Norwegian party leaders’ communication on social media platforms during Covid-19 lockdowns: A longitudinal comparison of Facebook and Instagram content
References
- Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J.-S. (2009). Mostly harmless econometrics: An empiricist’s companion. Princeton University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400829828 - Arora, S., Debesay, J., & Eslen-Ziya, H. (2022). Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg’s posts on Facebook. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9, Article 35.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5 - Bansal, P., Kim, A., & Wood, M. O. (2018). Hidden in plain sight: The importance of scale in organizations’ attention to issues. Academy of Management Review, 43(2), 217–241.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0238 - Bode, L. (2016). Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media. Mass Communication and Society, 19(1), 24–48.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2015.1045149 - Bode, L., & Vraga, E. K. (2018). Studying politics across media. Political Communication, 35(1), 1–7.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334730 - Boin, A., Ekengren, M., & Rhinard, M. (Eds.). (2021). Understanding the creeping crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70692-0 - Bol, D., Giani, M., Blais, A., & Loewen, P. J. (2021). The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on political support: Some good news for democracy? European Journal of Political Research, 60(2), 497–505.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12401 - Bossetta, M. (2018). The digital architectures of social media: Comparing political campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. election. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 95(2), 471–496.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018763307 - Bossetta, M., & Schmøkel, R. (2023). Cross-platform emotions and audience engagement in social media political campaigning: Comparing candidates’ Facebook and Instagram images in the 2020 U.S. election. Political Communication, 40(1), 48–68.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2128949 - Boudes, T., & Laroche, H. (2009). Taking off the heat: Narrative sensemaking in post-crisis inquiry reports. Organization Studies, 30(4), 377–396.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840608101141 - Boulianne, S., & Larsson, A. O. (2023). Engagement with candidate posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook during the 2019 election. New Media & Society, 25(1), 119–140.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211009504 - Boulianne, S., & Larsson, A. O. (2024). Facebook campaigning in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. Politics and Governance, 12, Article 8104.
https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8104 - Bækgaard, M., Christensen, J., Madsen, J. K., & Mikkelsen, K. S. (2020). Rallying around the flag in times of COVID-19: Societal lockdown and trust in democratic institutions. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 3(2), 1–12.
https://doi.org/10.30636/jbpa.32.172 - Cacciatore, M. A., Yeo, S. K., Scheufele, D. A., Xenos, M. A., Brossard, D., & Corley, E. A. (2018). Is Facebook making us dumber? Exploring social media use as a predictor of political knowledge. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 95(2), 404–424.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018770447 - Carlson, T., Lindholm, J., & Andersson, S. (2024). Visualizing crisis leadership: Prime ministers on Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Visual Political Communication, 11(1), 7–26.
https://doi.org/10.1386/jvpc_00033_1 - Castro, L., Strömbäck, J., Esser, F., Van Aelst, P., de Vreese, C., Aalberg, T., Cardenal, A. S., Corbu, N., Hopmann, D. N., Koc-Michalska, K., Matthes, J., Schemer, C., Sheafer, T., Splendore, S., Stanyer, J., Stępińska, A., Štětka, V., & Theocharis, Y. (2022). Navigating high-choice European political information environments: A comparative analysis of news user profiles and political knowledge. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(4), 827–859.
https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211012572 - Coombs, T. W. (2007). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10(3), 163–176.
https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049 - DePaula, N., Dincelli, E., & Harrison, T. M. (2018). Toward a typology of government social media communication: Democratic goals, symbolic acts, and self-presentation. Government Information Quarterly, 35(1), 98–108.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2017.10.003 - Dimitrova, D. V., Shehata, A., Strömbäck, J., & Nord, L. W. (2014). The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data. Communication Research, 41(1), 95–118.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211426004 - Enli, G. (2015). “Trust me, I am authentic!”: Authenticity illusions in social media politics. In A. Bruns, G. Enli, E. Skogerbø, A. O. Larsson, & C. Christensen (Eds.), The Routledge companion to social media and politics (pp. 121–136). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315716299-10 - Enli, G., & Rosenberg, L. T. (2018). Trust in the age of social media: Populist politicians seem more authentic. Social Media + Society, 4(1).
https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118764430 - Esaiasson, P., Sohlberg, J., Ghersetti, M., & Johansson, B. (2021). How the coronavirus crisis affects citizen trust in institutions and in unknown others: Evidence from “the Swedish experiment.” European Journal of Political Research, 60(3), 748–760.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12419 - Feezell, J. T., & Ortiz, B. (2021). “I saw it on Facebook”: An experimental analysis of political learning through social media. Information, Communication & Society, 24(9), 1283–1302.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1697340 - Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Anchor.
- Grunig, L., Grunig, J. E., & Ehling, W. P. (1992). What is an effective organization? In J. E. Grunig (Ed.), Excellence in public relations and communication management (pp. 65–90). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Hagen, L., Neely, S., Scharf, R., & Keller, T. E. (2020). Social media use for crisis and emergency risk communications during the Zika health crisis. Digital Government: Research and Practice, 1(2), Article 13.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3372021 - Hase, V., Boczek, K., & Scharkow, M. (2023). Adapting to affordances and audiences? A cross-platform, multi-modal analysis of the platformization of news on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Digital Journalism, 11(8), 1499–1520.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2128389 - Hobbs, M. J., & Allen, P. (2023). Political public relations, leadership, and COVID-19: A comparative assessment of Prime Ministers Ardern and Morrison on Facebook and Twitter. Public Relations Review, 49(2).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2023.102326 - Ipsos. (2023). Ipsos SoMe-tracker Q4’22.
https://tinyurl.com/48j9v6rk - Jacobsen, R. A., & Larsson, A. O. (2024). Business as usual? Assessing amplified political posts across social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Media + Society, 10(4).
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301203 - Johansson, B., Hopmann, D. N., & Shehata, A. (2021). When the rally-around-the-flag effect disappears, or: When the COVID-19 pandemic becomes “normalized”. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 31(sup1), 321–334.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.1924742 - Jost, P. (2023). How politicians adapt to new media logic: A longitudinal perspective on accommodation to user engagement on Facebook. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 20(2), 184–197.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2022.2076271 - Klinger, U., & Svensson, J. (2015). The emergence of network media logic in political communication: A theoretical approach. New Media & Society, 17(8), 1241–1257.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814522952 - Kopacheva, E. (2025). Online mobilisation strategies: Increasing political participation in semi-authoritarian regimes. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 22(1), 16–31.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2023.2202647 - Kreiss, D., Lawrence, R. G., & McGregor, S. C. (2018). In their own words: Political practitioner accounts of candidates, audiences, affordances, genres, and timing in strategic social media use. Political Communication, 35(1), 8–31.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1334727 - Kreling, R., Meier, A., & Reinecke, L. (2022). Feeling authentic on social media: Subjective authenticity across Instagram stories and posts. Social Media + Society, 8(1).
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221086235 - Larsson, A. O. (2015). Pandering, protesting, engaging: Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 “short campaign”. Information, Communication & Society, 18(4), 459–473.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.967269 - Larsson, A. O. (2016). Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook. New Media & Society, 18(2), 274–292.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814538798 - Larsson, A. O. (2020). Fear and loathing on Facebook? Tracking the rise of populism and platformization in viral political Facebook posts. First Monday, 25(2).
https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i2.10123 - Lindholm, J., Carlson, T., Albrecht, F., & Hermansson, H. (2023). Communicating Covid-19 on social media: Analysing the use of Twitter and Instagram by Nordic health authorities and prime ministers. In B. Johansson, Ø. Ihlen, J. Lindholm, & M. Blach-Ørsten (Eds.), Communicating a pandemic: Crisis management and Covid-19 in the Nordic countries (pp. 149–172). Nordicom, University of Gothenburg.
https://doi.org/10.48335/9789188855688-7 - Lukito, J. (2020). Coordinating a multi-platform disinformation campaign: Internet Research Agency activity on three U.S. social media platforms, 2015 to 2017. Political Communication, 37(2), 238–255.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1661889 - Lwin, M. O., Lu, J., Sheldenkar, A., & Schulz, P. J. (2018). Strategic uses of Facebook in Zika outbreak communication: Implications for the crisis and emergency risk communication model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), Article 1974.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15091974 - Magin, M., Larsson, A. O., Skogerbø, E., & Tønnesen, H. (2024). What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication. Nordicom Review, 45(S1), 36–65.
https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2024-0007 - Mergel, I. (2013). A framework for interpreting social media interactions in the public sector. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 327–334.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.05.015 - Metz, M., Kruikemeier, S., & Lecheler, S. (2020). Personalization of politics on Facebook: Examining the content and effects of professional, emotional, and private self-personalization. Information, Communication & Society, 23(10), 1481–1498.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1581244 - Mood, C. (2010). Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it. European Sociological Review, 26(1), 67–82.
https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcp006 - Muñoz, C. L., & Towner, T. L. (2017). The image is the message: Instagram marketing and the 2016 presidential primary season. Journal of Political Marketing, 16(3–4), 290–318.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2017.1334254 - Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Kalogeropoulos, A., & Nielsen, R. K. (2019). Reuters Institute digital news report 2019. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/digital-news-report-2019 - OECD. (2023). Government at a glance 2023: Norway.
https://tinyurl.com/yc26nppv - Peng, Y. (2021). What makes politicians’ Instagram posts popular? Analyzing social media strategies of candidates and office holders with computer vision. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26(1), 143–166.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220964769 - Pineda, A., Bellido-Pérez, E., & Barragán-Romero, A. I. (2022). “Backstage moments during the campaign”: The interactive use of Instagram by Spanish political leaders. New Media & Society, 24(5), 1133–1160.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820972390 - Reyes Bernard, N., Basit, A., Sofija, E., Phung, H., Lee, J., Rutherford, S., Sebar, B., Harris, N., Phung, D., & Wiseman, N. (2021). Analysis of crisis communication by the prime minister of Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 62, Article 102375.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102375 - Reynolds, B., & Seeger, M. W. (2005). Crisis and emergency risk communication as an integrative model. Journal of Health Communication, 10(1), 43–55.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730590904571 - Rouleau, L., Hällgren, M., & de Rond, M. (2021). COVID-19 and our understanding of risk, emergencies, and crises. Journal of Management Studies, 58(1), 245–248.
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12649 - Roulet, T. J., & Bothello, J. (2023). An event-system perspective on disruption: Theorizing the pandemic and other discontinuities through historical and fictional accounts of the plague. Academy of Management Review, 48(4), 772–789.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2021.0206 - Shehata, A., & Strömbäck, J. (2021). Learning political news from social media: Network media logic and current affairs news learning in a high-choice media environment. Communication Research, 48(1), 125–147.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650217749354 - Skade, L., Lehrer, E., Hamdali, Y., & Koch, J. (2025). The temporality of crisis and the crisis of temporality: On the construction and modulation of urgency during prolonged crises. Journal of Management Studies, 62(3), 1087–1120.
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13124 - Theocharis, Y., Boulianne, S., Koc-Michalska, K., & Bimber, B. (2023). Platform affordances and political participation: How social media reshape political engagement. West European Politics, 46(4), 788–811.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2087410 - Veil, S., Reynolds, B., Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2008). CERC as a theoretical framework for research and practice. Health Promotion Practice, 9(4 Suppl.), 26S–34S.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839908322113 - Waters, R. D., & Williams, J. M. (2011). Squawking, tweeting, cooing, and hooting: Analyzing the communication patterns of government agencies on Twitter. Journal of Public Affairs, 11(4), 353–363.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.385 - Williams, T. A., Gruber, D. A., Sutcliffe, K. M., Shepherd, D. A., & Zhao, E. Y. (2017). Organizational response to adversity: Fusing crisis management and resilience research streams. Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), 733–769.
https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0134 - Wilson, S. (2020). Pandemic leadership: Lessons from New Zealand’s approach to COVID-19. Leadership, 16(3), 279–293.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715020929151 - World Health Organization. (2017). WHO strategic communications framework for effective communications.
https://tinyurl.com/4xcz6fhh - Zavattaro, S. M., & Sementelli, A. J. (2014). A critical examination of social media adoption in government: Introducing omnipresence. Government Information Quarterly, 31(2), 257–264.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.10.007 - Zhang, Y., Chen, F., & Lukito, J. (2023). Network amplification of politicized information and misinformation about COVID-19 by conservative media and partisan influencers on Twitter. Political Communication, 40(1), 24–47.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2113844 - Zhang, Y., Wells, C., Wang, S., & Rohe, K. (2018). Attention and amplification in the hybrid media system: The composition and activity of Donald Trump’s Twitter following during the 2016 presidential election. New Media & Society, 20(9), 3161–3182.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817744390
Language: English
Page range: 180 - 204
Published on: Oct 10, 2026
Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Roy Aulie Jacobsen, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.