swedish blogosphere 2007-2012 english version

The history of the political blog - An Analysis of Political Blogs 2007 – 2012

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Labor market issues a major presence in political blogs

Unionen believes that blogs and other social media are the right venue for many of the future discussions about the labor market. For us it is important to be involved. One way to help is to bring to light all the important conversations taking place. Therefore, we are presenting this study on the Swedish political blogosphere.

The analysis contains nearly one million blog entries from over a five-year period, a time when we have seen significant political issues being discussed and the influence of blog-gers grow. Social media has in many cases played an important role in political events. These are major international events such as the Arab Spring, and ongoing domestic poli-tical debates on unemployment assistance and health insurance. In the material, however, we also see an emerging debate on the intertwining of work-hours and leisure-time, and that which is public and private. These are discussions about working while on vacation, or while at home with sick children, and what is acceptable to write about one’s workplace within social media. In short, current issues concerning work and life.

Here we also find the main conclusion of the study: labor market issues affecting the workplace are a central part of the political blogosphere. The so-called “blog-quake” which occurred over the FRA-law (Swedish legislation permitting the state to, without a warrant, wiretap telephone and Internet traffic crossing Sweden’s borders) is often taken as an ex-ample of one of the blogosphere’s greatest political discussions. But the truth is that discu-ssions on changes in health insurance are greater, and discussions on unemployment and unemployment assistance are still much greater, if we look to the number of blog posts.

In conclusion, unemployment and health insurance are two very big issues among Swe-dish political bloggers. At the same time we see that workplace-issues increasingly en-gage political bloggers.

Johan UlvenlövAdvocate for digital media, Unionen

April 2012

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Conclusions

• Unemployment and health insurance are issues that concern many of the political bloggers in Sweden. In the past five years, for example, unemployment issues have been written about more than twice as much as the FRA-law (warrantless wiretap-ping).

• Several other labor market issues are given significant attention among political bloggers. The blurring of the boundary between work and leisure is something that is increasingly blogged about. In 2007, 53 blog posts touched on this topic. In 2011, it had grown to 217 posts. Skills development was mentioned only 97 times in 2007, but all of 530 times in 2012. Young people in the labor market and the discussion on youth wages was mentioned only 26 times in 2007, and 513 times in 2011. And already in the first quarter of this year, 356 blog posts have been written about youth wages.

• Today more than 15 000 political blog posts are written per month in Sweden. Blog-ging increased constantly up until the election in September 2010. Since then, the number of party specific political blogs has declined while the number of contributions from nonpartisan bloggers has increased.

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Contents

5 Facts about the survey 6 Major issues in the blogosphere 7–8 The political blogosphere’s emergence 2007-2012 9 Unemployment 10–11 Health insurance 12 Unemployment assistance 13 RUT-deduction (tax deductions for household-related services)14 Collective bargaining agreement 15 Phase 3 of the employment and skills development guarantee16 Employer/employee agreement negotiations17 Social media and issues on loyalty 18 The debate on the conditions for employees in temporary employment agencies 19 Skills development 20 Youth wages and starting salaries 21 Working during one’s leisure time

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Facts about the survey

Analysis has been conducted by Unionen.

Time frame for blog posts: 2007-01-01–2012-03-31Number of blogs: 2 914Number of analyzed blog posts: 964 015

Party affiliation based on what the bloggers themselves indicated when they for instance registered on Politometern.se, or as specified on the blog:

Number of blogs:C - Centerpartiet (Center Party, centrist, social liberal, agrarian) 231

FP - Folkpartiet (Liberal People’s Party, center-right, social liberalism) 232

KD - Kristdemokraterna (Christian Democrats, center-right, social conservatism, economic liberalism) 91

M - Moderaterna (Moderate Party, center-right, liberal conservative) 228

MP - Miljöpartiet (Green Party, center-left) 175

S - Socialdemokraterna (Social Democratic Party, center-left) 667

V - Vänsterpartiet (Left Party, left wing, socialist, feminist) 147

SD - Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, far right, Swedish nationalism, social conservatism) 46

PP - Piratpartiet (Pirate Party, bloc independent, information freedom) 95

Other 1002

Source: Twingly

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Major issues in the blogosphere Number of blog posts

Unemployment 44 457

Health insurance 19 851

FRA-law (warrantless wiretapping) 18 658

Unemployment assistance 13 029

The Arabic Spring 10 355

2008 US Presidential Election 7 118

RUT-deduction (tax deductions for household-related services) 5 745

Collective bargaining agreement 4 902

Phase 3 of the employment and skills development guarantee 3 026

Employer/employee agreement negotiations 2 576

Social media and issues on loyalty 2 126

Temporary employment agencies 2 071

Carema Care 1 654

Skills development 1 627

Youth wages and starting salaries 1 548

Working during one’s leisure time 761

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The political blogosphere’s emergence 2007-2012

SocialdemokraternaVänsterpartietMiljöpartiet

SverigedemokraternaPiratpartiet Nonpartisan

Each circle represents a blog. The lines are links between blogs. The size of a specific blog is determined by how many other blogs that have linked to it. The position is based on who links to whom – each link can be said to act as a rubber band, so that two blogs that often link to each other are placed close together.

FolkpartietModeraternaCenterpartietKristdemokraterna

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• The number of political blogs was the greatest during the parliamentary election of 2010.

• Today more than 15 000 political blog posts per month are written in Sweden.

• Blogging is less frequent in July and December than the rest of the year.

• The number of blogs that address political issues without any party affiliation has increased.

Number of blog posts

All blog posts day by day

Jan. 1, 2007 June 24, 2007 Dec. 15, 2007 June 6, 2008 Nov. 27, 2008 May 20th, 2009 Nov. 10, 2009 May 3, 2010 Oct. 24, 2010 April 16, 2011 Oct. 7, 2011 March 31, 2012

The political parties blog posts 2007 – 2012Nonpartisan SD PP KD M FP C MP S V

Jan. 2007 July 2007 Dec. 2007 May 2008 Oct. 2008 March 2009 Aug. 2009 Jan. 2010 June 2010 Nov. 2010 April 2011 Sept. 2011 March 201

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Unemployment

• Unemployment is the biggest issue among the political blogs of those that we have looked more closely at. In total during the period, 44 457 blog posts have been writ-ten about unemployment, compared with for example 18 658 blog posts about the FRA-law (warrantless wiretapping), which is often described as a major issue in the blogosphere.

• The discussion on unemployment peaked in August and September of 2010, just befo-re the parliamentary election. But after the parliamentary election, the issue continues to receive considerable attention among bloggers.


Jan. 2007 June 2007 Nov. 2007 April 2008 Sept. 2008 Feb. 2009 July 2009 Dec. 2009 May 2010 Oct. 2010 March 2011 Aug. 2011 March 2012

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Health insurance

• Health insurance is one of the biggest issues in the political blogosphere. Altogether 19 851 blog posts have been written on health insurance during the time period. This can be compared with the 18 658 blog posts written about the FRA-law.

• The peak in the chart in the year-end 2009-2010 reflects the discussions on the government’s new health insurance rules that took effect on January 1st, 2010.

• On April 11th, 2011, the Government presented new changes in health insurance policies.



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It is particularly interesting to look at how the debate on health insurance emerged the week before parliamentary election in 2010.

The blog post ”The Betrayal” (http://klamydiabrevet.blogspot.se/2010/09/sveket.html) by Emelie Holmqvist hit like a bombshell during the last days of the election campaign. In the blog post Holmqvist describes how her mother was forced to seek welfare assistance because the insurance agency thought that she should work despite her severe illness. The same night that the blog post was published it began to spread like wildfire among political bloggers, and the day after the discussion on health insurance policies had reached the media. In total nearly 1 500 blog posts on health insurance were published in connection with the parliamentary election.

Here we see how bloggers initially address the blog post “The Betrayal” and how both blogs and media proceed to write increasingly about the issue of health care.

The blog post “The Betrayal” – Health insuranceLinks to the blog post “The Betrayal”Blog posts on health insuranceHealth insurance in traditional media

Sept. 4, 2010 Sept. 8, 2010 Sept. 12, 2010 Sept. 16, 2010 Sept. 20, 2010 Sept. 24, 2010 Sept. 28, 2010 Oct. 2, 2010 Oct. 6, 2010 Oct. 10, 2010

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Unemployment assistance

• Unemployment insurance is always a big issue among political blogs. • In early 2007, a topic to receive a lot of attention in blogs was that the unemployment

insurance fee was raised at the end of 2006.• The greatest number of blog posts was written during the election campaign for the

parliamentary election in 2010, with 605 blog posts in September. • The peak in May 2010 reflects a proposal from the Liberal People’s Party (Folkpartiet)

for compulsory unemployment assistance.



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RUT-deduction (tax deductions for household-related services)

• Almega’s report ”Home Service - Attitudes and Facts on Household-Related Services” was published in February 2010. Before that the issue was written about less. Even in traditional media the issue of the RUT-deduction has not been particularly noted before February 2010.

• Even in August - September, in the campaign for the parliamentary election, many bloggers wrote about the RUT-deduction.



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Collective bargaining agreement

• From February to May 2007 much was written about the blockade against the salad bar, Wild ’n Fresh in Gothenburg, which led to Centre Party members Fredrik Federley and Dominika Peczynski starting a salad bar without a collective agreement in Stock-holm. It went bankrupt in the spring of 2007.

• In December 2007, an agreement was reached on the Laval case in the European Court of Justice.

• In May and June 2008, collective bargaining agreements were primarily discussed in connection to elections in the European Parliament, but IF Metall’s emergency agre-ement was also widely blogged about.



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Phase 3 of the employment and skills development guarantee

• Although the first participants in Phase 3 were registered in March 2009 it wasn’t until 2011 before such labor market measures were blogged about to any great extent.

• In February 2011 the Social Democrats presented a report stating that Phase 3 mostly functioned as a form of containment of the long-term unemployed, while the newspa-per the Dagens Arbete conducted a survey of labor market measures which received much attention.

• During May 2011 the television program “Uppdrag Granskning” broadcast a report of Phase 3 that gained much attention.



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Employer/employee agreement negotiations

• In March and April 2010 many blog posts were written about employer/employee agreement negotiations of 2010 and, among other things, the strike within the paper industry.

• In September 2011 the employer/employee agreement negotiations began for 2011-2012.

• In March 2012 the strike-layoffs within the trade conflict are highlighted.



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Social media and issues on loyalty

• The discussion on employees being dismissed for something they have written in a blog, on Twitter or Facebook has gained attention among political bloggers.

• Many blog posts are based on media reports from Sweden and abroad.



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The debate on the conditions for employees in temporary employment agencies

• In blogs the discussion on conditions within temporary employment agencies has increased in recent years.

• In January 2012 Swedish Radio revealed that many temporary employment agencies had cheated in agreements and that employees were presented with job offers which they were expected to turn down.

• In January and February 2011 the Swedish television program “Uppdrag Granskning” broadcast two high-profile reports about temporary employment agencies. One of the programs focused on Swedish teenagers in Norway.



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Skills development

• Increasingly, skills development is an issue addressed by political bloggers. In 2007 less than 100 blog posts were written about skills development. Since then the number of blog posts has increased each year and in 2011, 530 blog posts were written on the topic.



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Youth wages and starting salaries

• Youth wages has been a hot topic in March 2012, partly after a move by Jan Björklund prompting local governments to reduced youth wages, and an article in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, by among others Minister of Labor, Hillevi Engström.



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Working during one’s leisure time

• Blog posts about working during one’s leisure time relates to issues such as being available to one’s employer during the holidays, while at home caring for sick children, and the stress related to smartphones.

• The discussion regarding working during one’s leisure time has grown in recent years within the blogosphere. The number of blog posts on the subject has on average in-creased fourfold over the past five years.

• The peak in January and February 2012 points to blog posts about smartphone-rela-ted stress, working while caring for sick children and constant availability.



Unionen is Sweden’s largest union within the private labor market and the country’s largest white-collar union. We are approximately 500 000 members, of whom more than 33 000 are elected from over 67 000 workplaces. Together we in Unionen are the leading agent to promote success, happiness and safety at work.

If you want to know more about Unionen’s work on labor issues in social media, contact Johan Ulvenlöv who is responsible for advocacy of digital media, the division for politics, public opinion and influence within Unionen. Johan Ulvenlöv08-504 153 01070-591 70 [email protected]

www.unionen.setwitter.com/unionen

swedish blogosphere 2007-2012 english version

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