Nyheter, sosiale nettverk og lokalpolitisk orientering i lokalvalgkamp

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine how voters relate to the local political public sphere through a study of the 2019 Norwegian local election. We ask whether local media and personal networks contribute to what we call “local political orientation”, measured by the degree to which voters consider local issues to be important for their vote choice and using the possibility of giving preference votes. We first study the voters’ overall news consumption in the election campaign, with particular emphasis on the role of social media. Then we investigate to what extent candidates running for election are included in voters’ offline networks (family, friends, acquaintances) and social media networks. Finally, we study whether different patterns of news consumption and offline and online political networks increase voters’ degree of local political orientation. Results show that voters use a wide range of news sources – national, local and social media – and that local media is considered more important in small municipalities. A large proportion of voters have political candidates in their personal network, but almost forty percent of those who have a political candidate as a Facebook friend have no candidate in their offline personal network. Hence, social media contribute to greater ties between voters and candidates in Norwegian local politics. Lastly, local media and personal networks do contribute to local political orientation, as they relate to an emphasis on local political issues and a tendency for giving preference votes (to candidates) at the election.