Atle Hennum Haugsgjerd

• Haugsgjerd, Atle; Karlsen, Rune; Figenschou, Tine Ustad; Ihlebæk, Karoline Andrea & Aalberg, Toril (2026). Does alternative news media inform or misinform voters during election campaigns? New Media & Society. p. 1–21. doi: 10.1177/14614448261473777. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A growing body of literature has studied the audiences and effects of alternative media use. We contribute by examining how such usage shapes political knowledge during election campaigns. Given their partisan orientation, lack of professional verification, and often provocative style, alternative media are found to produce and circulate misinformation, even as their users are often politically engaged, active news consumers. We ask whether alternative media inform rather than misinform citizens during election campaigns. Adopting a two-dimensional conception of political knowledge, we examine both surveillance knowledge and confidence in that knowledge – along with misinformation understood as the combination of the two. Utilizing individual-level panel data from Norway, our findings suggest that alternative news use is not associated with being better or worse informed, but with being more confident in one’s political knowledge. We discuss how these effects may differ in more polarized or lower-quality information environments.

• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Kumlin, Staffan & Linde, Jonas (2026). Politisk tillit under press i Norge? In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 393–421. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter examines how political trust in Norway has developed over time and asks whether recent trends indicate a decline. Using time series from the Norwegian Election Studies, it analyses trust in political institutions and trust in politicians. It also examines differences by generation and gender, as well as winner–loser differences in political trust. The chapter shows that Norway still has high levels of political trust in comparative perspective, but that the overall picture is less stable than before. Trust in political institutions has remained relatively robust since 2005, although it declined from 2021 to 2025. Trust in politicians follows a clearer and more long-term decline, reaching its lowest level in 2025. The analyses also reveal growing differences by generation and gender. Younger cohorts, especially young men, have markedly lower trust in politicians than earlier generations had at the same age. Finally, the winner–loser gap in political trust has historically been small in Norway. In 2025, however, this gap became more pronounced, especially for trust in politicians. The chapter concludes that although Norway is not facing a dramatic trust crisis, several emerging patterns warrant attention.

• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Karlsen, Rune; Martins, Guri Barka & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2026). Generativ KI i valgkampen 2025: Ny teknologi, etablerte medievaner. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 281–302. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  How much did generative AI matter in the 2025 Norwegian parliamentary election? This chapter approaches the question from the voters’ perspective, examining who used tools like ChatGPT and Claude during the campaign, what they used them for, and how much they trusted what these tools told them. We then turn from use to perception: how voters considered AI’s influence on themselves and on others, and whether they found it harder to tell true from false in an information environment increasingly shaped by AI-generated content. The results complicates both the optimistic and the alarmist accounts of AI’s arrival in electoral politics. The use of AI was concentrated in particular groups, and AI were used alongside established news sources. Situated at an early stage of generative AI’s integration into election campaigns, the analysis offers a baseline for tracking how this technology may reshape the political information environment in future elections.

• Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Karlsen, Rune (2026). Skiftende preferanser: Velgeroverganger ved stortingsvalget 2025. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 155–171. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Norwegian voters are less loyal to political parties and more likely to switch vote between elections than in earlier years. In the 2025 parliamentary election, 39 percent of all voters changed their vote from the previous election in 2021 – this includes voters who took part in both elections. The level of volatility is even higher when including those who switched in or out of the “no vote” group: 55 percent. The two winners in the election, the Progress Party and the Labor Party, both won over voters that supported the Center Party in 2021. Young voters and especially young women tend to switch their vote more often than others. Tactical voting played a role in the election, but we see no evidence that it determined the balance of power in Parliament.

View all works in NVA

• Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (2026). Boklansering. Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Bergh, Johannes (2026). Arendalsuka - Tillitsbarometeret 2026. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (2026). Stoler du på ordføreren? Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (2026). Menn mellom 18 og 30 år leder an i mistillit mot politikere. [Journal]. Morgenbladet. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (2026). Tronskifte, tillitskrise og unge menn. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Linde, Jonas & Mathisen, Ruben Berge (2026). Kan høyrepopulistiske partier gjøre folk mer fornøyde med demokratiet? Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA