Slides for a paper presentation at the 2014 ePart Conference held in Dublin, Ireland

2. Genres of participation
in social networking
systems: A study of
the 2013 Norwegian
parliamentary election
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3. Outline
• Compare trends 2009-2013 parliamentary elections
– Numbers (followers, posts etc)
– Communication genres
• Examine findings in light of Chadwick & Howard’s
«principles of online politics»
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4. Context & background
• Voter/membership decline, activism (the usual suspects)
• 2009: The first serious attempt at social media use in a
Norwegian election
• 2013: Second parliamentary election where social media
plays a role in the campaign
• Using the same methods, compare the two elections and
see if social media use is evolving
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5. Findings: Numbers
Party
2009 2013
Voters Followers % f/v Posts Voters Followers % f/v Posts
Socialist 166 361 1176 0,7 % 111 116 021 13027 11,2 % 565
Labour 949 049 1745 0,18 % 167 874 769 59065 6,7 % 1021
Center 165 006 446 0,27 % 60 155 357 6642 4,2 % 250
Christian 148 748 266 0,17 % 24 158 475 6469 4,08 % 290
Lib.dem 104 144 1075 1,03 % 100 148 275 12505 8,4 % 546
Conserv-atives
462 458 1331 0,28 % 194 760 232 26854 3,5 % 928
Progress
party 614 717 5835 0,94 % 688 463 560 59980 12,9 % 873
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6. Genre theory
• Used to examine online communication by
– Form: Physical and linguistic features
– Content: themes and topics of communication
– Functionality: What the technology allows us to do
– 5W1H-method: uncover the purpose, contents,
placement in time, location, participants, structure and
medium for communication
• Used to identify political party objectives for
communication and to examine how citizens and
politicians communicate in social media
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7. Political objectives as genres
Dialogue Contribution Involvement
Why Involve citizens in debate
Knowledge about
citizen concerns
Raise funds. Get
people to
volunteer
When Continuous Election time Election time
What
Conversation between
citizens and politicians
Q&A. Voter stories
Competitions,
membership
forms,
information
Who
Politicians, party members,
citizens
Politicians, party
members, voters
Voters,
sympathizers
Where SNS, web site SNS, web site SNS, web site
How
Encourage dialogue.
Open and personal language.
Citizen-generated content.
Encourage
contributions and
questions from
voters
Competitions,
theme sites, cross-publication
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8. Genres in 2009 election
Genre Producer User Medium Related to
Policy
comment
Citizen Citizen, party
Facebook, blog,
Twitter, video
Dialogue,
contribution
Call for
action
Citizen, party Citizen Facebook, Twitter, video
Contribution,
involvement
Q&A Citizen Party Facebook, Twitter, blog Dialogue
Appeal to
Citizen Party Facebook, Twitter, blog
party
Dialogue,
contribution
Greeting Citizen Party Facebook, blog Dialogue
Personal
accounts
Citizen Party blog contribution
Video
response
Citizen, party Citizen, party YouTube Contribution
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9. Genres in 2013 election
Genre Producer User Medium Related to
Policy
comment
Citizen Citizen, party
Facebook, blog,
Twitter, video
Dialogue,
contribution
Call for
action
Citizen, party Citizen
Facebook, Twitter,
video
Contribution,
involvement
Q&A Citizen Party
Facebook, Twitter,
blog
Dialogue
Appeal to party Citizen Party
Facebook, Twitter,
blog
Dialogue,
contribution
Greeting Citizen Party Facebook, blog Dialogue
Personal
accounts
Citizen Party blog contribution
Debate Citizen, party Citizen, party Facebook Contribution
Support Citizen Party Facebook, Twitter Dialogue
nonsupport Citizen Party Facebook, Twitter Dialogue
Link Citizen, party Citizen, party Facebook Contribution
Disgruntlement Citizen Party Facebook, Twitter Dialogue
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10. Example: asking for input
• “Thank you, everyone
who took the time to
comment on the
government’s budget.
We have sent all your
comments to the PM.
Have a lovely
weekend”
• 1066 likes, 66
comments praising the
new cabinet for
listening to voters
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11. Principles of online politics
• The Internet is a platform for political discourse
• The collective intelligence emergent from political web
use.
• The importance of data over particular software and
hardware applications
• Perpetual experimentalism in the public domain
• The creation of small scale forms of political engagement.
• The propagation of political content over multiple
applications.
• Rich user experiences on political web sites.
Chadwick & Howard, 2009
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12. Principles of online politics
• Network effects
• ability to respond rapidly to new situations, activist
campaigns etc
• Using social media to crowdsource ideas and get access to
demographic data about voters
• Data mash-ups, citizens volunteering information through
smartphone sensors and mobile cameras
• Reaching out by using the same content in different ways,
and adding multimedia etc.
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13. Towards politics 2.0?
• Increase in numbers indicate that social media is
becoming a platform for political discourse
• Our «collective intelligence» is somewhat extended to
those who are not otherwise heard (but are their
comments being listened to?)
• Introduction of banners, multimedia indicate a willingness
to experiment from the side of political parties
• Small scale political engagement visible mainly through
comments. In 2009 also through citizen-created videos.
Perhaps activism is more relevant for this point?
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14. Towards politics 2.0?
• All parties have become proficient in spreading their
content over multiple applications, and adapting the form
and presentation to fit with the medium
– This helps to draw users to content posted on the
party’s own web site, for those who want to know more
• Rich user experiences is increasing.
– 2009: Criticism for posting pamphlets and press
releases.
– 2013: multimedia-rich and interactive content.
Responding to current issues
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15. Example: rapid response
• Showing support for gay people at the Europride festival
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16. Example: responding
• Faced with poor ratings, the
Socialist Left initiated their «I
Vote SL because»-campaign
• Still lost a lot of voters, but
managed to stay above the 4%
needed for representation in
parliament
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17. Thank you for listening
Questions?
Marius Rohde Johannessen
mj@hbv.no
@mariusjoh
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