## News media and elections in the Nordic countries

## Introduction to special issue

## MARK BLACH-ØRSTEN

Roskilde University

## BENGT JOHANSSON

University of Gothenburg

This special issue was inspired by the fact that across the Nordic countries, new parties, new political issues and a recent pandemic had been the order of the day in the most recent national elections that  took  place  in  Sweden  and  Denmark  in  2022.  Both  election campaigns were also conducted in the shadow of Russia's war on Ukraine. In both countries some of the same issues such as climate change, crime, energy and immigration policies played significant roles in the public debate and in the election campaigns. Likewise, in  both  countries,  the  interaction  between  legacy  news  media, alternative  media  and  social  media,  as  well  as  the  interaction between  the  media  agenda,  the  public  agenda  and  the  political agenda  have  been  heavily  debated. Against  this  background,  we invited  scholars  to  send  in  articles  that  focus  on  the  role  of journalistic news media in recent elections.

We accepted four articles that are jointly published in this special issue of Journalistica , two from Sweden and two from Denmark. The four articles together focus on four different and timely aspects of elections coverage: the role of alternative news media, the role of social  media,  political  parties'  relation  to  news  media  elections coverage  and  the  role  of  the  news  media  in  the  battle  for  issue ownership between political parties.

Thus,  the  article  by  Johansson  &  Strömbäck  focus  on  how,  in contemporary media environments, mainstream news media have become  increasingly  challenged  by  so-called  political  alternative media.  The  article  compares  election  news  coverage  in  political alternative media with mainstream news media, drawing theoretically on theories related to mediatization and structural bias on the one hand, and politicization and political bias on the other.

Empirically, the article investigates how election coverage in leftand right-wing political alternative and mainstream media differ in relation to traditional news media and to each other. The findings of the article suggest that alternative political media do function as an alternative to mainstream news media, but also to each other. In this way they offer a more politicized coverage of election campaigns.

The  article  by  Severin-Nielsen  addresses  another  recurring question in political  campaigns,  namely the role of social  media. The  focus  of  the  article  is  to  shed  further  light  on  politicians' campaign practices in a hybrid communication environment, and whether  the  introduction  of  social  media  has  introduced  new dynamics into election campaigns. The study does so through a case study of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (Social Democratic party) and opposition party leader Alex Vanopslagh's (Liberal  Alliance  party)  social  media  campaigns  and  online  news presence  during  the  2022  national  election.  The  study  finds  that Frederiksen was more visible in the news during the election than Vanopslagh, but that social media was central in both campaigns. However, Vanopslagh received exposure on a broader set of social media and to a greater extent capitalized on the platform affordances, than Frederiksen.

The study by Brolin and Nord changes the focus from media to political  parties.  Thus,  the  study  explores  the  perspectives  of political parties regarding news media coverage in election campaigns. By analyzing official post-election analyses produced by Swedish political parties from 2010 to 2022, the study offers a novel approach to the study of political party views of news media. The findings largely support the arguments proposed by mediatization literature, highlighting the significance of media in party communication. Parties display eagerness to attract positive media attention  while  expressing  regret  over  inadequate  or  negative publicity. More surprisingly, there is a lack of references to media bias in the reports, suggesting that the hostile media effect is not a major concern among Swedish parties.

The final article by Blach-Ørsten and Eberholst focus on the role of news media in the political parties' battle for ownership of the most salient issues in an election campaign. In multi-party systems like  the  Nordic  countries,  battle  for  issue  ownership  is  especially fierce. The study contributes to election research by exploring partyissue linkage as an indicator of issue ownership for both political parties and political leaders in the two most recent national Danish national elections. Based on a large-scale content analysis of leading Danish news media, and using descriptive statistics, they find a clear shift in media salience of political issues from 2019 to 2022. This shift leads to changes in party-issue linkage for both political parties and specific political leaders, especially regarding the most salient issues of the elections like climate and the environment and health and eldercare.

## MARK BLACH-ØRSTEN

Professor Department of Communication and Arts Roskilde University oersten@ruc.dk

## BENGT JOHANSSON

Professor Journalism, Media and Communication University of Gothenburg Bengt.johansson@jmg.gu.se