ABSTRACT The impact of mediatization on bureaucracy is attracting increasing scholarly attention. While existing studies show how media logic influences central government performance, less is known about how it affects the norms and everyday practices of civil servants. This article presents a qualitative study of mediatization in the Danish central government, based on 20 in‐depth interviews with civil servants in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance. Drawing on an interpretive approach, the study conceptualizes mediatization as an institutional logic that interacts with existing bureaucratic norms such as neutrality and expertise. The findings reveal that media logic not only demands communication skills but also penetrates the internal culture of the civil service. The effects of mediatization vary depending on the policy field, the impact of social media, and the deliberate strategies civil servants employ to manage media exposure. Both ministries exhibit mediatization, but the Ministry of Health experiences greater personalization, which influences both administrative practices and media strategies. The study also incorporates the role of social media, questioning whether mediatization should still be equated with traditional news logic or understood through the lens of social media logic. By highlighting differences in media strategies, policy field dynamics, and the evolving media landscape, the article contributes to a broader theoretical understanding of bureaucratic mediatization. While grounded in the Danish case, the findings offer insights relevant to meritocratic bureaucracies more generally, with implications for democratic governance and institutional trust.

ABSTRACT Does the proportional distribution of office payoffs between coalition partners, known as ‘Gamson's Law’, hold at the local level? And can the inclusion of a populist radical right (PRR) party in a coalition lead to deviations from this law? This article addresses these two questions by examining municipal coalitions that were formed following the 2022 Swedish elections. I demonstrate that Gamson's Law proves relevant at the municipal level in Sweden but find that the PRR Sweden Democrats (SD) face, on average, a disproportional allocation unmatched by any other party. I find that the inclusion of SD is, by far, the most substantively significant factor driving disproportionality. I suggest that relinquishing office positions corresponds to a specific price that the PRR is willingly paying to facilitate inclusion within municipal coalitions. This article contributes to a growing body of literature examining the relevance of Gamson's Law at the municipal level. Furthermore, it identifies a new pattern of deviation relating to the inclusion of a PRR party, inviting researchers to further explore the PRR's impact on coalition politics.

ABSTRACT Research from the deeply polarized United States suggests that the impact of elite communication is asymmetrical: antagonistic messages often heighten divisions, while positive appeals fail to dampen them. In this study, we examine the extent of these dynamics in one of the least polarized democracies: Norway. Using a survey‐experimental design fielded in the Norwegian Citizen Panel ( N = 2287), we test whether mutual recrimination between elites amplifies perceptions of political conflict and whether positive messaging mitigates them. The experiment exposes citizens to episodes in which elites either engaged in mutual recrimination or conciliatory actions revolving around the July 22, 2011 terrorist attacks. The results show that while recrimination significantly heightens perceptions of conflict, positive messaging has no measurable impact, even in a low‐polarized setting. These findings contribute to understanding the boundary conditions of elite influence, suggesting that for political leaders, it is easier to fan the flames of conflict than to put out the fire.

ABSTRACT Traditional boundaries between policy areas are being challenged as farm animal welfare raises controversies. In this article we use data from the consultation process for a new white paper from the Norwegian government, and the theoretical lenses of Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), to describe and analyse the discursive landscape of farm animal welfare in Norway. The article demonstrates how actor coalitions at the intersection of a traditionally exceptionalist agricultural policy and an emerging animal welfare policy narrate the animal welfare discourse differently. These narrative differences also reflect various positions on the issue of change or status quo in the field of farm animal welfare. We identify three narratives: one exceptionalist status‐quo narrative presented by mainstream agricultural sector actors, especially the meat industry; one shallow post‐exceptionalist reformative narrative, presented by a variety of stakeholders, including agricultural cooperatives as well as research and education institutions; and one radical post‐exceptionalist transformative narrative, presented by mainly animal rights organisations. From mainstream actors in the first two narratives, objectives like maintaining food production levels and economic sustainability are seen as more fundamental and sometimes in conflict with introducing new animal welfare measures.

ABSTRACT Epistemic conflicts and disagreements characterise our political debates, as consensus surrounding what qualifies as legitimate knowledge in political settings becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. This article examines how right‐wing populist party voters in Denmark produce legitimate political knowledge, based on a series of focus groups conducted in different locations throughout the country. Analysing how the participants discussed migration and climate change, I demonstrate that epistemic habits, or a shared set of beliefs and expectations about how political knowledge is produced and presented, allow participants to transform personal experiences and opinions into legitimate knowledge. I analyse how these voters demonstrate objectivity, claim legitimacy, and provide evidence for their claims, and show that the epistemic habits of this group have distinctly populist characteristics. Furthermore, I examine how the epistemic habits of Danish populists use and transform Danish cultural ideals in their attempts to produce legitimate knowledge and delegitimize knowledge produced in other settings. The article concludes by noting that these epistemic habits may be incommensurable with the epistemic habits of other political groups, and argues that understanding how political groups produce, value, and judge knowledge is vital for understanding current political developments and conflicts.

ABSTRACT This study examines political news consumption patterns among Icelandic voters during the 2021 parliamentary election campaign, tracking developments on a daily basis leading up to election day. While news consumption during campaigns has been widely studied, little attention has been paid to examining changes in people's media diets over time, as we do here. Using an innovative rolling cross‐sectional survey design, we capture daily variations in engagement across traditional, online, and social media platforms during the month before the election. This method reveals trends over time, offering insights into fluctuations in engagement across demographic groups and levels of political interest. Findings show a slight but steady rise in political news use as election day nears, with political interest as a key predictor. Notably, individuals who rely on social media are found to be highly interested in politics, diverging from patterns in other countries and highlighting Iceland's unique digital media environment.

ABSTRACT Rally‐round‐the‐flag describes a situation where voters rally behind their government and leader in the fight against an external enemy. The COVID‐19 pandemic was such an external enemy and Danish voters responded immediately with an increased support of about seven percentage points for the government and a significant 33 percentage points increase in approval ratings for the Prime Minister. However, this effect gradually diminished and had completely disappeared by the time of the general election on November 1, 2022. The article employs a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) using all 283 publicly available opinion polls on party choice from the 2019–2022 throughout the election period, along with 35 measures of the Prime Minister's approval rating.

ABSTRACTSocietal norm formation is crucial in shaping collective action on global challenges such as climate change. This study explores the norm‐building role of civil society organizations (CSOs) by examining their communication practices on green issues. Forty web‐based communications from four Norwegian environmental CSOs—two membership‐based and two professionalized organizations—are analyzed. The study focuses on three dimensions of normative governance: (1) how environmental issues are defined, (2) how social group identities are shaped to promote public engagement, and (3) how legitimacy is sought for policy positions. The results show that different types of CSOs use distinct strategies to influence norms and advance environmental policy agendas. These findings underscore the important role of CSOs in shaping climate action through normative governance mechanisms.

ABSTRACTThis article explores the adoption and use of social media at the local level, focusing on how communication managers (or administrators) in Nordic municipalities leverage platforms such as Facebook, X (ex‐Twitter), and Instagram. The study uses data from all municipalities of over 10,000 inhabitants across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Alongside quantitative analysis, 19 semi‐structured interviews provide qualitative insights into the management, evaluation, and perception of citizen engagement within the Nordic context. The findings reveal that Facebook is the most widely adopted and used platform, while Instagram shows high engagement scores. Conversely, activity on X is low. The interviews underscore the strategic role of social media in facilitating two‐way communication between municipalities and citizens, as well as the challenges of aligning engagement metrics with broader strategic goals.