Politicians’ Blogs: Strategic Self-Presentations and Identities

Abstract

The empirical material of this article consists of a blog section that organizes the blogs of mainly local and regional politicians in the north of Sweden. The aim of the article is to examine the content and style of blogs written by politicians and, especially, how the blogs can be understood in terms of self-presentations and articulations of identities. A further aim is to discuss the political and democratic aspects of such articulations. The article argues that even though the investigated blogs are somewhat innovative, they have a traditional character in a political sense and reproduce a populist identity. This identity goes beyond the boundaries between different political parties and represents a hindrance in relation to the democratic renewal that is often ascribed to political blogging in general.

Notes

¹Västerbotten is a sparsely populated county in the north of Sweden and Umeå is its largest city.

²A “new” election system that was introduced in Sweden in 1998 is also of importance. After 1998, people could voluntarily vote for a personal candidate and not only a political party. With regard to this system, it maybe is even more important for individual politicians to make themselves publicly visible and known.