What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication

Magin, Melanie; Larsson, Anders Olof; Skogerbø, Eli; Tønnesen, Hedvig

What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication

Nordicom Review

Volume 45 (2024): Issue s1 (March 2024)

By: Melanie Magin

, Anders Olof Larsson

, Eli Skogerbø

and Hedvig Tønnesen

Open Access

|Mar 2024

Figures & Tables

Additive populist communication index across platforms, by party (mean)Comments: n = 2,518 posts.

Use of people-centrism per post for all platforms, by party (mean and standard deviation)Comments: n = 2,518 posts.

Use of anti-elitism per post for all platforms, by party (mean and standard deviation)Comments: n = 2,518 posts.

Use of exclusion of out-groups per post for all platforms, by party (mean and standard deviation)Comments: n = 2,518 posts.

Reliability coefficients

	Variable	Brennan’s & Prediger’s kappa	Agreement (%)
People-centrism	1: References to the people	.838	92
Anti-elitism	2.1: Blaming the elite (from any sector)	.781	89
	2.2: Questioning the elite’s legitimacy to take decisions	.924	96
	2.3: Calling for resistance against the elite and their ideas and direct popular decisions	.914	96
	2.4: Accusing the elite of betraying the people or acting against the people’s interest	.962	98
Exclusion of outgroups	3.1: Ethnic or cultural “others”	.99	100
Exclusion of outgroups	3.2: Political “others” (holding allegedly minority opinions)	.905	95

Presence of populist communication across platforms (per cent)

	Facebook	Instagram	Twitter
People-centrism	3.1	1.9	0.2
Anti-elitism	9.3	6.8	4.3
Exclusion of out-groups	2.9	1.4	0.4

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_004

Category	Description	Code
people	References to “We, the people” as described above. Explicit references to the Norwegian population when this reference is used to create a contrast between “the people” and “the elite” (e.g., being the only ones who act on behalf of the entire population; “Nå må politikere endelig lytte til befolkningen”, “Makta må tilbake til folket/norske folkevalgte”).	0/1

Norwegian parties represented in parliament, 2021

Party	Votes (%)	Mandates (change)	In gov’t before election	Ideological position/bloc	Social media platforms used in the campaign	Party leader	Categorised as pop ulist (according to PopuList)
Labour Party [Arbeiderpartiet]	26.3	48 (−1)	No	Social Democratic/Red–Green	All	Jonas Gahr Støre	No
Conservative Party [Høyre]	20.4	36 (−9)	Yes	Conservative-Liberal/Blue	All (Twitter only by party leader)	Erna Solberg	No
Centre Party [Senter-partiet]	13.5	28 (+9)	No	Rural/Red–Green	Facebook and Instagram (Instagram only by party)	Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	No
Progress Party [Freskritts-partiet]	11.6	21 (−6)	No	Populist, Rightwing/Blue	Facebook and Instagram	Sylvi Listhaug	Yes
Socialist Left Party [Sosialistisk venstre-parti]	7.6	13 (+2)	No	Socialist/Red	All	Audun Lysbakken	No
Red Party [Rødt]	4.7	8 (+7)	No	Socialist/Red	All	Bjørnar Moxnes	No
Liberal Party [Venstre]	4.6	8 (0)	No	Non-Socialist/Liberal/Blue	All	Guri Melby	No
Christian People’s Party [Kristelig Folkeparti]	3.8	3 (−5)	Yes	Non-Socialist/Christian/Blue	Facebook and Instagram	Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	No
Green Party [Miljø-partiet de Grønne]	3.9	3 (+2)	No	Green	All	Une Bastholm	No
Patient Focus [Pasientfokus]	0.2	1 (+1)	No	One issue movement, regional	Facebook (only used by party)	Irene Ojala	Not categorised

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_003

Category	Description	Code
criticism1	Blaming the elite (from any sector) Blaming the elite as a group in general for problems and grievances that the people suffer. This category applies when elites are held responsible for anything undesirable from the people’s perspective.	0/1
criticism2	Questioning the elite’s legitimacy to take decisions Questioning of the legitimacy of the decision-making power exercised by the elite and asking for direct democracy (e.g., referenda; “A change of government can’t be a Tory stitch-up, the people must decide!”)	0/1
criticism3	Calling for resistance against the elite and their ideas and direct popular decisions Calling for resistance against the ideas/ideology of the establishment.	0/1
criticism4	Accusing the elite of betraying the people or acting against the people’s interest Accusing the elite of being corrupt, betraying the people, or acting against the people’s interest (e.g., “The media are the enemy of the people”, “The media are dishonest and journalists are liars”).	0/1

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_005

Category	Description	Examples	Code
danger11	Ethnic or cultural “others” are addressed	“Islam is not part of Germany”, “Gypsies don’t belong here”, “They are stealing our women”	0/1
danger12	Political “others” (holding allegedly minority opinions) are addressed	“The Greens are a danger for our future”	0/1

Overview of the sample

	Party	Facebook (n)	Instagram (n)	Twitter (n)	All platforms (n)	Share of all posts from party (%)
Labour	Party	97	36	28	161	78
	Jonas Gahr Støre	35	7	4	46	22
	Total	132	43	32	207	100
Conservative	Party	109	20	–	129	63
	Erna Solberg	37	18	21	76	37
	Total	146	38	21	205	100
Centre	Party	38	11	–	49	72
	Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	19	–	–	19	28
	Total	57	11	–	68	100
Progress	Party	62	17	–	79	47
	Sylvi Listhaug	47	43	–	90	53
	Total	109	60	–	169	100
Socialist Left	Party	74	79	101	254	47
	Audun Lysbakken	60	99	132	291	53
	Total	134	178	233	545	100
Red	Party	123	78	84	285	59
	Bjørnar Moxnes	108	50	42	200	41
	Total	231	128	126	485	100
Liberal	Party	55	28	309	392	80
	Guri Melby	45	15	38	98	20
	Total	100	43	347	490	100
Christian People’s	Party	39	9	–	48	71
	Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	13	7	–	20	29
	Total)	52	16	–	68	100
Green	Party	49	42	143	234	83
	Une Bastholm	20	17	10	47	17
	Total	69	59	153	281	100
All parties & politicians	All parties	725	320	665	1710	66
	All politicians	384	256	247	887	34
	Total	1,030	576	912	2,518^a	100

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2024-0007 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108

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Language: English

Page range: 36 - 65

Published on: Mar 12, 2024

Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

election campaigning,

Norway,

populist political communication,

Related subjects:

Communication science,

Public and political communication,

Mass communication

© 2024 Melanie Magin, Anders Olof Larsson, Eli Skogerbø, Hedvig Tønnesen, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication

Figures & Tables

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4

Reliability coefficients

Presence of populist communication across platforms (per cent)

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_004

Norwegian parties represented in parliament, 2021

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_003

j_nor-2024-0007_apptab_005

Overview of the sample

Paradigm

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