  in  a  data  set  which  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

encompasses  empirical  material  from  two  similar  countries:  Norway  and  Sweden.  As  the   former  of  the  two  case  countries  underwent  an  election  during  September  of  2013,  the   longitudinal  focus  of  the  present  study  will  allow  for  assessment  of  what  this  paper   tentatively  labels  as  the  ‘election  effect’  –  structural  patterns  of  activity  that  can  perhaps   best  be  understood  as  traces  of  electoral  campaigning.       While  case  study  type  research  settings  have  provided  important  insights  regarding  the   Internet  use  of  politicians,  the  paper  at  hand  seeks  to  lessen  the  suggested  dearth  of   comparative  studies  on  the  present  topic  (e.g.  Lisi  2013,  Vergeer  et  al.  2012,  Vaccari   2008a,  de  Vreese  2009,  Enli  and  Skogerbø  2013).  Moreover,  the  design  employed  not   only  permits  the  measurement  of  Facebook  Page  activity  as  a  continuous  variable  rather   than  a  dichotomous  one  (Strandberg  2013),  it  does  so  in  a  setting  that  allows  for   comparison  between  individual  politicians  and  the  party  organizations  to  which  they   belong  (Klinger  2013).  This  is  done  outside  a  US/UK  context  (Hermans  and  Vergeer   2012)  in  two  countries  characterized  by  high  numbers  of  voter  engagement  as  well  as   Internet  penetration  and  use  (Gustafsson  2012,  Karlsen  2011).       PERMANENT  CAMPAIGNING  –  TRACES  OF  NORMALIZATION  OR  INNOVATION?     The  debate  regarding  the  political  consequences  of  Internet  use  at  the  hands  of   politicians  has  largely  circled  around  a  series  of  dichotomies,  denoting  similar  themes  of   optimistic  or  pessimistic  approaches  to  these  ongoing  developments.  Indeed,  the  pairing   of  innovation  (sometimes  equalization)  and  normalization  is  used  quite  often  to  denote   different  views  on  the  topic  at  hand  (e.g.  Margolis  and  Resnick  2000,  Gibson  et  al.  2008,   Larsson  and  Svensson  2014).    The  former  of  these  terms  suggests  that  as  the  Internet   allows  politicians  to  “communicate  directly  with  citizens  without  direct  interference   from  the  mass  media”  (Hermans  and  Vergeer  2012:  74),  such  possibilities  for  increased   interaction  would  be  incorporated  by  those  seeking  public  office.  Given  the  lack  of   resources  often  found  among  smaller  or  fringe  parties,  the  Internet  was  often  thought  of   as  providing  an  “opening  for  the  outsiders”  (Strandberg  2009:  835).  Specifically,  the   proposed  low  cost  and  potential  broad  reach  of  the  new  medium  was  seen  as  especially   interesting  for  such  smaller  actors,  who  would  supposedly  be  able  to  level  the  political   playing  field  through  supposed  innovative  use  of  new  technology.  While  such  largely  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

conceptual  musings  did  indeed  come  to  fruition  in  at  least  a  few  instances,  suggesting   equalizing  tendencies  related  to  the  employment  of  online  techniques  by  comparatively   diminutive  political  actors  (e.g.  Gibson  et  al.  2008,  Strandberg  2009,  Gibson  2004),   empirically  based  research  have  largely  suggested  otherwise.  Especially  for  comparably   later  scholarly  efforts,  innovation  in  terms  of  the  utilization  of  novel  online  practices  is   largely  found  among  more  established  actors  such  as  larger  parties  (e.g.  Tenscher  2013,   Strandberg  2013)  or  incumbents  (e.g.  Williams  and  Gulati  2012)  -­‐  findings  that  instead   suggest  a  normalization  of  the  online.  While  we  should  be  wary  to  draw  any  firm   conclusions,  it  would  seem  that  while  innovative  practices  can  certainly  be  noted  among   actors  big  and  small,  the  actual  use  of  social  media  such  as  Facebook  by  politicians  is   often  characterized  as  a  “Web  1.5”  approach  –  suggesting  a  hybrid  of  top-­‐down  ‘Web  1.0’   approaches  and  interactive  ‘2.0’  advances  (Jackson  and  Lilleker  2009,  Larsson  2013a).     In  sum,  then,  the  empirical  evidence  regarding  differences  between  minor  and  major   political  actors  and  their  online  conduct  is  inconclusive.  One  way  forward  could  be  to   apply  these  broad  hypothetical  designs  in  more  focused  conceptual  setting.  This  is  what   this  paper  seeks  to  do.       The  concept  of  permanent  campaigning  was  touched  upon  previously,  and  while  it  is   difficult  to  provide  precise  metrics  regarding  what  such  permanence  would  entail  in  an   empirical  setting,  the  study  presented  here  employs  the  innovation  and  normalization   hypotheses  to  guide  a  series  of  quantitative  analyses  in  this  regard.  As  such,  our  focus   here  goes  beyond  a  dichotomous  approach  –  detailing  whether  or  not  politicians  had   adopted  the  technology  at  hand  or  not  (e.g.  Gulati  and  Williams,  2013).  Instead,  we   mobilize  an  exploratory  approach,  mapping  the  degree  to  which  politicians  make  use  of   their  Facebook  Pages.  In  so  doing,  we  can  say  very  little  about  the  actual  content  being   posted  –  but  all  the  more  about  how  often  such  postings  are  taking  place,  and  what   effects  these  uses  appear  to  have  in  terms  of  audience  engagement.     The  idea  of  the  permanent  campaign,  denoting  a  blurring  of  the  lines  between  time   spent  on  the  campaign  trail  and  in  the  governing  office,  appears  to  have  first  been  coined   in  1976  by  Patrick  Cadell,  advisor  to  president-­‐elect  Jimmy  Carter  in  order  to  describe   the  necessity  for  campaign-­‐like  efforts  to  take  place  also  outside  traditional  election   periods  (Noguera  and  Correyero  2009,  Blumenthal  1980).  Such  schemes  for  political  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

activities  have  arguably  only  grown  more  common  since  the  late  1970s  –  perhaps  in   some  part  due  to  the  technological  developments  that  today  provide  the  infrastructure   necessary  to  procure  such  efforts  of  online  permanent  campaigning  (Cook  2002,   Sparrow  and  Turner  2001).  Indeed,  Vergeer  and  Hermans  suggest  that  “with  the  advent   of  the  Internet,  permanent  campaigning  […]  to  build  public  support  becomes  easier”   (2011:  485).  While  previous  studies  have  shown  that  the  online  efforts  of  politicians  and   parties  are  largely  centered  around  election  periods,  scholars,  pundits  and  practitioners   insist  that  online  environments  built  or  hosted  by  political  actors  are  “maintained  for   extended  periods  and  long-­‐term  objectives”  (Vaccari  2008b:  6)  or  that  “campaigns  are   permanent,  although  with  varying  intensity”  (Strömbäck  2007:  54)  –  claims  that   resonate  well  with  the  aforementioned  always-­‐on  social  media  logic  and  that  is  often   associated  with  services  like  Facebook.  By  tracing  tendencies  of  the  innovation  and   normalization  hypotheses  in  the  empirical  material  collected,  the  study  at  hand  furthers   our  understanding  of  online  permanent  campaigning  in  two  modern  democracies  –   Norway  and  Sweden.     RESEARCH  SETTING  –  NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN   The  adopted  analytical  setup  follows  a  ‘most  similar  cases’  strategy,  studying   comparable  cases  that  share  basic  characteristics,  but  vary  concerning  dimensions  of   specific  interest  (e.g.  Ragin  1987).  For  the  present  study,  such  dimensions  concern   elections  –  specifically  the  fact  that  while  one  of  the  case  countries  -­‐  Norway  -­‐   underwent  a  parliamentary  election  during  the  time  of  data  collection,  the  other  did  not.   Both  countries  are  characterized  by  high  levels  of  general  Internet  use  –  a  claim  that   holds  true  also  with  regards  to  the  uses  of  the  specific  service  under  scrutiny  here,   Facebook  (e.g.  Nordicom  2013,  Karlsen  2011).  As  for  the  use  of  Internet  technologies  at   the  hands  of  political  actors,  parties  in  both  countries  have  utilized  the  new  medium  for   a  long  time  –  however,  they  “have  not  necessarily  been  trailblazers  in  campaigning   online”  (Gibson  2004:  104).  More  recent  studies  tend  to  at  least  partially  confirm  such   claims,  also  finding  that  political  ’underdogs’  appear  to  be  more  active  in  fora  like  these   (Larsson  and  Kalsnes,  forthcoming).  Nevertheless,  the  effect  of  the  Obama  election  in   2008  has  been  felt  also  in  these  contexts,  while  such  employments  have  had  to  be   adapted  to  local  characteristics  (Karlsen  2009,  2011).    

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

Both  Norway  (approximately  4.9  million  inhabitants,  parliament  with  169   representatives)  and  Sweden  (9  million,  parliament  with  349  representatives)  represent   the  Nordic  welfare  state  model  (Hilson  2008).  As  such,  both  countries  can  be  likened  to   what  Sartori  (1990)  labels  a  parliamentary  system  characterized  by  moderate  pluralism   –  multiple  parties  and  limited  centrifugal  forces.  Moreover,  while  individual  politicians   can  play  important  parts  in  these  political  systems,  both  countries  can  be  described  as   party-­‐centered  rather  than  candidate-­‐centered  (e.g.  Enli  and  Skogerbø  2013).  Inspired   by  Kalnes  (2009),  Table  One  presents  the  basic  characteristics  of  the  main  political   parties  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  including  results  from  the  latest  elections  to  have  taken   place  at  the  time  of  data  collection.                                                

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson   Norwegian   Parties   (Abbreviation)   Large  (10%+)   Labour  Party   (Ap)   Progress  Party   (Frp)   Conservative   Party  (H)     Medium    (4-­9.9%)   Socialist  Left   Party  (Sv)   Centre  Party   (Sp)   Christian   Democrats   (Krf)     Small  (<  3.9%)   Liberal  Party   (V)   Red  Party  (R)   Green  Party   (MDG)     Swedish   Parties   (Abbreviation)   Large  (10%+)   Social   Democrats  (S)   Conservative   Party  (M)     Medium     (4-­9.9%)   Green  Party   (Mp)   Liberal  Party   (Fp)   Centre  Party   (C)   Sweden   Democrats  (Sd)   Left  Party  (V)   Christian   Democrats  (Kd)     Small  (<  3.9%)   Pirate  Party   (PP)  

%  votes  in  2009   elections  

Ideological     Position  

  35.4  

Incumbency   after   election     Yes  

22.9  

No  

Populist  Right  

17.2  

No  

Right  

   

   

   

6.2    

Yes  

Left  

6.2  

Yes  

Centre  

5.5  

No  

Centre  

    3.8  

    No  

    Centre  

1.3   0.3  

No   No  

Left   Environmentalist  

  %  votes  in  2010   elections  

  Ideological   Position  

  30.7  

  Incumbency   after   election     No  

30.1  

Yes  

Right  

   

   

   

7.3  

No  

Environmentalist  

7.1  

Yes  

Centre  

6.6  

Yes  

Centre  

5.7  

No  

Populist  Right  

5.6   5.6  

No   Yes  

Left   Right  

    .65  

    No  

    Centre  

  Left  

  Left  

  Table  1.  Characteristics  of  Norwegian  and  Swedish  Political  Parties  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

  As  indicated  by  the  penultimate  column  in  Table  One,  the  2009  Norwegian  elections   resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  ruling  Left-­‐Centre  coalition,  while  the  2010  Swedish   elections  saw  a  Right-­‐Centre  union  taking  office.  Indeed,  while  ideological  classifications   like  these  might  simplify  the  complex  nuances  of  political  environments,  this  type  of   presentation  does  indeed  make  the  type  of  comparative  efforts  undertaken  here  easier.       METHOD   Collection  and  analyses  of  online  data  brings  a  number  of  different  ethical  challenges  to   the  fore,  especially  when  the  research  to  be  performed  deals  with  issues  of  political   preferences  (Moe  and  Larsson  2012).  Contrasting  with  Twitter,  while  the  “generally   public  nature  of  tweets  and  replies”  (Bruns  and  Highfield  2013:  671)  makes  research  on   that  particular  platform  somewhat  less  problematic,  approaching  Facebook  for  purposes   like  these  appears  a  bit  more  complicated.    While  our  focus  here  lay  on  the  Facebook   activities  of  political  parties  and  politicians  seeking  office,  the  need  to  protect  their   specific  ideological  persuasions  could  be  seen  as  superfluous.  Nevertheless,  the  privacy   of  each  included  politician  must  be  respected.  With  such  precautions  in  mind,  the  study   focused  on  the  Facebook  Pages  related  to  each  politician  rather  than  their   corresponding  personal  Profiles.  While  the  former  of  these  types  of  Facebook  presences   are  geared  towards  ‘public  showcase’-­‐type  activity,  the  latter  is  more  focused  on   activities  related  to  a  specific  users  private  sphere.  Beyond  ethical  considerations,  the   focus  of  Facebook  Pages  has  been  encouraged  by  previous  research  (e.g.  Gulati  and   Williams  2013),  supposedly  because  the  uses  of  the  service  at  the  hands  of  politicians   could  serve  as  an  indicator  of  political  professionalization  (e.g.  Vaccari  and  Nielsen   2012).  By  focusing  on  Facebook  Pages,  the  results  presented  here  can  be  compared  with   previous  research  findings.         While  more  or  less  manual  rationales  for  data  collection  have  been  successfully   employed  to  gather  content  from  Facebook  (e.g.  Williams  and  Gulati  2012),  the  present   study  opted  for  an  automated  approach.  Although  automated  approaches  to  various   forms  of  analyses  are  associated  with  certain  difficulties  (e.g.  Lewis  et  al.  2013),  similar   approaches  to  data  gathering  allow  for  considerable  ease  in  this  stage  of  the  research   process  (Stieglitz  and  Dang-­‐Xuan  2012).  Given  the  exploratory  quantitative  outset  of  the  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

study,  such  an  approach  seemed  appropriate.  Specifically,  data  collection  was  performed   by  means  of  the  Netvizz  service  (Rieder  2013).  In  short,  Netvizz  allows  for  archiving  of   Facebook  Page  activity.  Of  specific  interest  here  was  the  ability  to  gain  access  to  all  posts   authored  by  the  Page  owner,  as  well  as  the  associated  meta-­‐data,  such  as  likes  and   shares,  during  a  specific  time  period.  While  such  meta-­‐data  are  the  product  of  the  clicks   and  actions  by  other  Facebook  users,  the  internal  mechanisms  of  the  platform  at  hand   and  the  previous  choices  made  by  account  holders  could  also  be  expected  to  play  a  part   in  how  content  is  presented  to  each  individual  user  (Bucher  2012).  In  order  to  provide  a   comparably  neutral  starting  point,  a  separate  Facebook  account  was  created  for  the   purposes  of  data  collection  only.     The  sample  for  the  study  consisted  of  all  major  Norwegian  and  Swedish  parties  and   politicians  who  operated  a  Facebook  Page  at  the  time  of  data  collection  –  September   28th,  2013.  Guided  by  Table  One,  the  sample  included  parliamentary  seat  holders,  as  well   as  those  politicians  and  parties  seeking  such  offices.  Following  Klinger  (2013),  the   selection  process  was  guided  by  selecting  only  those  Facebook  Pages  that  were  officially   sanctioned  by  each  respective  party  or  politician.  In  order  to  cover  a  sufficient  period  of   time,  data  was  archived  from  January  1st,  2013  until  September  27th  of  the  same  year.  As   the  Norwegian  elections  were  held  on  the  9th  of  September,  the  longitudinal  data   collected  should  provide  a  suitable  starting  point  for  comparing  the  effect  of  an  election   year  in  one  of  our  two  case  countries.       RESULTS   With  regards  to  political  parties,  all  identified  actors  –  both  in-­‐  and  outside  of  parliament   -­‐  had  adopted  the  Pages  feature  at  the  time  of  data  collection.  As  for  individual   politicians  with  seats  in  parliament,  twenty-­‐four  percent  (N=46)  of  Norwegian   politicians  had  adopted,  while  data  for  the  Swedish  context  indicated  that  nineteen   percent  (N=71)  had  taken  similar  measures.  No  significant  relation  could  be  found   between  country  and  rate  of  Facebook  Page  adoption  (Cramer’s  V  =  .06,  p  >  .05).  As   such,  this  very  basic  introductory  notice  indicates  that  if  there  indeed  is  an  election  year   effect  at  work,  it  cannot  be  gauged  by  focusing  solely  on  adoption  rates.    

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

As  an  attempt  to  assess  the  permanence  of  activity  undertaken  by  politicians  on  their   Facebook  Pages,  Figures  One  and  Two  present  data  from  January  1st,  2013  through   September  14th  of  the  same  year.  The  figures  feature  a  series  of  time  lines  denoting  the   number  of  posts  made  on  Pages  operated  by  parties  (represented  by  the  black  line),   party  leaders  (grey  line)  and  other  politicians  (dotted  black  lines)  in  Norway  and   Sweden  respectively.  By  distinguishing  between  different  types  of  actors,  we  can  gauge   the  relative  homo-­‐  or  heterogeneity  of  Page  activity  throughout  the  examined  period.      

  Figure  1.  Time  lines  representing  Facebook  Page  posts  by  parties  (black  lines),  party   leaders  (grey  lines)  and  politicians  (black  dotted  lines)  per  month  in  Norway.                    

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

  Figure  2.  Time  lines  representing  Facebook  Page  posts  by  parties  (black  lines),  party   leaders  (grey  lines)  and  politicians  (black  dotted  lines)  per  month  in  Sweden.       While  the  obvious  quantitative  differences  between  the  categories  of  political  actors   found  in  Figures  One  and  Two  should  be  taken  into  account,  this  mode  of  presentation   allows  us  to  assess  the  degrees  of  interdependence  between  these  different  actors.  As   social  media  services  like  the  one  under  scrutiny  here  supposedly  allow  individual   politicians  to  maintain  a  media  platform  of  their  own,  different  line  shapes  could   indicate  diverging  online  endeavors.  As  the  lines  for  both  countries  imply,  such  varying   tendencies  are  rather  limited.  While  the  lines  for  the  Swedish  context  appear  shaped  in  a   slightly  less  similar  manner  than  for  Norway,  the  general  trend  must  be  said  to  be  one  of   similarity.  Parties,  their  leaders  and  elected  parliamentarians  generally  appear  to  follow   the  same  rationales  with  regards  to  activity  on  their  individual  Facebook  Pages  –  a  result   which  begs  the  question:  what  influences  those  rationales?     As  research  on  Twitter  has  found  that  political  (e.g.  Aragón  et  al.  2013,  Larsson  and  Moe   2013,  Bruns  and  Burgess  2011)  as  well  as  other  uses  (Larsson  2013b)  are  often  related   to  events  in  mainstream  media,  such  tendencies  are  apparent  also  for  Facebook  Pages.  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

For  Norway,  the  activity  visibly  increases  as  the  month  of  August  indicates  the  start  of   the  ‘short  campaign’  –  the  final  weeks  before  Election  Day  on  September  9th.  From  there   on,  we  can  identify  at  least  three  clear  rises  in  the  lines  -­‐  each  corresponding  to  debates   (held  on  August  12th,  20th  and  September  6th  respectively)  broadcast  on  the  Norwegian   public  service  broadcaster.  Election  day  sees  the  absolute  peak  of  use,  after  which  the   activity  clearly  diminishes.   For  Sweden,  the  period  leading  up  to  July  is  not  marked  by  any  specific  outbursts  of   activity.  As  for  Norway,  the  month  of  April  features  the  Easter  holiday,  characterized  by   a  considerable  decrease  in  activity.  The  month  of  July  is  of  specific  interest  here,  as  this   time  period  features  the  Almedalen  week.  This  annual  event  sees  political  elites  gather   in  the  Almedalen  park  in  Visby  on  the  Gotland  island  right  of  Sweden’s  east  coast.  A   staple  in  Swedish  politics  and  societal  debate  since  the  1960s,  the  event  features   debates,  discussions  and  essentially  serves  as  a  meeting  place  for  those  holding  power   (e.g.  Wendt  2012).    This  event  yields  the  highest  amount  of  activity  for  the  Swedish  case   –  after  which  the  summer  holidays  appear  to  have  a  decreasing  effect  on  the  uses  of   Facebook.  The  official  opening  of  the  Parliament  at  the  beginning  of  September  sees   another  high  point  in  the  data,  after  which  our  collection  period  comes  to  a  halt.   On  a  final  note  regarding  the  line  graphs,  we  can  note  the  difference  in  scale  for  the  two   countries.  As  previously  mentioned,  Sweden  boasts  a  larger  parliament  in  terms  of   representatives  than  Norway.  However,  the  intensity  with  which  posts  were  made  was   arguably  more  tangible  in  the  Norwegian  context.  As  the  scale  for  Norway  appears  as   double  (maximum  value  is  400  posts)  than  that  for  the  country  which  does  not   (maximum  value  for  Sweden  is  200  posts),  we  can  postulate  an  election  year  effect  at   work  –  Indeed,  as  Election  Day  drew  closer,  this  effect  for  Norway  becomes  even  more   tangible  in  comparison  to  Sweden.  As  such,  permanence  in  campaigning  appears  as   clearly  related  to  an  electoral  event.         We  turn  now  to  look  at  the  individual  parties  and  politicians  who  distinguished   themselves  as  being  particularly  frequent  posters  throughout  the  studied  time  period.   Figures  Three  and  Four  introduce  bar  charts  featuring  those  users  whose  median  N  of   posts  per  day  was  at  least  0.5.  While  this  demarcation  could  certainly  be  put  into   question,  expanded  or  diminished,  it  was  deemed  suitable  in  order  to  focus  on  those   users  who  made  a  clear  mark  in  the  political  Facebook  spheres  in  the  two  countries.  By  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

focusing  on  these  high-­‐end  users,  we  are  able  to  tell  if  more  established  actors  –  such  as   incumbents  –  or  challengers  –  such  as  those  seeking  office  –  appear  as  more  permanent   in  their  uses  of  the  Facebook  platform.       Socialist Left Party (Sv)! Labour Party (Ap)! Mette Hanekamhaug (Frp)! Karin Andersen (Sv)! Conservative Party (H)! Kristin Halvorsen (Sv)! Centre Party (Sp)! Per Olaf Lundteigen (Sp)! Red Party (R)! Liberal Party (V)! Green Party (MDG)! Inga Marte Thorkildsen (Sv)! Heikki Holmås (Sv)! Progress Party (Frp)! Christian Democrats (Krf)! Audun Lysbakken (Sv)! Jens Stoltenberg (Ap)! Liv Signe Navarsete (Sp)! Karin Yrvin (Ap)! Erna Solberg (H)! Siv Jensen (Frp)! Per Sandberg (Frp)! Helga Pedersen (Ap)! Jan Tore Sanner (H)! Knut Arild Hareide (Krf)! Kjersti Toppe (Sp)! Trine Skei Grande (V)! Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap)! Arild Stokkan-Grande (Ap)!

0!

0,5!

1!

1,5!

2!

2,5!

3!

Figure  3.  Norwegian  political  actors  with  a  median  of  posts  per  day  reaching  at  least  0.5.      

 

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

Meeri Wasberg (S)! Centre Party (C)! Marta Obminska (M)! Annie Lööf (C)! Jonas Sjöstedt (V)! Caroline Szyber (Kd)! Björn Samuelson (M)! Green Party (Mp)! Christian Democrats (Kd)! Carl Bildt (M)! Liberal Party (Fp)! Bino Drummond (M)! Veronica Palm (S)! Pirate Party (PP)! Anna Troberg (PP)! Social Democrats (S)! Stefan Löfven (S)! Maria Larsson (Kd)! Erik Ullenhag (Fp)! Stefan Attefall (Kd)! 0!

0,2!

0,4!

0,6!

0,8!

1!

1,2!

1,4!

1,6!

1,8!

2!

Figure  4.  Swedish  political  actors  with  a  median  of  posts  per  day  reaching  at  least  0.5.     Much  like  for  Figures  One  and  Two,  a  color  scheme  is  employed  in  order  to  differentiate   between  the  types  of  actors  identified  in  the  bar  charts.  Black  bars  represent  parties,   dark  gray  bars  denote  party  leaders,  light  grey  bars  identify  ministers  and  “celebrity   politicians”  (e.g.  van  Zoonen  2005),  whereas  white  bars  show  activity  undertaken  by   members  of  parliament  without  specific  portfolios  or  public  profiles.  Each  actor  is   identified  with  name  and  party  abbreviation  (please  refer  to  Table  One  for  key)  on  the   vertical  axis,  while  the  horizontal  axis  features  a  gauge  for  the  medians  measured.       With  these  guidelines  for  interpretations  in  place,  we  can  notice  a  few  differences   between  the  case  countries.  First,  scale  size  again  appears  as  more  far-­‐reaching  for  the   Norwegian  case  (Figure  Three)  than  for  the  Swedish  (Figure  Four),  reaching  a  maximum   value  of  three  Page  posts  per  day  (Two  posts  per  day  in  Sweden).  Moreover,  while   twenty-­‐nine  Norwegian  political  actors  emerge  as  highly  active  using  our  current   rationale,  the  number  for  the  Swedish  context  is  twenty.  As  such,  while  the  differences   pertaining  to  scale  might  not  be  as  evident  as  in  Figures  One  and  Two,  this  could  be   interpreted  as  yet  another  sign  of  the  suggested  ‘election  year  effect’.        

 

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

Second,  focusing  on  Norway,  the  accumulation  of  black  bars  –  indicating  the  activity  of   political  parties  –  in  the  top  half  of  Figure  Three  suggests  the  need  for  parties  to  mobilize   during  an  election  year.  While  sizeable  organizations  like  the  Labour  Party  and  the   Conservatives  clearly  make  their  mark  on  Figure  Three,  we  can  also  discern  smaller   parties  –  both  those  who  enjoyed  seats  in  parliament  (such  as  the  Socialist  Left,  Liberal   or  Center  Parties),  as  well  as  those  on  the  outside  (such  as  the  Red  and  Green  Parties).   As  such,  Figure  Three  shows  that  while  large  political  actors  are  making  their  presence   felt,  we  can  also  discern  representatives  of  comparably  small  political  actors  among   these  ardent  Page  users.       Third,  if  the  bars  in  Figure  Three  are  slightly  tinted  towards  black  and  dark  grey,   indicating  the  activities  of  parties  and  their  leaders,  a  somewhat  dissimilar  tendency  can   be  discerned  when  focusing  on  the  Swedish.  Specifically,  while  all  Norwegian  parties   placed  themselves  in  upper  part  of  the  corresponding  graph,  their  Swedish  equivalents   appear  dispersed  throughout  Figure  Four.  Moreover,  while  all  Norwegian  parties  made   marks  the  in  the  results,  three  parties  with  representation  in  the  Swedish  parliament  –   Left  Party,  Conservatives  and  the  Sweden  Democrats  -­‐  did  not  make  use  of  the  Pages   feature  to  such  a  degree.  As  such,  the  trends  of  election  year  influences  are  visible  also   here.       As  permanence  does  not  necessarily  equal  influence,  we  need  to  assess  the  reach  of  the   Facebook  Page  activities  undertaken.  For  these  purposes  we  focus  on  the  median  shares   and  likes  per  post  by  each  actor.  As  both  measurements  individually  provide  insights   into  the  relative  popularity  of  posts,  the  combination  of  the  two  should  be  helpful  in  this   regard.  The  results  are  presented  as  two  scatter  graphs  -­‐  Figure  Five  (Norway)  and   Figure  Six  (Sweden).                  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson   100! Siv Jensen (Frp)! Progress Party (Frp)! Jens Stoltenberg (Ap)! Green Party (MDG)!

Shares! !

Red Party (R)! Centre Party (Sp)! Liberal Party (V)!

10!

Stine Renate Håheim (Ap)

!

Svein Flåtten (H)!

1! 1!

Labour Party (Ap)! Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap)! Erna Solberg (H)! Per Sandberg (Frp)! Conservative Party (H)!

Karl Eirik SchjøttPedersen (Ap)! Hanna Elise Marcussen (MDG)! Christian! Audun Lysbakken (Sv)! Knut Arild Hareide (Krf)! Trine ! Democrats (Kd)! Skei ! Trond Giske (Ap)! Hadia Tajik (Ap)! Grande ! Socialist! Heikki Holmås (Sv)! Karin! (V) Left Party (Sv) Andersen! Jan! (Sv)! Tore! Liv! Per Olaf ! Lundteigen (Sp)! Signe! Sanner! Navarsete! (H)! (Sp)!

!

10!

100! Likes!

!

1000!

10000!

 

Figure  5.  Relationship  between  Median  shares  (vertical  axis)  and  Median  likes  (horizontal  axis)   per  post  for  Norwegian  Political  Facebook  Pages.    Logarithmic  scales  presented.   1000!

Sweden Democrats (Sd)!

Shares!

100!

10!

Jonas! Conservative! Social ! Party ! Sjöstedt! Stefan Löfvén (S)! Democrats (S)! (V)! (M)! Jimmie Åkesson (Sd)! Pirate Party (PP)! Håkan Juholt (S)! Left Party (V)! Gustav Fridolin (Mp)! Björn Samuelson (M)! Fredrik Reinfeldt (M)!

Green Party! Roland Utbult ! (Mp)! Veronica Palm (S)! Marta ! (Kd)! Anna! Troberg! Obminska!Meeri ! Christian Democrats (PP)! (M)!Wasberg (S)! (Kd)! Stefan Attefall (Kd)! Caroline Szyber (Kd)! 1! 1!Per Bill ! Bino ! 10! 100! 1000! Lundh Erik Ullenhag (Fp)! (M)! Drummond Fredrik ! Likes! Sammeli (S)! (M)!

10000!

Figure  6.  Relationship  between  Median  shares  (vertical  axis)  and  Median  likes  (horizontal  axis)   per  post  for  Swedish  Political  Facebook  Pages.  Logarithmic  scales  presented.  

 

 

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

The  color  scheme  used  previously  is  employed  also  for  Figures  Five  and  Six.  Starting   with  the  Norwegian  case,  Figure  Five  finds  the  node  representing  the  official  party   account  for  the  right-­‐wing  populist  Progress  Party  –  as  well  as  the  node  corresponding   to  their  party  leader,  Siv  Jensen  –  to  be  among  the  political  actors  enjoying  the  highest   medians  of  likes  and  shares  per  Facebook  Page  Posts.  While  a  more  rigid  evaluation  of   the  contents  of  the  posts  made  is  not  possible  within  the  paper,  Jensen’s  most  popular   posts  tend  to  focus  on  so-­‐called  negative  campaigning  –  critiquing  her  peers  as  well  as   certain  media  outlets,  who  she  claims  misrepresent  the  agenda  championed  by  herself   and  her  party.  The  posts  made  by  PM  Jens  Stoltenberg,  who  likewise  enjoys  a  sizeable   amount  of  popularity,  are  typically  geared  towards  more  traditional  campaigning   materials.  For  example,  a  staged  campaign  commercial  featuring  Stoltenberg  as  an   undercover  taxi  driver,  chit-­‐chatting  with  unsuspecting  passengers,  gained  an  especially   large  amount  of  traction  in  terms  of  shares  and  likes.       Moving  on,  all  political  party  accounts  save  for  two  (Socialist  Left  and  Christian   Democrats)  are  positioned  above  the  horizontal  dividing  line.  As  for  the  two  parties   below  the  horizontal  line,  these  are  both  small  parties  in  terms  of  voter  share.  This   suggested  relationship  between  ballot  recognition  and  Facebook  Page  post  popularity  is   perhaps  particularly  interesting  when  considering  the  case  of  the  Socialist  Left  Party.  As   shown  in  Figure  Three,  their  official  party  account  produced  the  highest  yield  of  Page   posts  during  the  studied  period,  while  Figure  Five  shows  that  their  reach  in  terms  of   Likes  and  Shares  was  comparably  limited.  While  party  size  probably  plays  a  role  here,  a   quick  glance  at  their  most  popular  posts  reveal  that  they  can  mostly  be  characterized  as   providing  information  on  policy  issues  –  perhaps  not  the  type  of  content  most  likely  to   ‘go  viral’.  As  a  small  Party,  albeit  with  seats  in  government  and  a  role  as  incumbents   going  into  the  2013  elections,  the  Socialist  Left  Party  appears  to  have  had  some  difficulty   in  getting  their  messages  across  on  Facebook.     This  finding  on  the  activities  of  an  incumbent  but  small  party  on  the  left  side  of  the   Norwegian  political  spectrum  can  be  contrasted  with  the  spread  that  other  accounts,   operated  by  somewhat  similar  parties,  appear  to  have  enjoyed.  Consider  the  nodes   representing  The  Green  and  Red  Parties  –  both  without  representation  in  parliament.  As   visible  in  Figure  Five,  these  parties  appear  to  have  hosted  comparably  popular  Facebook   Pages,  resulting  in  corresponding  nodes  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  figure.  Furthermore,  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

both  parties  seem  to  have  utilized  the  platform  primarily  with  mobilization  in  mind  –   their  respective  posts  largely  urge  followers  to  vote  green  or  red,  or  for  them  to   convince  others  to  do  the  same.  Taken  together,  this  indicates  that  while  party  size   appears  to  hold  explanatory  power  regarding  the  online  coverage  enjoyed  by  parties,   smaller,  non-­‐imcumbent  parties  are  indeed  able  to  get  their  message  across  on   Facebook.         This  tendency  of  comparably  popular  non-­‐parliamentary  parties  is  discernible  also  in   the  Swedish  case,  as  depicted  Figure  Six.  Consider  the  node  representing  the  Pirate   Party,  whose  placement  in  the  graph  indicates  a  median  of  shares  per  post  on  par  with   major  parties  like  the  Social  Democrats  or  the  Conservatives.  The  most  popular  posts   made  by  the  two  latter  parties  typically  feature  quotes  from  party  leaders  or  comments   on  various  current  events.  In  contrast,  the  Pirate  Party  appears  as  more  thematically   focused  in  the  postings  made,  mainly  discussing  their  key  issues  –  such  as  online   integrity  and  copyright  law.  The  finding  that  two  of  the  parties  in  the  right-­‐wing   coalition  governing  Sweden  (the  Liberal  Party  and  the  Centre  Party)  are  not  present  in   Figure  Six  could  be  another  indication  of  the  previously  mentioned  election  year  effect  –   especially  when  considering  that  all  Norwegian  parties  were  present  as  visible  in  the   corresponding  figure.  With  regards  to  the  most  popular  Facebook  Pages,  we  see  another   tendency  repeated  from  the  Norwegian  context.  Much  like  the  Progress  Party  appear  to   have  produced  a  series  of  posts  yielding  high  amounts  of  both  Likes  and  Shares,  so  do   the  right-­‐wing  populist  Sweden  Democrats  seem  to  enjoy  a  similar  status  in  the  Swedish   context.  However,  when  one  considers  the  change  of  scale  on  the  vertical  axis,   representing  the  median  of  shares  per  post  –  0-­‐100  shares  for  Norway,  0-­‐1000  shares   for  Sweden  –  the  dominance  of  the  Sweden  Democrats  in  this  regard  is  further  affirmed.   With  regards  to  the  content,  their  most  shared  and  liked  posts  commonly  deal  with  their   controversial  stance  on  immigration  and  suggestions  regarding  the  supposed   ‘islamization’  of  Sweden  and  various  Swedish  practices.  As  such,  far  right  parties  appear   to  have  succeeded  in  getting  their  message  across  through  Facebook  in  both  countries,   while  this  tendency  is  arguably  more  affirmed  in  the  Swedish  context.        

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

DISCUSSION   The  results  presented  in  this  exploratory  study  have  provided  important  insights  into   how  an  impending  parliamentary  election  influences  the  permanence  of  social  media   activity  at  the  hands  of  political  actors  –  and  the  reach  that  this  activity  appears  to  have   among  Facebook  users.  By  utilizing  a  comparative  effort  between  two  similar  countries   –  Norway  and  Sweden  –  the  study  has  attempted  to  uncover  what  has  been  tentatively   labeled  as  the  ‘election  year  effect’.  While  the  intricacies  of  intra-­‐Scandinavian   relationships  can  surely  offer  up  a  selection  of  societal  or  systemic  discrepancies,  the   argument  is  made  here  that  the  political  systems  of  the  two  case  countries  are  similar   enough  to  be  meaningfully  included  in  a  comparative  study  such  as  the  one  presented  in   this  paper.       The  uncovering  of  differences  and  similarities  with  regards  to  the  permanence  of   political  campaigns  can  be  operationalized  in  different  ways.  This  study  employed  an   structural  quantitative  approach,  opting  for  three  main  modes  of  structural  analyses  of   patterns  of  communication  presented  in  Figures  One  through  Six.  First,  for  the  line   graphs  presented  in  Figures  One  and  Two,  the  suggested  election  effect  is  discerned  as   the  scale  needed  to  fit  the  Facebook  Page  activity  undertaken  by  the  smaller  Norwegian   populace  of  politicians  is  double  the  size  of  the  scale  representing  the  activities  of  their   more  plentiful  Swedish  colleagues.  While  differing  scales  were  perhaps  probable,  the   difference  in  size  between  the  two  parliaments  might  have  been  expected  to  provide  a   potential  balancing  influence.  Instead,  the  members  of  the  smaller  Norwegian  Stortinget   made  extensive  use  of  their  Facebook  Pages  when  compared  to  those  politicians  holding   seats  in  the  larger  Swedish  Riksdag.  Furthermore,  as  pointed  out  previously,  while   Figures  One  and  Two  do  not  present  comparable  data  between  each  identified  group  in   both  countries,  the  shapes  of  the  lines  can  tell  us  something  about  the  degree  to  which   Page  activity  by  parties,  party  leaders  and  other  politicians  is  symbiotic  -­‐  or  if  it  differs  in   ways  that  would  indicate  dissimilar  online  agendas  of  different  types  of  actors.  Such   divergent  modes  of  use  must,  however,  be  described  as  limited.  Tendencies  from  similar   studies  of  Twitter  use  (e.g.  Bruns  and  Burgess  2011,  Larsson  and  Moe  2013,  Aragón  et   al.  2013)  are  repeated  also  for  Facebook,  indicating  that  political  content  in  the   mainstream  media  produces  clearly  visible  activity  ‘spikes’  in  the  timelines.  As   suggested  by  Lilleker  and  Jackson  (2010),  such  a  finding  implies  that  social  media  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

services  largely  take  on  a  role  that  “reflects  and  amplifies  other  events  […]  rather  than   start[s]  them”  (2010:  93).  As  line  patterns  are  characterized  by  differing  scale  sizes   between  countries,  as  well  as  internal  resemblance  for  each  country  viewed  in  isolation,   this  is  interpreted  as  strengthening  for  the  normalization  hypothesis  with  regards  to   permanence  of  campaigning.  Specifically,  the  findings  presented  in  Figures  One  and  Two   indicate  that  Facebook  activity  by  political  actors  can  largely  be  described  in  terms  of   “politics  as  usual”  (e.g.  Margolis  and  Resnick  2000)  -­‐  the  activity  appears  as  closely   related  to  broadcast  media  programming  in  general  and  to  preparation  for  political   events  (such  as  the  Norwegian  elections  or  the  Almedalen  week)  in  particular.       Differing  scale  sizes  again  come  into  play  when  assessing  the  bar  charts  representing   highly  active  political  actors  presented  in  Figures  Three  and  Four,  uncovering  common   characteristics  of  such  zealous  users.  The  color  scheme  employed  suggests  a  limited   tendency  for  relatively  lesser-­‐known  politicians  to  be  more  active  in  this  regard.   Moreover,  influences  of  age  can  be  discerned  –  comparably  younger  politicians,  such  as   Mette  Hanekamhaug  (Norway)  and  Marta  Obminska  (Sweden)  make  use  of  the  service   at  a  level  that  in  some  cases  parallel  party  accounts  (see  also  Larsson  and  Kalsnes,   forthcoming).  Another  trend  suggests  that  smaller  political  parties  make  use  of  their   Facebook  Pages  at  levels  that  sometimes  match  the  activity  of  more  sizeable   competitors.  Indeed,  while  representatives  from  major  parties  can  likely  rest  assure  that   mainstream  media  attention  will  be  directed  towards  them  (e.g.  Vergeer  and  Hermans   2013),  smaller  parties  can  attempt  to  compensate  for  their  comparably  limited  access  to   such  media  outlets  by  utilizing  online  services  to  higher  degrees  (e.g.  Bruns  and   Highfield  2013).  In  so  doing,  they  would  hopefully  harness  the  “new  media  logic”  (e.g.   Klinger  2013)  -­‐  the  successful  application  of  which  supposedly  results  in  reinforced  ties   between  parties  and  presumable  voters.  For  permanence  of  campaigning,  the  results   presented  must  be  described  as  mixed  -­‐  although  perhaps  slightly  geared  towards   affirmation  of  the  equalization  hypothesis,  as  comparably  less  established  actors  appear   to  be  more  ardent  in  their  applications  of  the  platform  at  hand  –  a  finding  especially   valid,  it  seems,  for  the  Norwegian  context.       The  ways  in  which  these  activities  –  be  they  permanent  or  not  -­‐  spread  and  gain   momentum  also  need  to  be  taken  into  account.  Attempts  to  assess  these  qualities  as  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

played  out  on  Facebook  were  presented  in  Figures  Five  and  Six.  The  results  suggest  that   minor  parties  and  actors  were  not  only  comparably  more  ardent  in  posting  to  their   Facebook  Pages  –  it  would  also  appear  that  they  succeeded  in  gaining  online  support  as   their  posts  were  shared  and  liked  at  levels  sometimes  corresponding  to  the  spread   enjoyed  by  more  established  political  actors.  As  such,  it  seems  that  much  like  political   actors  representing  minor  parties  are  resolute  in  using  their  Facebook  presences,  so  do   their  supporters  make  clear  efforts  to  spread  the  word  on  the  platform  at  hand.  While   studies  have  attempted  to  relate  social  media  activity  by  parties  with  received  vote   share  (e.g.  Tumasjan  et  al.  2010),  the  findings  presented  here  suggest  that  these   relationships  are  too  complex  to  be  understood  in  such  terms.  While  minor  parties  are   seeing  their  messages  being  spread  across  Facebook  in  both  countries,  this  tendency  is   arguably  clearer  in  the  Norwegian  context,  where  both  the  Red  and  Green  Party   respectively  take  their  places  among  those  parties  enjoying  considerable  amounts  of   redistribution.     The  popularity  of  the  Norwegian  Green  Party  can  be  seen  as  a  case  in  point.  Indeed,   previous  scholarship  often  suggests  that  environmentalists  took  to  the  web  earlier  and   to  higher  degrees  (e.g.  Strandberg  2009)  –  perhaps  as  a  result  of  such  parties  catering  to   their  mostly  “educated  and  middle  class”  (Gibson  2004:  109)  voters.  While  the  medians   of  shares  and  likes  per  post  by  the  Swedish  Green  Party  (Mp)  as  pictured  in  Figure  Six   must  be  described  as  limited  at  best,  their  Norwegian  counterpart  (MDG)  appear  as   more  popular  in  Figure  Five.  However,  while  the  former  of  these  two  parties  was  firmly   seated  in  parliament  with  a  large  share  of  the  vote  at  the  time  of  data  collection,  the   latter  did  not  enjoy  such  status.  As  such,  the  aforementioned  suggested  influence  of   party  size  must  not  be  forgotten.       For  both  case  countries,  the  parties  whose  messages  enjoy  the  widest  range  are  the   right-­‐wing  populist  Progress  Party  (Frp)  and  Sweden  Democrats  (Sd).  As  Frp  turned  out   to  be  part  of  the  right-­‐wing  coalition  winning  the  2013  Norwegian  elections,  and  as  Sd   enjoy  a  sizeable  share  of  the  Swedish  vote,  these  parties  cannot  be  understood  as  minor   actors.  Nevertheless,  the  activity  undertaken  by  the  parties  themselves  is  shown  here  to   be  rather  restricted.  Referring  back  to  Figures  Three  and  Four,  while  the  activity   undertaken  by  the  Progress  Party  places  them  in  the  middle  of  the  Figure,  their  Swedish   counterpart  did  not  make  use  of  their  Facebook  Page  to  degrees  that  would  even  include  

Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

them  in  this  display.  Nevertheless,  the  comparably  few  posts  made  by  these  parties  –   especially  the  Sweden  Democrats  –  appear  as  among  the  most  popular  ones  in  the   results  presented  in  Figures  Five  and  Six.  While  the  design  of  the  present  study  does  not   allow  for  any  qualitative  analyses  as  to  why  these  comparably  controversial  parties   enjoy  such  immense  popularity  on  Facebook,  a  tentative  starting  point  from  which  to   investigate  further  could  be  the  positioning  of  both  parties  in  their  respective  political   context.  While  the  previously  discussed  smaller  parties  could  be  described  as   marginalized  in  terms  of  size,  these  two  populist  right-­‐wing  parties  could  be  seen  as   marginalized  in  terms  of  being  proponents  of  stigmatized  ideology.  The  policy  issues   favored  by  both  parties  often  challenge  the  popular  consensus  held  around  matters  of   immigration,  foreign  policy  and  the  rights  of  religious  minorities.  With  no  other   apparent  similarities  at  hand,  the  results  presented  here  suggest  that  marginalization  of   different  kinds  would  lead  to  a  highly  active  voter  base.  While  political  actors  who  are  in   some  way  marginalized  might  not  be  among  the  more  permanent  users  of  Facebook,   they  appear  as  comparably  more  successful  in  having  their  posts  redistributed   throughout  Facebook  than  their  more  established  or  mainstream  counterparts.       In  sum,  then,  it  would  seem  that  while  the  longitudinal  distribution  of  Facebook  Posts   largely  corresponds  to  the  curriculum  set  by  the  mass  media  and  the  “congressional   calendar”  (Golbeck  et  al.  2010),  detailing  the  actual  users  –  and  their  apparent   supporters  –  behind  these  time-­‐spanning  data  paints  a  more  detailed  picture.  While  the   methods  employed  for  data  collection  and  analysis  employed  in  this  paper  can  provide  a   structural  overview  of  Facebook  Page  use  at  the  hands  of  politicians,  the  paper  suffers   from  two  main  limitations  that  need  to  be  duly  addressed.  First,  the  utilized  design  does   not  allow  for  insights  regarding  the  contents  of  the  Pages  studied.  As  this  paper  provides   ‘the  bigger  picture’  of  events  like  these,  future  studies  might  find  it  useful  to  employ  a   variety  of  qualitative  methods  in  order  to  provide  researchers  and  practitioners  alike   with  richer  insights  into  the  uses  of  social  media  for  permanent  –  or  maybe  not  so   permanent  –  campaign  efforts.  Second,  as  already  mentioned,  the  inner  workings  of  the   Facebook  platform  needs  to  be  assessed  more  clearly  in  relation  to  how  content  is   shown  differently  for  different  users.  For  example,  the  ever-­‐changing  popularity  of  the   pages  themselves  could  be  expected  to  have  influence  over  the  degree  to  which  certain   posts  are  made  visible  on  the  timelines  of  platform  users.  As  such,  while  the  ‘snapshot’  

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Preprint  version  of  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  New  Media  &  Society   Anders  Olof  Larsson  

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