Logics of the Icelandic Hybrid Media System: Snapchat and media-use before the 2016 and 2017 Althing elections

Abstract

The increased importance of social media platforms and network media logic merging with traditional media logic are a trademark of modern hybrid systems of political communication. This article looks at this development through the media-use by politicians before the 2016 and 2017 parliamentary elections in Iceland. Aggregate results from candidate surveys on the use and perceived importance of different media forms are used to examine the role of the new platform Snapchat in relation to other media, and to highlight the dynamics of the hybrid media system in Iceland. The results show that Snapchat is exploited more by younger politicians and those already using social media platforms. However, in spite of this duality between old and new media, users of traditional platforms still use new media and vice versa. This points to the existance of a delicate operational balance between different media logics, that could change as younger politicians move more centre stage.

Politics, marketing and social media in the 2018 local elections in Iceland

“…Social media, other than Facebook, was only moderately used in the 2018 election campaign, although Instagram seems considerably strong both in perceived importance and usage. However, it is Facebook that dominates the social media scene of candidates, which is indeed in line with other studies on media use of Icelandic politicians in elections (Bergsson 2014;Guðmundsson 2016Guðmundsson , 2019. In general, candidates do not seem to consider a lack of assistance from communication experts to be a problem, as only one-fifth agree with a statement to that effect ( Figure 2).…”

“…Prior research on Icelandic political communications suggests that the political media system is characterized by hybridity (Guðmundsson 2016(Guðmundsson , 2019. Using data on the media -use and the perceived importance of media platforms of Icelandic politicians in the parliamentary elections of 2016 and 2017, Guðmundsson concludes that a hybrid media system is in place with a precarious balance between old and new logics, where traditional media logic is still dominating.…”

Media Group Network on digital: news construction from the hybrid perspective

“…The news content in the old media tends to be less because the logic of traditional media is based on the values of journalistic professionalism. This is certainly different from the logic of network media, which is more related to the logic of virality (Guðmundsson, 2019). This is also shown in the study of Vonbun, Königslöw & Schoenbach (2016), which explains that agenda setting during the Austrian national election campaign in thirty-eight newspapers, online news sites, television programs are mediated by agenda setters in digital media by looking at the characteristics of the issues raised.…”

Electoral campaigning in a hybrid media environment

“…In general, the studies find that social media do not alter politicians' campaign practices drastically (Enli & Moe, 2013;Jungherr et al, 2020). Previously, legacy news media, such as tv, newspapers, and radio, was the main outlets for politicians to get their campaign communication out widely, and politicians within the Nordic context continue to perceive legacy media as important campaign tools in the social media age (Guðmundsson, 2016(Guðmundsson, , 2019Karlsen & Enjolras, 2016;Larsson & Skogerbø, 2018;Skovsgaard & van Dalen, 2013).…”

“…Some scholars argued that this contributed to equalize politicians' opportunities during elections (Larsson & Kalsnes, 2014;Larsson & Skogerbø, 2018;Blach-Ørsten et al, 2017;Skovsgaard & van Dalen, 2013). As social media have become more established campaign tools, however, they are increasingly adopted and used by high status politicians as well (Guðmundsson, 2016(Guðmundsson, , 2019Linaa Jensen et al, 2015) -especially during the heat of elections (Sandberg & Öhberg, 2017). Scholars have attributed this a process of normalisation, where the power balance returns to the way it was before the new media emerged (Sandberg & Öhberg, 2017).…”