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Social media and political representation:

(How) are they related?

Martin Karlsson1

&

Joachim Åström2

Department of Political Science

Örebro University

Sweden

Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science

Association, (Chicago, April 10 -‐ 14, 2013)

1. Introduction

In his article “Blogs and the new politics of listening” Coleman (2005a) investigates the

opportunities of political blogs to feed politicians “relentless desire to reconnect with the

public-‐or even to connect for the very first time with them” (p. 273). That this medium offers

politicians new and valuable opportunities for political communication is beyond question.

Political blogs constitutes a medium for political communication that offers a low threshold for

participation, low communication costs, and strong possibilities for mass communication in

large networks (Koop & Janssen, 2008). On the other hand, Coleman argues, the blogosphere

creates a highly unfamiliar context for politicians that “live in a world of certainty and tribal

loyalty which is at odds with the blogging ethos of open-‐mindedness and knowledge-‐sharing.”

1 [email protected] 2 [email protected]

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(Coleman, 2005a, p. 276). This duality is highly important for the study of politicians’ blogging

efforts. Wright (2008, p. 53) goes as far as stating: “a battle is being fought.” On the one hand

there are politicians trying to make use of the individualistic blog platform; on the other hand

there are parties trying to communicate uniform messages and presenting uniform fronts.

This ambiguity is highlighted also by Zittel (2009), who offers two competing hypotheses

regarding the Internet’s impact on the structure of party communication—one “orthodox” and

the other “revisionist.” The former perceives the Internet as reinforcing the trend toward

professionalization and centralization, allowing parties to target and mobilize groups of voters

in more efficient and direct ways. Content is primarily about party program and party image,

even though information on these topics may often be distributed “with a personal face” (2009,

p. 305). According to the revisionist view, it is not all that certain that parties are in the driver’s

seat. Instead, it is argued that the Internet is a means for individual candidates and

representatives to build platforms of communication, independent from their own parties,

attracting as much attention as possible to themselves, rather than to their parties. In order to

contribute to the understanding of this duality we set out to investigate the following research

questions in a study of blogging politicians in Sweden.

First, is communication in political blogs of such a character that it could refresh

the representative relationship? To what extent does it fulfill functions of representational

communication, such as accountability, inquiry and connectivity?

Second, is content primarily about party program and party image or is the blog a means

for individual candidates and representatives to build platforms of communication independent

from their own parties, attracting as much attention as possible to themselves, rather than to

their parties?

Finally, what explains the pattern and, in particular, how far do normative views,

strategic considerations and practical circumstances go in determining the focus and function of

political blogs?

The main empirical techniques used to map politicians blogging to date, link analysis and

content analysis, is not the best choice of method when trying to grasp the intentions behind

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the practices of political blogging. Therefore, this article will draw upon a survey questionnaire

of over 600 blogging politicians in Sweden. Few investigations have been conducted on the

attitudes of political bloggers, and those that are focused on small samples of elite bloggers

(see Åström & Karlsson, 2013).

2. The political blog space

Attempts to theoretically and empirically study the relationship between social media and

political representation have led scholars to construct a number of new roles of representation,

which generally can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of roles that break

away from traditional conceptions of political representation, suggesting a development

towards more “direct” or “interactive” forms of representation that would be essentially

different from earlier forms of representation (Zittel, 2003; Coleman, 2005b; Norton, 2007).

These new forms of representation are centered on interactive communication between

individual representatives and their constituents as the primary basis for legitimacy and policy

direction. For representatives adhering to these roles, political parties are of minor importance.

The second group of roles creates a contrary position suggesting that interactive forms of

communication are given little importance for representatives, which are highly dependent on

instructions and influence from political parties (Blaug, 2002; Zittel, 2003; Coleman, 2005b;

Norton, 2007). In accordance to these concepts, communication represents nothing more than

a lip service with no representative function.

Essentially this duality concerning concepts and roles in theoretical models suggest a

sharp dividing line between continuity and change in political representation. They are thus ill-‐

suited for understanding the results of many empirical studies, indicating something of a middle

ground (Stromer-‐Galley, 2000; Zittel, 2003 & 2009; Karlsson, 2012). In this article, we will

therefore take one step back and construct a framework allowing for more empirical variation.

Instead of constructing ideal types we believe it is theoretically useful to align function and

focus as orthogonal dimensions. The first dimension describes the extent to which politicians

use their blogs for representational communication. More precisely, it describes how much the

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blogs fulfill various functions of representation. The second dimension is about representational

focus, and describes the extent to which representatives build platforms of communication

independent from their own parties, attracting as much attention as possible to themselves,

rather than to their parties. The resulting two-‐dimensional area we call “political blog space,”

which is illustrated in figure 1. We use the standard convention for numbering quadrants in a

Cartesian system, starting with I in the upper-‐right and proceeding counter-‐clockwise to IV.

Figure 1. The political blog space

Party-‐focus

II I

Representational Non-‐representational

communication communication

III IV

Individual-‐focus

Starting with the horizontal dimension: how could we tell whether communication in political

blogs is of such a character that it could refresh the representative relationship? What

distinguishes representational communication from other forms of communication? Our

analysis takes its point of departure in three concepts, with its roots in normative theories of

representation: accountability, inquiry and connectivity3. First, accountability represents

communication that legitimizes political actions by giving accounts to constituents concerning

the representative’s convictions or the rationale behind prior actions (Coleman, 2005b;

Mansbridge, 2009). Furthermore, representational communication includes the function of 3 This conceptual framework is presented at leanght in Karlsson, 2013

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allowing for representatives to inquire among their constituents in order to uncover

constituents’ perspectives, ideas and policy positions. Through interaction between

representatives and constituents, such ideas can be aggregated and discussed (Fung, 2006).

Finally, representational communication fosters trust and a feeling of being represented, or

what Coleman and Blumler (2009) call connectivity. The theoretical basis for this concept is

found within the theory of social capital (Putnam, 2000), which views communication as

something more than an exchange of information about goals, concerns, interest or strategies.

Instead, its chief characteristic is the development of interpersonal relations where the

identities of others matter. In conclusion, the more a blogging politician fulfills these three

functions the further to the left she will thus position herself in the political blog space.

Building on responsible party government theories of representation, the vertical

dimension aims at distinguishing between party-‐based representation on the one hand and

constituency-‐based on the other. The party government model is a relevant point of departure

when studying parliamentary systems with strong political parties, such as the Swedish.

Candidates are selected by party elites rather than through open primaries, so they are first and

foremost party representatives. At the same time blogging is being recognized as a practice that

allows candidates and representatives to engage with citizens more directly and bypass parties

to articulate individual opinions, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and identities (Albrecht &

Lübcke, 2007; Wright, 2008; Coleman, 2005b; Chadwick, 2007). For this reason the degree to

which the content of the blog focuses on party or individual views is highly interesting.

3. Explanatory perspectives

What factors determine the representational function and focus of political blogs? When John

Wahlke (1962) and his colleagues initiated empirical research on political representation, they

argued that three sets of factors influenced the roles taken by individual politicians: normative

views; strategic considerations; and practical circumstances. Even though we have argued in

favor of a somewhat different understanding of political representation, we will employ the

same three perspectives for explaining variations in blogging. First we propose a normative

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perspective focusing on ideology and party affiliation. The second perspective, on strategic

considerations, argues that a politician’s distance to the voters should be of importance for the

way they blog—as would their parliamentary position, i.e., whether they are in the majority or

opposition. The third and practical perspective naturally focuses on technological factors. How

much a politician uses and trusts social media is supposed to influence the function and focus

of blogging.

3.1 The normative perspective

Is there an ideological foundation for politicians blog use? In previous research, party affiliation

is emphasized as the main reason why different members support different principles of

representation and the explanation for these differences usually points at ideological factors.

Holmberg (1974) highlights the tradition of collectivism within socialism. The guiding principle

of leftist parties has been party solidarity, unlike the right-‐wing parties that have been

influenced by the liberal, individual tradition of representation. Others argue that the parties'

historical origins are of importance as well. More than for right-‐wing parties, the base within

the labor movement has made leftist parties accept a greater influence of the extra-‐

parliamentary party organization on the officials (Wallin et. al., 1981). The ideological

dimension has also been important when explaining different approaches towards reform

proposals that support a more candidate-‐centered electoral system in Sweden (Möller, 1999;

Nielsen, 2007).

Interestingly, there also seems to be an ideological dimension in the political use of

social media. Stemming from the observation that Democrats in the US have demonstrated far

greater ability in using the Internet to mobilize and engage the public than Republicans, despite

the right’s similar attempts to innovate online, researchers have raised the issue of whether or

not the web is a fundamentally liberal medium (cf. Karpf, 2009). Furthermore, by coding top

level political blogs, Benkler and Shaw (2010) reveal significant variations in content between

the left and the right along several important dimensions: sites on the left adopt more

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participatory technical platforms; are comprised of significantly fewer sole-‐authored sites;

include user blogs; and more often use blogs as platforms for mobilization as well as discursive

production. In discussing what would account for these differences, ideology is mentioned as

one possible candidate. In a Swedish study, furthermore, the main conclusion is that the

uptake, usage and impact of blogging among Swedish politicians, to a considerable degree, are

mediated by ideologies and parties. Blogs not only seem to be more attractive to politicians

who stand to the right, both among and within parties, but the findings also suggest that the

blogosphere plays different roles within different parties. The parties on the right appear to

embrace candidate-‐centered blogging, while the left gives the impression of having a more

collective agenda (Åström & Karlsson, 2013).

If this account is correct, then communication on the blogs in general, and its functions

when it comes to promoting political representation in particular, can be expected to reflect

ideological positions. Digital politics should mirror traditional forms of communication so that

there will be more politicians from right wing parties using the blog for individual styles of

representation.

3.3 Strategic considerations

While all politicians have some possibility of building trust through more individual styles of

representation via their blogs, some probably can gain more than others. According to the

strategic perspective, each politician will take into account the context she faces when deciding

how to communicate (Lipinsky & Cooper, 2003).

From the growing number of comparative Internet research we know that there is a set

of structural mechanisms guiding the political use of social media. Owing to traditional

scholarship in political communication, most of these studies unsurprisingly center on the role

of the Internet in election campaigns. Concentrating primarily on European and US case studies,

this research has usually de-‐mystified the idea that American innovations in e-‐campaigning

could simply be replicated elsewhere. By accounting for mainly institutional variables such as

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party structure and funding, electoral regulations, and media systems, research show how

similar instances of e-‐campaigning are shaped by national contexts. However, relatively little

attention has been given to intra-‐national variations and aspects of representation. In

developing hypotheses in this regard, we therefore turn to historical accounts.

A first hypothesis concerns the distance to the voters. Already in Considerations on

Representative Government (1861) John Stuart Mill argued that voter opinions influence locally

elected officials differently than nationally elected officials. Residing in the place they operate,

local politicians are in more regular contact with voters and the opinion of voters should be of

more significance due to this proximity. Locally oriented politicians should in other words have

greater incentives to intensify their communication with their constituents than nationally

oriented politicians, and may use their blog for individual representation more frequently.

A second hypothesis builds on empirical evidence showing that parliamentary position

influences views on representation. According to Gilljam et al. (2010) politicians in the majority

tend to rely more heavily on a party delegate role of representation, while politicians in

opposition tend to be more oriented towards a trustee or a voter delegate role. The pressure

for following the party line is stronger, they argue, once in the majority. The reason for this is

that any deviation from the party line may lead the party to lose its majority. In opposition, on

the other hand, there are few who notice any deviation from the party line since the

consequences are less severe.

Another argument for a more individual style of representation among politicians in

opposition is that innovation is usually seen as offering an opportunity to change the rules of

the game, which is a strategy that is more appealing to candidates and parties in opposition,

and even more so to dark horse candidates and parties who are expected to have only an

outside chance under existing rules (Karpf, 2009). According to Karpf, the internal resistance

against new strategies may also be easier to overcome when a party has currently lost an

election. New communication strategies, he says, are often introduced by new actors displacing

previous actors and that displacement is more likely to happen when a party has been losing

elections and is searching for new ideas.

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3.3 Technological perspective

How do social media change the context within which ideology and strategy influence the focus

and function of political representation? In the field of digital politics researchers have often

focused on technological explanations. According to a technological perspective, political and

social organizations are responding to adaptations and uses of ICTs that are relatively

autonomous of ideology, strategy and other social influences. The most important factor

driving digital politics is thought to be the technological development in itself, directly

influencing how far politicians can go to provide online communication, and indirectly

producing greater incentives to do so (Norris, 2001).

Along these lines a growing amount of empirical results suggest that Internet use in

itself is encouraging online political activity among citizens. No matter how interested one was

in politics before, developing experience of the Internet seems to increase the likelihood that

one will engage in online participation (Gibson, Lusoli & Ward, 2005; Di Gennaro & Dutton,

2006). Even when it comes to political representation there is some evidence suggesting a link

between online stimuli and increased interaction with citizens. Surveys among Swedish political

representatives, for instance, show that experienced Internet users have greater confidence in

technology’s potential for promoting democratic values than inexperienced Internet users; that

they are more positive towards a strategic usage of the new technology; and that they are

more positive towards proposals that allow a higher degree of interaction. The way in which

technology is used by political representatives at one stage thus seems to be of importance for

the goals and operations they associate with the technology at a later stage. As Åström (2004;

2005) argues, these findings may be interpreted as a cumulative technological effect, or a

process in which goals are gradually adjusted to available means.

What the available means suggest for political representatives’ communication is, due

to the flexibility of the medium, not obvious (Bimber, Stohl & Flanagin, 2009). As argued above,

the Internet facilitates political communication across all the quadrants of the digital blog

space. However, blogs are often touted as having the potential to reinvigorate politics by more

individualized, decentralized and interactive forms of representation. From a technological

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perspective we therefore expect to find that the more a politician uses and trusts social media,

the more she will use the blog to represent herself individually, regardless of ideology and

strategy.

4. Data and Measurements

4.1 The case

As a political setting Sweden is perhaps foremost characterized by its tradition of strong

political parties with a central position in the representative democratic system. Political

parties have traditionally been the dominant institutions for organizing political

representation (Holmberg, 1999) as well as citizen participation (Montin, 2007). Although

parties in Sweden, as in most western democracies, have experienced weakening public

support during the latest decades, there are few signs that the power of political parties in

political assemblies is weakening. During the last 40 years, Swedish parties have lost the lion’s

share of their members, voters have become increasingly mobile between elections (Holmberg

& Oscarsson, 2004, p. 5), and party identification among citizens has strongly decayed

(Oscarsson & Holmberg, 2009, p. 11). Still, the level of party loyalty among elected

representatives has steadily increased during the same period (Gilljam et al., 2010). A recent

comparative analysis of 16 European countries found Swedish local democracy to most clearly

represent what the authors call “party democracy” (in contrast to “citizen democracy,” Denters

& Klok, 2012), characterized by weak local political actors, a lack of directly elected positions,

weak elements of preferential voting, and a scarcity of citizen initiated referendums. Although a

collectivistic party culture and a strong party orientation is the norm among Swedish politicians,

some inter-‐party variations exist. Politicians on the center and right of the ideological scale are

shown to be more individualized as personal campaigning and individualized forms of political

communication are more common (Åström & Karlsson, 2013). These party organizations are

also more approving of individually oriented political practices, which is in line with earlier

research on Swedish parties discussed in the theoretical section above (cf. Holmberg, 1974).

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5.2 Data

The empirical data was gathered through a web survey sent to the authors of all blogs listed by

the Swedish political blog indexing service “Politometern” (www.politometern.se) for which e-‐

mail addresses could be found. Of the 2103 blogs listed by Politometern at the time of the

survey, e-‐mail addresses of 1112 bloggers (53%) were found. The survey was answered by 730

political bloggers (66% of the recipients of the survey, 35% of all bloggers listed on

Politometern). This study is based on a sub-‐sample of blogging politicians, including only those

602 bloggers (82% of the total sample) that either held a political office at the time of the

survey or participated as candidates in the 2010 elections in the analyses. It is difficult to

estimate the overall response rate of the survey among blogging politicians since we do not

know how many of the bloggers who did not answer the survey were politicians. If we assume

that the participating bloggers are fully representative of the non-‐participating bloggers (82%

politicians) this produces a total number of blogging politicians of 1733 and a response rate of

35%. In relation to two important challenges for the studying of blogs discussed by Li and

Walejko (2008), the survey method employed has some clear advantages over content analysis.

First, the risk of including non-‐active bloggers and spam blogs in the analysis was decreased as

respondents were given the opportunity to report that their blog was no longer active. Second,

the survey was distributed to all blogs registered in Politometern, avoiding the risks of a skewed

sample. However, the representativeness of the sample of bloggers included in the analysis was

totally reliant on the inclusiveness of the Politometern blog list. The sample excludes those

political blogs that are not included in the Politometern index. The empirical material

accumulated gives a broad overview of the Swedish political blogosphere and makes possible

the analysis of bloggers’ background, strategies, and behavior in connection to their blogging

that would not be possible through content analysis.

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5.3 Measurements

Dependent variables

1. Focus of blogging

In an attempt to create a measurement of politicians’ blog focus, in terms of party

oriented blogging or individually oriented blogging, an index comprised of two items

was constructed. The first item measures the focus of the content of the blog and the

degree to which the content is focused on the politician’s party or his or her individual

positions. The second item regards the degree that the politicians used the blog as an

instrument for an individual election campaign in the run up to the 2010 elections. The

index reaches only a low level of reliability (Cronbach's α: .383). In the analyses the

index was split at the mean value and transformed into a categorical variable that is

used to separate between party oriented and individually oriented blogging politicians.

2. Level of representative communication

The main focus of this study is put on the usage of blogs as an instrument for political

representation. In order to create a measurement of this utilization of political blogging

an index was constructed based on the theoretical framework of “representational

communication” presented above. The three variables included attempts to measure

the usage of blogs for inquiring with citizens (inquiry); making accounts of political

positions (accountability); and fostering a greater connection between representative

and constituents (connectivity). Also this index reached an acceptable level of reliability

(Cronbach's α: .696), and was transformed into a categorical variable (divided at the

mean value) in order to separate between low and high levels of representative

communication among blogging politicians.

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Independent variables

1. Ideological factors

In order to account for the potential influence of ideological positions (often highlighted

as influential in earlier studies on political representation) we included the politicians’

party affiliation as well as individual self-‐positioning on an eleven-‐point ideological scale

ranging from left (0) to right (10). In the descriptive analyses the various party

affiliations were grouped into the dominating political camps in Swedish politics at the

time of the study: the red-‐green cooperation (the Left Party, the Social Democrats and

the Greens) and the Alliance for Sweden (the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, the

Moderates and the Christian Democrats).

2. Strategic factors

In terms of factors that earlier studies underlined to potentially influence politicians

strategic considerations (e.g., in relation to political blogging) we included in the analysis

the respondents’ political level (local or national) as well as whether or not the

respondent enjoyed a majority position in his or her political setting or was part of the

opposition.mp

3. Technological factors

We measured the level of confidence the respondents expressed regarding the

importance of social media as a political tool. Second, an item measuring the

respondents’ level of activity in the blogosphere, through their reported frequency of

writing blog posts in the month preceding the survey, was included.

4. Personal characteristics

As several earlier studies illustrate, individual characteristics also play a role in

explaining politicians’ norms and roles of representation. We include in this analysis

items measuring the age of the respondents (as a categorical variable separating

between respondents under the age of forty and respondents that are forty or older) as

well as the gender of the respondents.

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5. Empirical Analysis

5.1 Positions in blog space

The primary focus of theoretical and empirical work in comparative Internet politics is on the

comparison of online practices between states and on developing an understanding of how and

why different institutions affect these practices. As in comparative politics more generally, it is

widely acknowledged that electoral systems allowing for a strong individual vote tend to have

weaker party cohesion than countries relying more heavily on party votes, since competition

within parties is strengthened (Katz, 2001). Another key distinction is between plurality systems

and proportional representation. According to Rae (1971), the latter is, by nature, more party-‐

oriented than the former, making the effect of individual voting less noticeable. Hence, the

electoral system seems to be a decisive factor in understanding individual communication

strategies in different countries, online as well as offline (Anstead & Chadwick, 2009; Ward &

Cahill, 2007; Zittel, 2003).

From a comparative perspective we would expect few incitements for Swedish political

bloggers to adopt individual representational communication online. They are after all first and

foremost party representatives and party endorsement is the most important thing for winning

a seat. However, the empirical evidence shows that there is quite substantial variation among

the Swedish blogging politicians (see figure 1 below). They position themselves all over the

political blog space, although with a tendency towards centralization to the middle of each

dimension. We see tendencies of some skewness in the distribution, as politicians with an

individual focus are seldom blogging without utilizing this medium for representational

communication. Apart from this the whole blog space seems to be populated to varying

degrees.

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Figure 1: Distribution of bloggers in the Swedish political blog space (focus and function)

Furthermore the two dimensions of the blog space (focus and function) are not strongly

correlated (.256, p<.05) indicating that the relationship between two dimensions is not straight

forward but well worth analyzing. Before turning to the main empirical question of this study

(namely: how can this variation be explained?), we will first further explore the relationship

between the two dimensions of the dependent variable, our operationalization of the Swedish

political blog space.

Through bivariate correlations of the covariance between focus and function of blogging

among different groups of politicians, the structure and patterns of the political blog space can

be further explored. These analyses (presented in the appendix) indicate that the relationship

between these dimensions is highly dependent on politicians’ ideological positions. Among

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politicians on the left the two dimensions are weakly related. Whether or not these politicians

utilize blogging for representational communication or not is unrelated to their blog focus (on

party or person), and vice versa. Whether or not a left-‐leaning politician in Sweden explores the

blogosphere’s potential for supporting his or her role as a political representative does not

hinge on whether the politician is individually oriented or party oriented. Among the politicians

leaning towards the right of the ideological spectrum on the other hand, the two dimensions

are more strongly and positively correlated (.354, p<.01). Within this group of politicians

utilizing political blogging for representational communication to a greater extent means having

a focus on the person rather than the party. The same pattern is reflected when politicians are

grouped after party affiliation. Among the parties on the left, focus and function of blogging are

unrelated while highly correlated among the parties in the center and on the right (.325, p<.01).

No significant differences in the correlation between focus and function of blogging are

found when the respondents are grouped according to any of the other independent variables.

Hence, ideology and only ideology seems to be the decisive factor in determining the

relationship between the two dimensions of the political blog space. Further, these results

indicate a higher degree of ideological stringency in the utilization of political blogging among

the parties in the center and on the right of the ideological spectrum, while politicians on the

left seem to be freer in interpreting how this political space can and should be used.

In order to investigate how the distribution within the political blog space can be further

understood and explained we now turn to our explanatory analyses. First, the research

questions of the study are approached through descriptive analyses. Thereafter multivariate

explanatory analyses are presented.

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5.2 Who positions themselves where?

Ideological factors

Earlier research on how politicians view and handle their roles as political representatives have

attributed great explanatory value to representatives’ ideological orientations and party

memberships (cf. Zittel, 2009; Gilljam et al., 2010). It is therefore likely to assume that such

factors also influence whether or not politicians pursue blogging as an instrument for

representational communication.

In line with earlier research the analyses show that politicians who position themselves

on the left predominantly are party oriented in their blogging efforts while politicians on the

right are more individually oriented. The results on the other hand do not indicate any clear

relationship between ideological orientation and the tendency to utilize blogging for political

representation, neither among party-‐oriented or individually-‐oriented politicians. The same

goes for party affiliation. While politicians from the parties on the left more often are party

oriented, the politicians from the parties in the center and on the right are more often

individually oriented. Still, about the same percentage of politicians from both party groups use

their blogs for representational communication, only with divergent orientations related to

collectivism and individualism. In sum, the results of the bivariate analyses do not indicate any

ideological or party related difference in relation to the usage of blogging as an instrument for

political representation. Ideology therefore seems decisive in affecting politicians’ actions along

one dimension of the political blog-‐space (focus) while having little importance for the second

dimension (function).

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Table 1: Bivariate descriptive analyses with Chi2-‐tests of functions and focus of political blogging.

Party Individual

Representational communication Low High Low High

(n=177) (n=109) (n=90) (n=136) Ideological factors Left (ideology) 42.3% 29.2% 10.9% 17.6% Right (ideology) 25.9% 12.1% 24.7% 37.2% Difference 16%*** 17.1%*** -14%*** -19.6%*** Left (party) 48.6% 33.5% 7.5% 10.4% Center-right (party) 24.7% 12.7% 24.7% 38% Difference 23.9%*** 20.8%*** -17.2%*** -27.6%*** Strategic factors Majority 25.5% 16% 20.2% 38.3% Opposition 30.5% 36.4% 16.2% 16.9% Difference -5% -20.4%*** 4% 21.4%*** Local focus 22.2% 28.5% 15.6% 33.7% National focus 48.5% 13% 19.7% 18.8% Difference -26%*** 15.5%*** -4% 14.9%*** Technological factors Low confidence in social media 45.7% 15.7% 22.1% 16.4% High confidence in social media 30.4% 23.4% 15.9% 30.4% Difference 15.3%*** -7.7%** 6.2%* -14%*** Low frequency of blogging 40.1% 17.5% 21.0% 21.4% High frequency of blogging 29.1% 25.2% 14.2% 31.5% Difference 11%*** -7.7%** 6.8%** -10.1%*** Control factors Woman 28.10% 27.60% 15.60% 28.60% Man 38.70% 17.30% 18.80% 25.20% Difference -11%*** 10.3%*** -3.2% 3.4% 40+ 29.10% 20.70% 18.40% 31.80% Under 40 40.70% 21.50% 17.10% 20.70% Difference -11.6%*** -0.8% 1% 11.1%*** Notes: ***p<0,01, **p<0,05,*p<0,1.

Strategic factors

As argued in the theoretical section above, “each politician will take into account the context

she faces when deciding how to communicate” (Lipinsky & Cooper, 2003). Hence, it is

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important to investigate political blogging in relation to politicians’ contextual preconditions.

Two such factors are investigated here; parliamentary position and whether the politicians are

oriented towards local or national political issues. The results of these analyses give some

indications that strategic factors matter for the position of politicians in the political blog space.

The analyses make evident that oppositional politicians to a greater extent than

politicians from the majority adopt a party-‐oriented focus in blogging. In relation to

representational communication, however, the pattern is more complex. Among the party-‐

oriented bloggers there is a greater share of oppositional than majority politicians that fulfill

functions of representation. Among the individualistic bloggers, the pattern is reversed. Party

oriented bloggers more often adhere to representational communication in opposition, while

individually-‐oriented bloggers do so in the majority position. Both of these relationships are

fairly strong as well as statistically significant. While this is an interesting pattern, we should,

however, keep in mind that parliamentary position is strongly related to party affiliation. While

70% of the politicians in the center and on the right enjoy majority positions, only 35% of the

politicians on the left are in the majority. Therefore, it is important to include controls for party

affiliation in the analyses, as is done in the multivariate analyses, before we draw any firm

conclusions.

The results also indicate that national versus local orientation influence the politicians’

positions in the blog space. An orientation towards local issues seems to go together with more

representational communication. About 15% more politicians with a local orientation use their

blogs for representational communication compared to politicians with a national orientation.

A striking result is furthermore that close to half of all the politicians with a national orientation

position themselves in quadrant I (party focus and non-‐representational communication). In

line with the writings of Mill these results suggest that local politicians, who act in an

environment where the physical distance to their constituents is smaller, are more eager to

engage in communication with their constituents through blogging.

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Technological factors

Finally, the descriptive analyses show that technologically related factors influence the position

in the political blog space. Politicians that have a high level of confidence in social media are

more frequently using their blogs for representational communication. This relationship is

evident both among politicians with a party focus as well as among more individually-‐oriented

blogging politicians, although significantly stronger in the latter group. The same pattern is

virtually repeated in the analyses of how frequently politicians write blog posts. Politicians that

frequently write posts on their blogs (three times per week or more) are more frequently

utilizing blogging for representational communication.

As it seems, politicians with a high level of confidence in social media are also more

frequently employing an individual focus. When it comes to frequency of writing blog posts the

data follows the same pattern but the relationship is weaker. In sum, these results indicate that

politicians’ relationships with this form of technology to some degree shapes how blogs are

used for political purposes. Whether or not this relationship is dependent on any latent factor is

explored further in the multivariate analyses of this study.

Control factors

The individual characteristics of the politicians that are analyzed in this study are gender and

age. The results indicate that among party-‐oriented politicians, women more often use blogging

as an instrument for political representation than men. Among individually-‐oriented politicians

on the other hand this relationship is not reflected. Politicians’ gender has no apparent

influence on whether politicians adapt a party-‐ or individually-‐oriented focus in blogging. Age

on the other hand seems to have a clear impact on the focus of politicians’ blogs as young

politicians are more party oriented than their older colleagues. This, seemingly surprising result

aligns with earlier research on young Swedish party activists indicating a dominance of a

“strategic orientation” that allows for activists to align behind the party elites rather than to

challenge those elites in order to promote one’s own ideological convictions. The driving forces

21

behind this strategic orientation are foremost to secure potential benefits in terms of

nominations for higher positions, which are valued higher than ideological stringency (Dahl,

2011). Politicians’ age also influences modes of blogging. Younger politicians are prone not to

use their blogs as an instrument for political representation while older politicians more often

utilize blogging for purposes of political representation. In sum these results indicate that these

two individual characteristics may be of importance for understanding the usage of blogs

among Swedish politicians and therefore should be included as controls in the multivariate

analyses.

5.3 What explains the pattern?

Based on the results from the descriptive analysis, it might be anticipated that all three

perspectives may plausibly explain the positions of politicians in the blog space. As indicated

above, they might, however, be related to each other in complex ways. To examine these

relationships, we turn to multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Ideological factors

In this study we address the argument that politicians’ ideological orientation influences their

practices of political blogging through analyses of two separate factors, the perceived

ideological orientation of the politicians (on a left-‐right dimension) as well as the party

affiliation of blogging politicians. The inclusion of both these factors in the analyses creates

opportunities not only for measuring the influence of ideology and party affiliation on political

blogging but also for valuing the influence of these related but distinguishable factors against

each other. While ideological self positioning and party affiliation co-‐vary to a great extent (r:

.81, p<.01), there is also substantial variation in ideological self positioning within the respective

parties (standard deviations of ideological positioning ranges from .80 in the left party to 1.55 in

the Christian democratic party). Hence the analysis of both factors creates prospects for valuing

whether or not the individual politician’s ideological conviction or the party that politician is

22

affiliated with (and its party culture, organizational structure and institutionalized norms) have

the greater impact on how politicians utilize this new medium. The analyses also create

opportunities for analyzing the influence of ideological diversity within parties on modes of

political blogging.

In order to explore these opportunities each mode of blogging is analyzed through a

step-‐wise-‐regression. In the first model ideological self-‐positioning is analyzed without controls

for party affiliation, creating a measurement of the influence of individual ideological

orientation on political blogging. In the subsequent model controls for party affiliation include

transforming the ideological self-‐positioning measurement to a variable measuring the

influence of ideological orientation within respective parties. If individual ideological

orientation prevails as statistically significant with the controls for party affiliation, the results

indicate that ideological orientations have a significant influence on how blogs are used. If

instead ideological orientation becomes non-‐significant in these models, while the party

affiliation models are significant, the results indicate that party affiliation is of greater

importance than ideological orientation.

The results of the analyses clearly give the latter scenario support. While ideological

orientation creates statistically significant relationships with the dependent variable in three of

the four models without controls for party affiliation these relationships all become non-‐

significant when the party controls are added. These results indicate that varying ideological

orientations within a party has little influence on how politicians blog. Second, the significant

relationships related to ideological orientation do not deviate between the models that explain

the usage of blogging as an instrument for representational communication and the models

that explain not using blogging for this reason. Instead the analyses clearly shows that

politicians that stand further to the right are more likely to use blogging as an individualized

instrument while politicians that stand to the left are more likely to have a party focus in their

blogging efforts.

In the models where controls for party affiliation are included this tendency is once

again illustrated. Politicians from the parties in the center and on the right are much less likely

23

than politicians on the left to employ a party focus in their blogging efforts and much more

likely to employ an individual focus. However, these models do not give us any clear indications

that party affiliation influences the extent that bloggers use their blogs for representational

communication. Instead, the table shows that politicians on the left who use blogs for political

representation do this predominantly with a party focus, while politicians from the center-‐right

parties use blogs for political representation with a more individualized focus. These

conclusions are in line with earlier research on the role-‐taking of political representatives from

different political parties in Sweden that have indicated a clear and long-‐lived trend that

representatives from the parties on the left are more prone to adhere to a party representative

norm while representatives from the center and right are more often employing a Burkean

trustee norm for political representation (Gilljam et al., 2010).

24

Table 2: Binary logistic regressions model explaining functions and focus of political blogging

Focus Party Person

Representational communication Low High Low High

M1 M2 M1 M2 M1 M2 M1 M2 Ideological factors Left-right self positioning .88** 1.05 .75 .97 1.30*** 1.03 1.22*** .96 (.05) (.10) (.06) (.12) (.07) (.11) (.06) (.10) Left party .51 1.58 - 1.73 (.57) (.57) (-) (.80) Green party .56 .44* 18.56*** 2.60 (.46) (.49) (1.10) (.64) Centre party .28** .20** 20.34*** 8.02*** (.58) (.64) (1.14) (.64) Liberal party .15*** .16** 29.06*** 9.46*** (.63) (.68) (1.14) (.65) Moderate party .17** .26* 22.76*** 8.56*** (.73) (.81) (1.21) (.75) Christian democrats .33 .18* 20.07** 5.48*** (.71) (.99) (1.21) (.78) Strategic factors Majority .71 .79 .63* .67 .73 .64 2.82*** 2.61*** (.28) (.29) (.30) (.31) (.32) (.33) (.30) (.30) Political focus (local) .85*** .87*** 1.26*** 1.30*** .93 .91 1.06 1.02 (.05) (.05) (.07) (.07) (.06) (.07) (.06) (.06) Technological factors Confidence in social media .72* .65*** 1.47** 1.38* .62*** .69** 1.67*** 1.90*** (.13) (.14) (.17) (.17) (.15) (.16) (.16) (.16) Control variables Gender (man) 1.63** 1.66* .63 .59* 1.13 1.29 .85 .86 (.29) (.30) (.29) (.30) (.34) (.36) (.29) (.30) Age (under 40 years) 1.45 1.25 1.67* 1.57 .90 1.03 .38*** .43*** (.26) (.28) (.30) (.30) (.31) (.33) (.29) (.31)

Cox & Snell R2 .10 .13 .18 .21 .09 .14 .16 .20 Nagelkerke R2 .14 .19 .27 .31 .14 .23 .23 .28 Notes: ***p<0,01, **p<0,05,*p<0,1. The table displays Exp(B) values. Standard errors are noted between parentheses. -: The variable was excluded from the model. The Social democratic party is used as a reference category in the analyses.

25

Strategic factors

Parliamentary position, i.e., whether or not the politician belongs to a party in the ruling

majority or the opposition in his or her political setting, seems to impact how political blogging

is utilized to some extent. Foremost, belonging to the majority substantially increases the

likelihood of using blogging for representational communication among individually-‐oriented

politicians. This positive relationship remains significant when controls are included for party

affiliation. Belonging to the majority more than doubles the likelihood of using the blog for

purposes related to political representation in this group (Exp(B): 2.61, p<.01), regardless of

party affiliation.

When it comes to party-‐oriented politicians the relationship is reversed but highly

unstable. In the model where controls for party affiliation are excluded the relationship is

strongly negative (Exp(B): .63, p<.1) and significant on the 90% level of confidence. When

controls for party affiliation are included, however, the relationship becomes insignificant. In

relation to the discussion in the descriptive analysis, these results thus indicate that the

negative relationship between majority position and representational communication in this

group is explained by party affiliation rather than by an effect of the majority position itself. In

sum we can therefore only with certainty say that holding a majority position influences the

utilization of blogs among individually-‐oriented politicians.

A second strategic factor investigated in this study is the political orientation of the

political blogs and whether political bloggers primarily write about local/regional political issues

or national issues. Also this is a factor that seems to have some merit in explaining the usage of

blogging for representational communication, although exclusively among party-‐focused

politicians. Within this group a focus on local/regional issues significantly increases the

likelihood of utilizing blogging as an instrument for political representation, both in the model

without as well as with controls for party affiliation. When party affiliation controls are included

a predominantly local/regional focus of blogging increases the likelihood of using blogging for

political representation by about one-‐third (Exp(B): 1.30, p<.01). Respectively a local/regional

focus significantly decreases the likelihood of not using blogging as a tool for political

26

representation. In the analysis of individually-‐oriented politicians, statistically significant

relationships are lacking and expected B-‐values are much weaker. Hence, the political focus of

blogging seems to influence whether or not politicians use their blogs as an instrument for

representation only among politicians that are party oriented rather than pursuing blogging as

an individual and individually-‐oriented undertaking. The same result can be interpreted as

indicating that a local orientation increases the likelihood of employing a party focus in blogging

among politicians that use their blogs for representational communication. Hence, it is evident

that political parties are present also (and foremost) in local politicians’ attempts to

communicate with their constituents through political blogs.

Technological factors4

The level of confidence in social media as a political tool among politicians significantly affects

the focus and function of political blogging. Blogging politicians that report a higher confidence

in social media are more prone to employ blogging as a tool for representational

communication. This is the case among politicians that engage in blogging with a party focus as

well as politicians with a more individual focus in their blogging efforts. These relationships

remain statistically significant even when controls are included for party affiliation. For

politicians with an individualistic blogging focus the relationship between confidence in social

media and employing blogging, as a tool for political representation even increases in strength

when controls for party affiliation are included. Among this group of politicians one step on the

five point scale measuring confidence in social media corresponds to a near doubling of the

likelihood of employing blogging as a tool for political representation (Exp(B): 1.90, p<.01).

Respectively having a lower level of confidence in social media increases substantially the

likelihood of not employing blogging as a tool for political representation among both party-‐

4 The measurement of blogging activity (frequency of writing blog posts) was excluded in the multivariate

analyses as it was correlated with the measurement of confidence in social media and therefore did not contribute to the explanatory power of the models. The correlation between the variables indicates (unsurprisingly) that politicians’ level of confidence in this medium and willingness to engage with it is related.

27

oriented and individualistic blogging politicians. This is the case in the models with controls for

party affiliation as well as in the models without such controls.

Correspondingly to the descriptive analyses also the multivariate explanatory models

indicate that higher confidence in social media increases the likelihood of employing an

individual focus, at least among politicians using blogging for representational communication.

The presented analyses anyhow do not tell us whether or not this relationship is statistically

significant. We can therefore only conclude that confidence in social media increases the odds

for utilizing blogging for representational communication among party-‐focused as well as

individually-‐focused politicians. In sum the results illustrate with clarity the importance of

technological factors for understanding the usage of blogging among politicians. These analyses

also indicate that confidence in technology affects politicians’ utilization of blogging irrespective

of strategic and ideological factors, as the results are stringent across the models.

Control factors

Alongside the analyses of the three main hypotheses of this study two control variables have

been analyzed as well: the gender and age of blogging politicians. Both these variables produce

interesting results. Male politicians are more likely than females to adhere to a party-‐oriented

style of blogging while not using their blogs as an instrument for political representation.

Conversely, female politicians are more likely than males to use their blogs as an instrument for

representation while employing a party focus in their blogging efforts. Also these results

respond to earlier findings in studies of Swedish politicians indicating that female politicians are

more willing to engage in interactive communication with citizens than their male counterparts

(cf. Karlsson, 2012). This pattern is restricted to politicians with a party focus in their blogging as

no statistically significant relationships related to gender are found for individually-‐oriented

bloggers.

Similar to the descriptive analyses, the explanatory models indicate that the age of

politicians influences the likelihood of utilizing blogging as an instrument for representation in

28

an unexpected direction as the results indicate that older politicians (40 years old or older) are

more likely to use their blogs for political representation with an individualized focus. The

opposite relationship is found among politicians with a party focus in their blogging but does

become non-‐significant when controls for party affiliation are included. The lasting impression

of these analyses is therefore that preconceptions of avant-‐garde usages of blogs among

politicians as being predominantly championed by young politicians might be false. Perhaps this

can be understood (as implied in the descriptive analyses above) as a consequence of a

strategic orientation among young party activists in Sweden leaving them more interested in

pleasing party elites than promoting their own ideological convictions (Dahl, 2011).

7 Conclusions

In this paper we have explored the relationship between social media and political

representation along two dimensions, representational communication and representational

focus, comprising a political blog space. Furthermore we have attempted to explain the

positioning of Swedish blogging politicians within this blog space, by testing three explanatory

perspectives, one normative, one strategic and finally a technological perspective.

The analyses shows the influences of all three perspectives investigated in explaining

the focus and functions of blogging among Swedish politicians. It is, however, evident that the

different sets of explanatory factors have merits in relation to explaining variations along

different dimensions of the political blog-‐space. While practical circumstances related to

technology and strategic considerations foremost influences the function of political blogging,

ideological orientation instead exclusively affects the focus of politicians’ blogs. The results also

vindicate that the two dimensions of the political blog-‐space analyzed are related in a complex

rather than straightforward way. The two dimensions are not strongly correlated, for instance

individually-‐oriented political bloggers are not generally more prone to engage in

representational communication than party-‐oriented bloggers. Instead the dimension creates

29

what resembles an interaction as certain factors influence the function of blogging only within

one specific blog focus and vice versa.

Summarizing the analyses one perspective at a time we first see that the results clearly

illustrate how technological factors shape politicians’ engagement in blogging as their level of

confidence in social media as a political instrument increases the likelihood of utilizing blogging

as a means for representational communication. Second the analyses vindicate that strategic

factors play a role in shaping the political usage of blogs. Politicians from the majority are more

likely to utilize blogging for representational communication. But this relationship is only

evident among individually-‐oriented blogging politicians. The same goes for the analysis of

whether politicians are oriented towards local or national issues in their blogs. Politicians with a

local/regional orientation are more likely to use their blogs for political representation than

politicians with a focus on national issues, but this relationship is only apparent among bloggers

with a party focus. When it comes to strategic considerations there is therefore a clear

interaction between the focus and function of blogging that deserves more attention and

discussion.

Ideological orientation has a strong influence on blog focus but no evident impact on

the function of blogging among Swedish politicians. Politicians on the left are more likely to be

focused on their party while politicians from the center and right are more likely to employ an

individual focus in blogging. The analyses of ideological factors also indicate that variations in

politicians’ individual ideological orientation has little impact on how they use their blogs while

party affiliation matters to a great extent. Hence, as many earlier studies have shown, political

parties have a strong influence on the way Swedish politicians act as political representatives.

What are the implications of these results in terms of the potential of social media to

reinvigorate political representation in Swedish democracy? The descriptive analyses indicate

that a large share of Swedish politicians utilize blogging as an instrument for representational

communication, a result that in itself can be seen as surprising given the tradition and political

culture of Sweden. Further the analyses illustrate that different parties utilize political blogging

30

in different ways. Bloggers within the right-‐wing parties utilizes blogging in a manor that comes

close to the ideal-‐typical descriptions of a new direct or interactive form of political

representation often mentioned in the scholarly debate. They adopt an individual focus in

combination with representational communication, and the two go hand in hand. Politicians on

the left, and foremost the Social democrats, on the other hand are adopting blogging with a

party focus to a greater extent. Nonetheless, these politicians use their blogs for

representational communication to the same extent as politicians in the center-‐right.

This duality highlights that the relationship between social media and political

representation is not a one-‐way street. Political blogging is an ideologically situated practice of

political communication that can lead to different outcomes within different political camps

(Agre, 2002). The collectivistic party organizations of the parties on the left make an

unexpected setting for individualized forms of political communication. The fact that politicians

on the left still to a great extent sought to explore the potential of the political blogosphere for

representational communication, however, gives an indication that the practice of political

blogging is adoptable to fit within diverging ideological frameworks and party cultures. In order

to understand why bloggers blog the way they blog we need to relate practices of political

blogging not only to normative ideals however but also to strategic circumstances and

technological developments. This indicates that there is a certain dynamic that can lead to

change beyond institutional constraints. Future research of this dynamic should not reside in

comparative internet research alone, but must also take into consideration the importance of

intra national variations.

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Appendix

Descriptive statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.

Deviation Blog focus (party-person) 523 0,25 8 3,29 2,01 Level of representational communication 563 0 8 4,73 1,81 Level of confidence in social media 582 1 5 4,10 0,97 Blogging activity 592 1 6 3,50 1,52 Blog focus (local - national) 568 -4 4 -0,50 1,80 Majority/Opposition 391 0 1 0,57 0,50 Left Party 602 0 1 0,07 0,26 Social Democrats 602 0 1 0,22 0,41 Greens 602 0 1 0,13 0,33 Centre Party 602 0 1 0,19 0,39 Liberal Party 602 0 1 0,16 0,37 Moderates 602 0 1 0,15 0,36 Christian Democrats 602 0 1 0,08 0,27 Left - Right (Party affiliation) 602 0 1 0,58 0,49 Left - Right (Ideological self-positioning) 595 0 10 5,20 2,64 Age (<40 years / 40+ years) 596 0 1 0,46 0,50 Gender (male/female) 602 0 1 0,61 0,49

Bivariate correlations exploring the covariance between focus and function of blogging in different groups of politicians.

1 2 Difference Ideological factors Ideological self-positioning (left/right) .150* .354** -.204** Party affiliation (left/right) .084 .325** -.241** Strategic factors Parliamentary position (opposition/majority) .08 .274** -.194 Blog focus (local/national) .168** .283** -.115 Technological factors Confidence in social media (low/high) .312** .228** .084 Frequency of blog posting (low/high) .240** .263** -.023 Control factors Gender (female/male) .244** .27** -.026 Age (<40/40+) .288** .226** .062

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