TABLE 1
Sample characteristics
| Party | Tweeting MPs | Tweeting MPs (%) | Seats in parliament | Seats in parliament 2014–2018 (%) | Difference (+/- %) | Tweets (n) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate Party | 47 | 30.3 | 84 | 24.1 | +6.2 | 869 |
| Social Democrats | 37 | 23.9 | 113 | 32.4 | -8.5 | 480 |
| Sweden Democrats | 11 | 7.1 | 46 | 13.2 | -6.1 | 185 |
| Green Party | 13 | 8.4 | 25 | 7.2 | +1.2 | 146 |
| Liberal Party | 12 | 7.7 | 19 | 5.4 | +2.3 | 183 |
| Centre Party | 11 | 7.1 | 22 | 6.3 | +0.9 | 148 |
| Christian Democrats | 11 | 7.1 | 16 | 4.6 | +2.5 | 60 |
| Left Party | 10 | 6.5 | 21 | 6 | +0.5 | 226 |
| Independent | 3 | 1.9 | 3 | 0.9 | +1.0 | 33 |
| All parties | 155 | 100 | 349 | 100 | n.a. | 2330 |
TABLE 2
Media criticism during the 2018 Swedish election campaign on Twitter
| Party | A. Media-critical tweets (n) | B. Media-critical tweets (% within party) | C. Media-critical tweets (% of total) | D. Total tweets (N) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden Democrats | 38 | 20.5 | 18.8 | 185 |
| Moderate Party | 130 | 15.0 | 64.4 | 869 |
| Independent | 4 | 12.1 | 2 | 33 |
| Christian Democrats | 5 | 8.3 | 2.5 | 60 |
| Centre Party | 7 | 4.7 | 3.5 | 148 |
| Liberal Party | 5 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 183 |
| Left Party | 5 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 226 |
| Social Democrats | 7 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 480 |
| Green Party | 1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 146 |
| All parties | 202 | 8.7 | 100 | 2,330 |
1 Comments: Table 2 shows descriptive statistics for the total number of media-critical tweets for each party (A), the percentage share of media-critical tweets within each party (B), the percentage distribution of media-critical tweets across parties (C), and the total number of media-related tweets (D). One candidate in our data was formerly a member of the Sweden Democrats, but left the party prior to the 2018 election, and is thus marked as independent.
TABLE 3
Tweeters of media criticism in the Swedish parliament
| Party | A. Media-critical MPs | B. MPs on Twitter* | C. Top media critics | D. Top media critics (% of total) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden Democrats | 7 | 14 | Martin Kinnunen (12) | 5.9 |
| Moderate Party | 18 | 47 | Lars Beckman (94) | 46.5 |
| Independent | 1 | 3 | Jeff Ahl (4) | 2.0 |
| Christian Democrats | 3 | 11 | Caroline Szyber (3) | 1.5 |
| Centre Party | 3 | 11 | Staffan Danielsson (5) | 2.5 |
| Liberal Party | 3 | 12 | Mathias Sundin (3) | 1.5 |
| Left Party | 3 | 10 | Ali Esbati/Karin Rågsjö (2) | 1.0 |
| Social Democrats | 6 | 37 | Annika Strandhäll (2) | 1.0 |
| Green Party | 1 | 13 | Anders Schröder (1) | 0.5 |
1 Comments: N = 201. Table 3 displays statistics for the number of MPs of each party expressing media criticism on Twitter (A), the total number of MPs posting media-related tweets in each party (B), top media critics, for example, the MPs with the largest amount of media-critical tweets in each party (C), and the percentage share of top tweeters’ tweets in relation the total number of media-critical tweets (D), during the studied period. One candidate in our data was formerly a member of the Sweden Democrats, but left the party prior to the 2018 election, and is thus marked as independent.
TABLE 4
Dimensions of media criticism within party types (per cent)
| Right-wing populist (n = 42) | Liberal/Conservative (n = 147) | Left/Green (n = 13) | All parties (n = 202) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Political bias | 64.3 | 54.4 | 7.7 | 53.5 |
| Name calling | 35.7 | 32.0 | 7.7 | 31.2 |
| Deceptive framing | 19.0 | 18.4 | 38.5 | 19.8 |
| News values and ethics | 9.5 | 13.6 | 23.1 | 13.4 |
| Inaccuracy | 4.8 | 6.8 | 23.1 | 7.4 |
| Ideological criticism | 2.4 | 6.1 | 23.1 | 6.4 |
| Systemic criticism | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
TABLE 5
Targets of political media criticism within party types (per cent)
| Media type | Right-wing populist | Liberal/Conservative | Left/Green | All parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public service | 50.0 | 62.1 | 46.2 | 58.9 |
| Press | 28.6 | 20.1 | 38.5 | 23.3 |
| Media in general | 16.7 | 14.9 | 7.7 | 14.4 |
| Commercial TV/radio | 4.8 | 2.9 | 7.7 | 3.5 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| N | 42 | 147 | 13 | 202 |
TABLE 6
Critical foci within party types (per cent)
| Critical foci | Right-wing populist | Liberal/Conservative | Left /Green | All parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media-specific | 73.8 | 74.1 | 69.2 | 73.8 |
| General | 16.7 | 15 | 7.7 | 14.9 |
| Individual | 9.4 | 10.9 | 23.1 | 11.3 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| N | 42 | 147 | 13 | 202 |
FIGURE 1
User engagement with media criticism within party types
TABLE 7
User engagement with media criticism
| Party type | Party | Engagements | Engagements (%) | Mean | Median | % of N | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right-wing populist | Independent | 1,087 | 9 | 271.8 | 258.5 | 9.5 | 482 |
| Sweden Democrats | 11,012 | 91 | 289.8 | 65.0 | 90.5 | 1393 | |
| Total | 12,099 | 100 | 288.1 | 112.0 | 100 | 1393 | |
| Liberal/Conservative | Centre Party | 153 | 0.7 | 21.9 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 79 |
| Christian Democrats | 272 | 1.2 | 54.4 | 29.0 | 3.4 | 200 | |
| Liberal Party | 459 | 2 | 91.8 | 30.0 | 3.4 | 378 | |
| Moderate Party | 22,460 | 96.2 | 172.8 | 14.5 | 88.4 | 8287 | |
| Total | 23,344 | 100 | 158.8 | 15.0 | 100 | 8287 | |
| Left/Green | Green Party | 7 | 1.3 | 7.00 | 7.0 | 7.7 | 7 |
| Social Democrats | 405 | 76 | 57.9 | 5.0 | 53.8 | 364 | |
| Left Party | 121 | 22.7 | 24.2 | 32.0 | 38.5 | 36 | |
| Total | 533 | 100 | 41 | 7.0 | 100 | 364 |