Top users and long tails: Twitter and instagram use during the 2015 norwegian elections

Abstract

Uses of social media for purposes of political campaigning have become widespread across several electoral contexts. However, as much of the research focused on these issues have dealt primarily with Twitter, relatively little is known regarding how parties make use of other, similar platforms. This article analyzes Twitter and Instagram use during the 2015 Norwegian elections. By adopting a comparative approach, the article suggests a novel approach for applying the often-used normalization and equalization hypotheses. While the former of these hypotheses suggests that larger parties will dominate online, the latter proposes that comparably smaller actors will utilize comparably novel services—such as Instagram in this case—to comparably larger extents than their more sizeable competitors. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, messages primarily relating to smaller actors tended to dominate on Twitter, while larger actors were found to be successful in terms of gaining traction on Instagram.