Party bureaucrats, independent professionals, or politicians? A study of party employees

New medium, old strategies? Comparing online and traditional campaign posters for German Bundestag elections, 2013–2017

“…The personalisation of political communication corresponds to a neglect of ideological references. This demonstrates the professionalisation of political communication in the social media era with respect to campaign strategies, as previous research stated regarding campaign structures and the hiring of social media experts (Bruns et al, 2015; Enli, 2017b; Karlsen and Saglie, 2017). Both social media and offline campaigning are part of broader, highly professionalised election campaigns.…”

“…This would be a fruitful area for further work on users’ engagement and voters’ evaluation of political actors and electoral behaviour. To fully understand the impact of newer campaigning tools such as OCPs, in-depth interviews with campaign professionals and party employees are needed (Karlsen and Saglie, 2017; Tenscher et al, 2016). These interviews might help to clarify in how far social media campaign strategies are influenced by platforms’ algorithms or rather by the circumstances of the respective election and the strategies of the broader campaign.…”

“…The newer medium of OCPs reflects a further professionalisation of political communication in the social media era. Professionalisation is caused by the superordinate trends of partisan dealignment and mediatisation and describes political parties’ adaption to a changing electorate and the increasing relevance of media logic, with respect to their campaign structures as well as their campaign strategies (Karlsen and Saglie, 2017; Tenscher et al, 2016). Although some scholars highlight de-professionalised aspects of social media campaigns in the United States (Kreiss and Jasinski, 2016), the rise of the Internet and more recently of Web 2.0 serves as a stimulus for professionalisation (Zittel, 2009).…”

Hvor godt fungerer partiorganisasjonene– slik medlemmene ser det?

“…Det er likevel et spørsmål hvor viktig eksterne konsulenter er. Mange europeiske partier foretrekker å bruke profesjonelle innenfor egen organisasjon (Karlsen & Saglie, 2017).…”

“…Tallet på ansatte i stortingsgruppene har økt kraftig (Rommetvedt, 2017, s. 91). Hovedkontorene har også fått flere ansatte, men denne økningen har vaert mer beskjeden (Karlsen & Saglie, 2017, s. 1338. En studie av lokallagenes kontakter oppover i partiet bekrefter stortingsgruppas sterke stilling: lokallagene tar oftere kontakt med stortingsgruppa og eventuelle statsråder enn med sentrale partiorganer når de ønsker å påvirke nasjonale beslutninger (Allern & Saglie, 2012, s. 960-962).…”