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Issue Salience on Twitter During Swedish Party Leaders’ Debates Cover

Issue Salience on Twitter During Swedish Party Leaders’ Debates

Nordicom Review
Volume 40 (2019): Issue 2 (March 2019)
By: Linn A.C. Sandberg,  Ulf Bjereld,  Karina Bunyik,  Markus Forsberg and  Richard Johansson  
Open Access
|Oct 2019

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Total amount of tweets sent during the time of the debateComments: The figure shows all the tweets in our dataset sent between two hours before the debate and one hour after. The debates started at 8 pm (20:00) and ended at 10 pm (22:00), with a break between 9 pm (21:00) and 9.15 pm.
Total amount of tweets sent during the time of the debateComments: The figure shows all the tweets in our dataset sent between two hours before the debate and one hour after. The debates started at 8 pm (20:00) and ended at 10 pm (22:00), with a break between 9 pm (21:00) and 9.15 pm.

Figure 2

Timing and frequency of issue discussion on Twitter during the party leaders’ debates in October 2013 and May 2014Comments: The upper panel shows data from the October 2013 debate and the lower panel data from the May 2014 debate.
Timing and frequency of issue discussion on Twitter during the party leaders’ debates in October 2013 and May 2014Comments: The upper panel shows data from the October 2013 debate and the lower panel data from the May 2014 debate.

Coding of political issues discussed in the debates

Policy dimensionIssueTopics discussed
Left/rightEconomy and labour marketThe state’s economy and labour market (e.g. unemployment, budget deficit, taxes)
Left/rightSchoolEducational attainment, school performance, private schools and profits, class sizes, grades etc.
Left/rightHealthcareQueues, waiting times, reduced capacity, care for the elderly etc.
GAL/TANLaw and order; DefenceCrime, rape, crime prevention and penalties, safety policy, military capability, Ukraine, Russia, Swedish fighter planes, NATO
GAL/TANEnvironmentClimate change, CO2 emissions, renewable energy, UN negotiations
GAL/TANImmigration; Open bordersCommon asylum rules within the EU, refugee crisis, EU migration, begging, labour migration

Issue discussions in the televised debate and frequency in tweets

Percentage of debating time spent discussing the issuePercentage of debate-related tweets mentioning the issueDifference between relative debating time and tweet volume
October 2013
Healthcare1412 (1,168)- 2
Labour market3136 (3,549)+5
Climate139 (939)-4
Refugees129 (933)-3
School1724 (2,437)+6
Crime149 (937)-5
Total100100 (10,023)
May 2014
Defence1510 (2,167)-5
Open borders1621 (4,416)+5
Labour market2835 (7,224)+7
School1620 (4,174)+4
Healthcare136 (1,296)-7
Climate127 (1,486)-5
Total100100 (20,763)

Relative salience of political discussions grouped by policy dimension

Percentage of time devoted to policy dimension during the televised debatePercentage of debate-related tweets mentioning policy dimensionDifference between relative debating time and tweet volume
October 2013
GAL/TAN (climate; refugees; crime)3927-12
Left/Right (labour market; healthcare; school)6172+11
May 2014
GAL/TAN (climate; open borders; defence)4338-5
Left/Right (labour market; healthcare; school)5761+4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0033 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108
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Language: English
Page range: 49 - 61
Published on: Oct 11, 2019
Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year
Keywords:
issue salience,
social media,
Twitter,
party leaders’ debates,
policy dimensions
Related subjects:
Social sciences,
Communication science,
Public and political communication,
Mass communication

© 2019 Linn A.C. Sandberg, Ulf Bjereld, Karina Bunyik, Markus Forsberg, Richard Johansson, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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