Rune Karlsen

• Bergh, Johannes; Hesstvedt, Stine; Karlsen, Rune & Lunde, Therese (2026). Dagsorden og sakseierskap. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 133–154. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter is about political issues in the 2025 election. The most important issues for Norwegian voters in the election, staring with the most important, were taxes, health care, foreign and defense policy, other economic issues, climate/environmental issues, immigration and education. Foreign policy and defense policy rose dramatically in importance since the last election in 2021. The last time these issues were high on the agenda was in the 1980s. Climate change and environmental issues have dramatically declined in importance, whereas economic issues were top of mind for voters in 2025. The two winners in the election, the Progress Party and the Labor Party, have high levels of issue ownership of economic issues. The Progress Party has gained in issue ownership on a number of issues since the last election, while the Conservative Party has lost.

• 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.

• Hesstvedt, Stine & Karlsen, Rune (2026). Penger i politikk: Holdninger til pengedonasjoner blant stortingskandidater ved valget i 2025. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 423–447. doi: https:/cdforskning.no/cdf/catalog/book/296. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Norwegian party finance has traditionally rested on the principle that parties should be funded primarily through generous public subsidies rather than private contributions, limiting the role of external money in politics. The 2025 parliamentary election may mark a break with this model: private donations reached a historic high, and for the first time the right-wing bloc received more than the left. Drawing on the 2025 Storting Candidate Survey, party accounting data, and the 2025 Election Survey, this chapter examines how parliamentary candidates view party donations, regulation, and donor influence. We find pronounced differences along partisan and ideological lines, but also within parties: candidates from parties receiving large contributions – and top candidates in particular – regard donations as beneficial and are less inclined to see them as a democratic problem or to favor stricter regulation. Attitudes thus reflect not only ideology but also position and self-interest. Comparing candidates with voters, we find that right-wing top candidates are notably less concerned about large donations than their own voters. The findings suggest the Norwegian party finance model may be changing, raising new questions about money’s role in Norwegian democracy.

• 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.

• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Karlsen, Rune (2026). Velgere i møte med gamle og nye medier: Valgkampens informasjonslandskap og politisk kunnskap. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 189–210. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter examines Norwegian voters’ political media use during the 2025 election campaign and how different forms of media use were related to political knowledge. We find that traditional editorial media remain the core sources of political information, both in terms of daily use and perceived importance. Social media play a more limited role in the electorate as a whole but are important for many young voters, especially as supplementary channels for following political events and actors. The analyses further show that Norwegian voters were relatively well informed after the campaign. Traditional media use is positively associated with political knowledge, while social media use and political use of AI show no clear relationship with either game or substance knowledge. Overall, the chapter shows that the Norwegian campaign information environment is changing, but not disintegrating

• Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Hesstvedt, Stine; Karlsen, Rune & Magin, Melanie (2026). Konflikt og mobilisering: En ny fase i norsk politikk? In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 511–524. doi: 10.23865/cdf.296. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This concluding chapter summarizes the main findings of the book and discusses what explains the outcome of the 2025 Norwegian parliamentary election. The chapter highlights five central explanations: i) an ideological shift to the right, ii) increased voter turnout with partisan consequences, iii) the growing importance of economic concerns, iv) the role of foreign and security policy, and v) the media’s influence on voter’s political priorities. The chapter concludes by discussing what the 2025 election tells us about broader trends in Norwegian politics in the 2020s.

• Geiss, Stefan; Tønnesen, Hedvig; Karlsen, Rune; Magin, Melanie; Aalberg, Toril & Hesstvedt, Stine (2026). Medieeffekter og stemmegivning: Hvordan påvirket mediene velgerne? In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Konflikt og mobilisering. En studie av stortingsvalget 2025. Cappelen Damm AS. p. 303–323. doi: 10.23865/cdf.296. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter examines whether the media influenced which issues voters considered important in the 2025 Norwegian parliamentary election, and whether this mattered for vote choice. Drawing on theories of agenda-setting, issue ownership, and priming, the analysis combines panel survey data from the first four waves of the Election Campaign Study with an automated content analysis of approximately 3.5 million sentences from over 200 news outlets, debate programs, social media platforms, search engines, and AI chatbots. The analysis proceeds in two steps. At the aggregate level, the media agenda and the voter agenda show only a moderate correspondence: media emphasized foreign policy issues such as Gaza and Ukraine, while voters prioritized taxation, health, and climate. At the individual level, we construct personalized news diets for each respondent and track the same voters across the campaign. We find clear agenda-setting effects for less obtrusive issues such as the economy, defence, taxation, and foreign policy. A path model further demonstrates a priming effect: media exposure shifts voters’ issue priorities, which in turn shifts vote intention toward parties associated with those issues. Even in a fragmented media landscape, media content meaningfully shaped electoral choice.

• Karlsen, Rune (2025). Election Campaigns. In Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Allern, Elin Haugsgjerd; Braut-Hegghammer, Målfrid & Rasch, Bjørn Erik (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 336–336. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198888581.013.0017. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract This chapter examines the Norwegian election campaign based on the distinction between senders (political parties and candidates) channels (the media and other communication platforms), and receivers (the voters). Building on the notion of candidate-centred versus party-centred election campaigns, the chapter first delves into party campaign organization and party campaign strategy. This discussion emphasizes the party-centred character of the Norwegian campaign, exploring the role of candidates vis-à-vis that of political parties, the involvement of campaign professionals, and the campaign message. This is followed by a short discussion of the media, highlighting how legacy media have been challenged by social media, offering parties and politicians more control of the message. The subsequent section of the chapter focuses on the electorate and campaign effects, discussing electoral volatility, voter engagement in the campaign, and effects on voter knowledge and party choice. The chapter uses the Comparative Candidate Survey and the Norwegian Election Study, as well as the Norwegian Election Campaign Study, to illustrate aspects of the Norwegian campaign and situate it in a comparative perspective. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of recent developments and future challenges for research on the Norwegian campaign.

• Karlsen, Rune; Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Solheim, Øyvind Bugge (2025). Balancing Acts: The Communicative Roles of Cabinet Ministers on Social Media. Media and Communication. 13. doi: 10.17645/mac.10416. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Despite an upsurge in social media studies, little is known about how cabinet ministers balance their multiple professional roles—as ministry heads, cabinet members, and party politicians—on social media platforms. In this article, we first develop an analytical framework, grounded in the principal–agent theory and earlier research on political communication, that differentiates between cabinet ministers’ different communicative roles as well as different communicative purposes on social media. Second, we add to the growing literature on government communication and social media by applying this framework to analyze Norwegian cabinet ministers’ social media communication. The data is based on a manual content analysis of 1,062 Facebook posts and an expansion of this data using machine learning to cover all the Facebook communication of all ministers from the Solberg cabinet (2013–2021). Based on almost 20,000 posts, the results indicate that social media caters to ministers’ needs both as party politicians and as heads of ministries, as Norwegian cabinet ministers use social media in two key ways: to inform as ministry heads and to brand themselves as party politicians. Further, we find that private self-personalization increases audience engagement. The results suggest that social media accentuates the party-political dimension of the cabinet minister’s role, thereby indicating potential consequences for government communication, cabinet unity, and decision-making that warrant further exploration.

• Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2025). Nyheter, valgomater og sosiale nettverk: informasjon og lokalpolitisk orientering i valgkampen. In Saglie, Jo; Segaard, Signe Bock & Christensen, Dag Arne (Ed.), Lokalvalgene 2023: maktforskyvning og normalisering. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 155–175. doi: 10.23865/cdf.251.ch6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne antologien setter søkelys på hjertet i det lokale representative demokratiet; alle de lokale valgene som ble holdt rundt om i vårt langstrakte land 11. september 2023. Hvert fjerde år velger folket representanter til kommunestyret og fylkestinget. Gjennom valget stikkes den politiske retningen ut, og de folkevalgte får mandat til å beslutte på vegne av velgerne de neste fire årene. Det er også i valg politikere og partier blir straffet eller belønnet for tidligere innsats. Med utgangspunkt i et rikholdig datamateriale som inkluderer blant annet en velgerundersøkelse gjennomført ved hvert valg siden 1995, manntall- og registerdata, data over samtlige kandidater som stilte til valg, samt kvalitative intervjuer og dokumentdata, belyser boken ulike sider ved det lokale demokratiet – i valg og mellom valg – anno 2023. På velgernivået ser vi blant annet på velgeratferd, valgkamp og valgdeltakelse samt tillit til politikere og til egne påvirkningsmuligheter. Vi ser også på lokalpolitikernes representativitet og deres erfaringer med hets og sjikane. Hensikten med boken er å ta temperaturen på vårt lokale demokrati i en valgperiode preget av politiske, samfunnsmessige og økonomiske omveltninger. Vi studerer lokaldemokratiet i et noe bredere perspektiv enn tidligere lokalvalgundersøkelser ved å i større grad ta inn det fylkeskommunale nivået, som har vært underbelyst både i lokalvalgforskningen og i den offentlige debatten til tross for nivåets politiske og demokratiske aktualitet.

• Karlsen, Rune (2025). The Third-Person Effect in Election Campaigns: Individual Voter Campaign Stability and Perceptions of Campaign Influence. Mass Communication & Society. doi: 10.1080/15205436.2025.2531399. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Election campaigns have been a central focus in the social sciences for nearly a century. This article examines campaign effects through the lens of the third-person effect (TPE)—the belief that others are more influenced by communication than oneself. The data comprise the 2021 Norwegian Election Campaign Survey (NECS), which included third-person perception (TPP) items related to turnout, vote choice, trust in politicians, trust in the media, and political knowledge. The panel structure of the data offered the opportunity to identify individual campaign stability related to different types of campaign effects (e.g. change in party preference) and allowed for an investigation into whether TPP reflects rational calculations about susceptibility to campaign influence. The results reveal strong TPP among voters, particularly regarding individual turnout and vote choice. Campaign preference volatility, such as changing party preference, significantly reduced TPP magnitude, suggesting that reflective self-awareness of susceptibility to communication influences TPP. In contrast, stability in trust in politicians and the media did not significantly affect TPP related to trust dimensions, underscoring the nuanced nature of these relationships.

• Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Karlsen, Rune (2025). Radical or aligned? Assessing issue congruence between youth wing elites, parliamentary candidates and voters in Norway. Party Politics. doi: 10.1177/13540688241312372. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Party youth wings are generally said to be more ideologically extreme than their mother parties. Youth wing elites, however, can have career reasons to align with mother party elites and voters. Although there is a growing body of literature focusing on party youth wings and an established literature on issue congruence, few studies have compared the opinions of youth wing elites with those of their mother party elites and the electorate. We ask, in what ways and to what extent do youth wing elites align ideologically with party elites and the electorate? We draw on surveys to youth wing members in leading positions, voters and parliamentary candidates, and explore congruences on the ideological left–right scale as well as on the climate, immigration and centre–periphery issues. Youth wing elites are indeed more extreme than voters and party elites, but there are clear differences across issues and parties, suggesting that all youth wings have the potential to be clear correctives to their mother parties.

• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Karlsen, Rune (2024). News consumption and knowledge acquisition in election campaigns. In Lilleker, Darren G.; Jackson, Daniel; Kalsnes, Bente; Mellado, Claudia; Trevisan, Filippo & Veneti, Anastasia (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Political Campaigning. Routledge. p. 360–374. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2023). Uninformed or Misinformed in the Digital News Environment? How Social Media News Use Affects Two Dimensions of Political Knowledge. Political Communication. doi: 10.1080/10584609.2023.2222070. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article examines how the use of social media for news affects citizens’ knowledge about politics and current affairs. We employ a two-dimensional perspective on political knowledge and investigate how factual political knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, and misinformation, understood as the mismatch between factual political knowledge and confidence in knowledge, are related to social media news consumption. While earlier studies have suggested a negative relationship between social media news consumption and factual knowledge, there are indications that social media use may give people a general sense of being informed, even when they are not. Such general subjective knowledge might, however, differ from confidence in retrieved facts. Drawing on a two-wave panel study from Norway, we find evidence of a negative relationship between social media news consumption and both dimensions of knowledge. Notably, however, we do not find that social media news use leads to confidence in incorrect beliefs, suggesting that the digital media environment produces an uninformed, but not an overconfident, misinformed news audience.

• Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2023). Ministerial advisers and the media. In Shaw, Richard (Eds.), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Edward Elgar Publishing. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Political leaders increasingly surround themselves with advisers who combine a mix of communicative and media insight with political know-how. Despite a recent surge in scholarly work on ministerial advisers, detailed insights into how ministerial media advisers operate are scarce, and few systematic accounts exist that review the work and importance of ministerial media advisers across different countries. First we discuss - from a mediatisation theory perspective - developments in politics and media that have made media advisers necessary for political leaders. We then consider conceptual differences based on such advisers’ relations to actors in the media and wider political-administrative system. Third, we take stock of existing knowledge about ministerial media advisers and distinguish empirical varieties across countries and traditions based on the limited empirical evidence. Finally, we consider avenues for future work on ministerial media advisers.

• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Karlsen, Rune & Askim, Jostein (2023). Survey research and the scholarship on ministerial advisers. In Shaw, Richard (Eds.), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 110–122. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Survey methodology has been central for investigating the behaviour, roles, and motivations of ministerial advisers. This chapter looks closely at how surveys have been used in research on ministerial advisers and how it can be used to move this scholarship forward. The first part of the chapter is structured according to the process of survey research: defining the population, developing the questionnaire, and collecting and analysing data. At each step, we relate the study of ministerial advisers to the general challenges associated with doing survey research. In the second part of the chapter, we review the insights that have been gained through the use of survey methods in ministerial adviser research. The chapter concludes by suggesting avenues for further survey research on ministerial advisers.

• Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Karlsen, Rune (2023). Stortingsvalget 2021: Velgerne går mot venstre. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Politikk i urolige tider. En studie av stortingsvalget 2021. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 13–29. Full text in Research Archive
• Aalberg, Toril; Karlsen, Rune & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (2023). Kjønnsstereotypiske vurderinger av politisk kommunikasjon? In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Politikk i urolige tider. En studie av stortingsvalget 2021. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 123–141. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum; Karlsen, Rune & Aalberg, Toril (2023). Nyhetsbruk og politisk kunnskap i valgkamp. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Politikk i urolige tider. En studie av stortingsvalget 2021. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 103–122. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes; Hesstvedt, Stine & Karlsen, Rune (2023). Sakseierskap og dagsorden ved stortingsvalget 2021. In Bergh, Johannes & Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum (Ed.), Politikk i urolige tider. En studie av stortingsvalget 2021. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 45–74. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle & Karlsen, Rune (2022). Election Campaigns, News Consumption Gaps, and Social Media: Equalizing Political News Use When It Matters? The International Journal of Press/Politics. 29(2), p. 507–529. doi: 10.1177/19401612221112014. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We investigate how inequalities in political media use develop throughout election campaigns, and in particular whether social media use helps counterbalance traditional news consumption gaps. Using a four-wave individual-level panel survey of the Norwegian 2017 national election campaign, we run a series of latent growth models to investigate whether differences in news consumption based on gender, age, education, and political interest increase or decrease during campaigns. We find that news consumption gaps are either stable or converge throughout the campaign. Importantly, social media provides political information to those groups that use traditional media channels the least and thereby reduce overall gaps in political media consumption. In this way, election campaigns, to some extent, equalize inequalities in political news consumption when it matters the most.

• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Karlsen, Rune & Figenschou, Tine Ustad (2022). Partiske medier? «Fiendtlig medie»-persepsjon hos borgere, politikere og journalister. Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift. 38(4), p. 214–229. doi: 10.18261/nst.38.4.6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  De siste årene har det blitt stadig vanligere å beskylde mediene for å komme med falske nyheter, spre misinformasjon og ha en politisk agenda. Internasjonalt er det en lang rekke studier som kaster lys over «fiendtlig medie»-persepsjon (FMP), altså tendensen til at folk oppfatter mediedekningen som partisk. Mesteparten av den eksisterende forskningen har fokusert på vanlige folks oppfatninger. I denne artikkelen er ett av hovedmålene derfor å undersøke om tendensen til «fiendtlig medie»-persepsjon også finnes i ulike elitegrupper i Norge. Når det gjelder årsaker til FMP har den eksisterende litteraturen særlig fokusert sammenhengen mellom politiske ideologi og FMP. Et annet hovedmål med artikkelen er å undersøke hvordan også holdninger til medienes grunnleggende samfunnsrolle rolle henger sammen med inntrykk av at nyhetsdekningen er partisk. Basert på tre paneler undersøker denne studien både omfanget av og forklaringer på FMP blant borgere, journalister og politikere. Selv om FMP ikke er et utbredt fenomen i Norge, finner vi små, men signifikante forskjeller på tvers av de studerte samfunnsgruppene. Videre finner vi at oppfatninger om mediene som sensasjonspreget og konfliktorientert, har en klar sammenheng med høy grad av FMP, mens oppfatninger om at mediene har et viktig samfunnsoppdrag henger sammen med lave grader av FMP.

• Figenschou, Tine Ustad; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2022). Between spin doctor and information provider: Conceptualizing communication professionals in government ministries. Public Administration. doi: 10.1111/padm.12869. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Communication professionals are increasingly found within government ministries. Based on classic work on bureaucracy and recent literature on mediatization and personalization, this article develops two ideal types: the government information provider and government spin doctor. These ideals are constituted by six dimensions: recruitment criteria, values, loyalties, reputational concerns, interactions, and tasks. A study of nonpartisan communication professionals in Norwegian ministries is used to illustrate the empirical relevance of the ideal types. The analysis shows that for loyalties and reputational concerns, Norwegian communication professionals resemble the government information provider. Regarding interactions and tasks, they resemble the government spin doctor. For recruitment criteria and values, the picture is mixed. The empirical application thereby illustrates a fruitful aspect of the framework as certain configurations will bring forth inbuilt tension in communication professionals' role. The framework allows a fine-grained approach to extend ongoing debates of appropriate and inappropriate practices of communication professionals in ministries.

• Teigen, Mari; Midtbøen, Arnfinn Haagensen & Karlsen, Rune (2022). Elites on Equality: Room for Gender Balance and Ethnic Diversity in Leadership Positions? Acta Sociologica. doi: 10.1177/00016993211070192. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Access to resources, wealth, and power positions varies systematically with membership in social categories. This article asks what role the elites themselves – as holders of power and regulators of access to influential positions – can play in maintaining, but also changing, the demographic composition of elites. Drawing on a unique survey among the entire Norwegian elite, we investigate what holders of elite positions believe are the main causes of gender imbalance and lack of ethnic diversity, and whether their beliefs influence their willingness to implement measures to promote gender equality and ethnic diversity. In line with expectations drawn from the literatures on policy representation and critical frame analysis, we find a strong, positive relationship between the belief in the importance of institutionalized causes of inequality and the willingness to introduce ameliorative measures to increase diversity. Conversely, we find a negative relationship between the belief in individualized explanations, such as the lack of qualifications, and the willingness to introduce measures. As elites are key holders of power, the findings imply that how elites view the causes of categorical inequality has strong bearings on the room for structural change.

• Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2021). Nyheter, sosiale nettverk og lokalpolitisk orientering i lokalvalgkamp. In Saglie, Jo; Segaard, Signe Bock & Christensen, Dag Arne (Ed.), Lokalvalget 2019: Nye kommuner - nye valg?. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 117–142. doi: 10.23865/noasp.134.ch5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne antologien handler om de mange lokalvalgene som ble holdt rundt om i Norge 9. september 2019. Med utgangspunkt i velgerundersøkelsene som er gjennomført ved hvert lokalvalg siden 1995, tar boken gjennom ti kapitler for seg dels valg, velgeratferd, valgkamp og valgutfall, og dels politisk deltakelse og politisk tillit mellom valgene. Det er i kommunene flest innbyggere har anledning til å delta i politikkutformingen, og lokalnivået spiller ofte en viktig rolle i den enkeltes hverdagsliv. Hensikten med boken er derfor også å forstå hvordan lokaldemokratiet fungerer mellom valgene. Lokalvalget i 2019 var preget av høy valgdeltakelse, mobilisering og protest gjennom fokus på politiske saker som bompenger, klima og kommunereform. Kommunereformen var ikke bare valgkamptema, men en sentral rammebetingelse for lokalvalget i 2019. Kommunesammenslåing er derfor et gjennomgående tema i boken. Ett emne er hva innbyggerne mener om kommunereformen og dens mulige konsekvenser. Flere kapitler utforsker sammenslåingenes betydning for ulike sider ved lokaldemokratiet: lokale partisystemer, valgdeltakelse, personstemmegivning, partienes nominasjoner, og representasjon i kommunestyrene. Samlet sett er antologien en statusrapport for lokaldemokratiet i det første valget etter kommunereformen. Boken henvender seg til alle som er interessert i utviklingen av det norske lokaldemokratiet, men særlig til studenter, forskere, journalister og politisk aktive.

• Haugsgjerd, Atle; Hesstvedt, Stine & Karlsen, Rune (2021). Increased media choice and political knowledge gaps: A comparative longitudinal study of 18 established democracies 1995-2015. Political Communication. 38(6), p. 731–750. doi: 10.1080/10584609.2020.1868633. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We investigate the often-stated, but disputed claim in the political science and political communication literature that increasing media choice widens inequalities in political knowledge. The assumption is that in a high-choice media environment, the politically interested will consume more news while the uninterested will avoid such content, leading, in turn, to widening differences in political knowledge. Although previous studies show that high media choice increases political knowledge gaps in the United States, comparative longitudinal evidence is currently lacking. To fill this gap, we draw on data from four rounds of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Overall, we do not find general support for the high-choice knowledge gap thesis. In most countries, there is no indication that inequality in political knowledge has increased over time. Building on recent insights from political communication research, we question key assumptions of the high choice knowledge gap thesis.

• Hesstvedt, Stine; Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2021). Kampen om dagsorden: et historisk tilbakeblikk på stortingsvalgene 1957–2017. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS). 62(3), p. 273–292. doi: 10.18261/ISSN.1504-291X-2021-03-04. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Valgkamper blir gjerne omtalt som en «kamp om dagsorden» (Valen, 1999). Hvilke saker som opptar velgerne, og hvorvidt politikere kan å overbevise velgere om at de har de beste politiske løsningene, er tett forbundet med valgresultatet. I et demokratisk perspektiv er det også avgjørende at partiene evner å presentere politiske løsninger på saksfelt som velgerne opplever som viktige for deres ve og vel (Dahl, 2000). Mens valgene i etterkrigsårene handlet om gjenreising etter krigen og utbygging av velferdsstaten, har store samfunnsendringer som velstandsvekst, utdanningseksplosjon, globalisering og innvandring presset frem nye stridsspørsmål og endret velgernes prioriteringer. Når vi på sensommeren i 2021 går inn i årets valgkamp, er bakteppet en lang periode med pandemi og unntakstilstand samt stor oppmerksomhet om distriktspolitikk og sentraliseringsreformer. Hvordan vil den se ut i forhold til andre valg? I denne forskningskommentaren setter vi årets valgkamp i en historisk kontekst ved å spørre: Hva har vært viktige saker for norske velgere siden andre verdenskrig? Kjennetegnes den norske dagsorden av stabilitet eller endringer fra valg til valg? Hvilke partier nyter tillit på saker som figurerer høyt på den politiske dagsorden, og hvordan endrer dette seg over tid? Det finnes få studier som har undersøkt velgernes dagsorden i norsk etterkrigstid sett under ett (men se Bjørklund, 2020). Ved hjelp av data fra stortingsvalgundersøkelsene identifiserer og diskuterer vi fire hovedtyper av saker som har opptatt velgere i Norge. Vi peker på de «glemte» sakene som har forsvunnet fra dagsorden over tid – som boligpolitikk og forsvarspolitikk; de «nye» sakene som har blitt viktigere i valgkampene i den senere tid, som innvandring og klima; og de «tidløse sakene» som har stått på dagsorden i mer eller mindre hele 60-årsperioden, som skattepolitikk og eldreomsorg. Vi tar også for oss en sak som har vært svært viktig for utviklingen i norsk politikk, men som er i en kategori for seg selv: spørsmålet om norsk medlemskap i Den europeiske union (EU). Til slutt undersøker vi velgernes tillit til partiene i disse sakene og studerer sakseierskap i de senere periodene (1997–2017), da spørsmål om best politikk på ulike politikkområder ble inkludert i valgundersøkelsen. Underveis diskuterer vi hva slags betydning dagsorden og sakseierskap har hatt for partienes oppslutning og stemmegivning. Til grunn for gjennomgangen ligger tverrsnittsdata fra stortingsvalgundersøkelsene for perioden 1957 til 2017. Helt siden 1957 har Valgforskningsprogrammet ved Institutt for samfunnsforskning, først i samarbeid med Norsk Gallup og siden 1977 i samarbeid med Statistisk sentralbyrå, stilt et landsrepresentativt utvalg av norske velgere spørsmål om hva som var de viktigste sakene for deres stemmegivning. I tillegg har prosjektet siden 1997 stilt spørsmål om sakseierskap – nemlig om hvilke partier velgerne mener har best politikk på enkelte saksfelt.

• Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2021). Populists in Government: Normal or Exceptional? Government and Opposition. 1(21). doi: 10.1017/gov.2021.30. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  How is government affected by including populists in a governing coalition? We investigate if populist political parties behave “normally” when they attain power, or if they govern differently from mainstream political parties. Empirically, we use survey data from 282 ministerial advisers from three cabinets in Norway. Our conclusion is that populists govern normally on some governance dimensions and exceptionally on others. Populists in office had ample professional experience, adhered to collegial decision making, and thought the bureaucracy delivered quality and was politically responsive, on a par with the non-populists. However, populists differed from non-populist politicians in their contact patterns and their communicative concerns. That populists in this context belong to a party with a long history of parliamentary representation (Norway’s Progress Party) suggests elements of exceptionalism are things one should expect to find in practically all populist parties that attain power.

• Karlsen, Rune & Aalberg, Toril (2021). Social Media and Trust in News: An Experimental Study of the Effect of Facebook on News Story Credibility. Digital Journalism. 11(1), p. 144–160. doi: 10.1080/21670811.2021.1945938. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  People increasingly turn to social media to get their daily news updates. Still, we are only beginning to understand how this development affects people’s perceptions of consumed news stories. The article reports on an experiment designed to investigate the effect the distribution of a news story in social media (Facebook) has on news message credibility. A control group was exposed to a news story on an original news website, and treatment groups were exposed to the same news story shared on Facebook. Results demonstrate that distribution via Facebook affects the credibility of the news story. The effect is strongest when politicians are intermediary-senders, and to some extent depend on the party affiliation of intermediary-sender and the social media audience. In the context of fake news, the results are reassuring: people are less trustful of news they consume through social media. However, the results also suggest that social media news sharing can contribute to the long-term decrease in trust in news.

• Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2021). Departementspolitikere i et politiseringsperspektiv: En studie av statssekretærer og politiske rådgivere i regjeringene Bondevik 2, Stoltenberg 2 og Solberg. Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift. 37(4), p. 191–209. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-2936-2021-04-03. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Over hele den vestlige verden har det de siste tiårene skjedd en vekst i antallet politisk ansatte i departementene (departementspolitikere), noe som ofte ses på som uttrykk for politisering og et ønske om økt kontroll over byråkratiet. For å forstå omfanget av politisering er det imidlertid viktig å ikke bare fokusere på selve antallet departementspolitikere, men også på deres partipolitiske bakgrunn og på deres rolle i regjeringsapparatet og departementet, herunder deres forhold til embetsverket. Artikkelen presenterer resultater fra en omfattende studie av norske departementspolitikeres bakgrunn, funksjoner og oppgaver. Data er hentet fra spørreundersøkelser til statssekretærer og politiske rådgivere fra regjeringene Bondevik 2 (2001-2005), Stoltenberg 2 (2005-2013) og Solberg (2013-2021). Artikkelen bidrar med empirisk kunnskap om en lite studert aktørgruppe i det politiske systemet og en diskusjon av funnene opp mot det mangefasetterte politiseringsbegrepet. Artikkelen konkluderer med at departementspolitikerne politiserer departementet – ikke ved å være en portvokter embetsverket må passere for å nå frem til statsråden, men ved å ha politisk og faglig kompetanse som gjør det mulig å gå inn i saker i fagavdelingene.

• Skogerbø, Eli & Karlsen, Rune (2021). Media and politics in Norway. In Skogerbø, Eli; Ihlen, Øyvind; Kristensen, Nete Nørgaard & Nord, Lars W. (Ed.), Power, communication, and politics in the Nordic countries. Nordicom. p. 91–111. Full text in Research Archive
• Hopmann, David Nicolas & Karlsen, Rune (2021). Elections and political communication in the Nordic countries. In Skogerbø, Eli; Ihlen, Øyvind; Kristensen, Nete Nørgaard & Nord, Lars W. (Ed.), Power, communication, and politics in the Nordic countries. Nordicom. p. 219–240. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Lütz, Georg & Öhberg, Patrik (2020). Candidate Campaigns in Comparative Perspective. In Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (Ed.), Parliamentary Candidates Between Voters and Parties: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge. p. 78–96. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Beyer, Audun & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2020). Do High-Choice Media Environments Facilitate News Avoidance? A Longitudinal Study 1997–2016. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2020.1835428. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The well-known “high-choice news avoidance thesis” and the alternative “network structure perspective” stipulate somewhat conflicting expectations about news consumption in today’s digital media systems. Based on annual survey data from Norway, the article examines news avoidance from 1997–2016, a period when digitalization processes transformed the media environment. Results show that news avoidance increased only marginally. The decrease in use of traditional media is largely compensated for by online news. However, news avoidance is increasingly polarized along educational lines, and it is unclear to what degree online news consumption equals traditional news media consumption in qualitative terms.

• Karlsen, Rune; Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Schillemans, Thomas & Thorbjørnsrud, Kjersti (2020). Media and Bureaucracy: Investigating Media Awareness Amongst Civil Servants. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration (SPJA). 24(3), p. 53–72. doi: 10.58235/sjpa.v24i3.8602. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Scholars claim that civil servants are increasingly having to engage in media management and be aware of how events are presented in the press, with this media awareness being said to threaten civil servants’ traditional bureaucratic values. In this article, we argue that media awareness is unevenly spread in public bureaucracies, and rather is contingent on individual and organizational characteristics. More specifically, we present the hypotheses that media awareness depends on the amount of media related work, the amount of media attention on the organization in which they work, as well as the civil servants’ fundamental views on the role of the media in society. To test the hypotheses, the article utilizes a large-N survey of civil servants in Norwegian ministries and agencies. The results show that the vast majority of civil servants care about how issues appear in the press. Further on, we find that civil servants’ media awareness coexists with traditional bureaucratic values, offering some relief to scholars who fear the disruptive effects of the media in public administration. As the hypotheses suggest, we find that this media awareness is linked to civil servants’ actual media-related work. However, the analysis shows that civil servants working in organizations with a lot of media attention are, in fact, are less aware of the media.

• Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2020). Public office as a stepping stone? Investigating the careers of ministerial advisors. Political Studies Review. p. 1–19. doi: 10.1177/1478929920906991. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Ministerial advisors (MAs) have become an essential aspect of executive branches worldwide, thus making the MA office a potential route for young politicians aspiring to an expanding political class. The article studies which professions MAs migrate to following their ministerial careers, how MAs’ post-ministerial careers compare to their pre-ministerial careers, and if the variance in careers can be explained by the resources that MAs obtain while in government. Empirically, the article draws on a cohort of 139 MAs in Norwegian governments between 2001 and 2009; it covers positions in the political sphere and the public, private and voluntary occupational sectors over a period from each MA’s youth to the end of 2017. The bibliographic data is combined with surveys and elite interviews. The results show that more than expanding the political class as a recruitment ground for future MPs and ministers, MA appointments serve as stepping-stones to careers outside of politics. Most MAs experience shifts between occupational sectors and upward to higher positions. However, MAs’ attractiveness in the labour market is surprisingly unaffected by what they actually did in office; rather, it rests on resources such as insider knowledge and networks. Keywords: Ministerial Advisors, Careers, Political Class, Revolving door, Executives

• Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (2020). Conclusion and perspectives. In Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (Ed.), Parliamentary Candidates Between Voters and Parties: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge. p. 217–225. Full text in Research Archive
• Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (2020). Introduction. Candidates, parties and voters in representative democracies. In Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (Ed.), Parliamentary Candidates Between Voters and Parties: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge. p. 1-30–1-30. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle & Karlsen, Rune (2020). Norsk politikk siden 1945. In Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle & Karlsen, Rune (Ed.), Valg og politikk siden 1945. Velgere, institusjoner og kritiske hendelser i norsk politisk historie. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 13–37. Full text in Research Archive
• Goerres, Achim; Kumlin, Staffan & Karlsen, Rune (2019). Pressure without Pain: What Politicians (Don’t) Tell You about Welfare State Change. Journal of Social Policy. 48(4), p. 861–884. doi: 10.1017/S0047279419000138. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  How do political leaders politicise welfare state “reform pressures”, e.g. unemployment, ageing or globalisation, in election campaigns? Competing expectations range from no politicization at all to a clear and unbiased coupling between pressures and intended policy responses. Eighteen speeches held by prime ministerial candidates at election-year party congresses in Germany, Norway and Sweden (2000–2010) reveal an unfinished and biased problem-solution coupling. On the one hand, even in these affluent countries pressures are frequently politicised. On the other hand, leaders either cherry-pick less painful policy solutions, or refrain altogether from debating them. So, while citizens learn that the welfare state is pressured, they are not exposed to the full range of policies they increasingly have reason to expect after elections.

• Teigen, Mari & Karlsen, Rune (2019). Influencing Elite Opinion on Gender Equality through Framing: A Survey Experiment of Elite Support for Corporate Board Gender Quotas. Politics & Gender. p. 1–24. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X19000060. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article contributes to both the scholarly debates on the controversies over gender quotas and the body of knowledge on framing effects through an investigation of whether national elites, individuals in top positions across 10 sectors of Norwegian society, are susceptible to positive framing of corporate board gender quotas (CBQs). Elites are thought to be more resistant to framing, and their predispositions are found to be stronger and more consistent than those of the general public. However, few, if any, studies have empirically investigated framing effects on national elites. We report on an experiment embedded in a comprehensive survey of Norwegian national elites. The results clearly indicate that elites are susceptible to framing. When exposed to frames highlighting both male dominance among the business elite and the success of CBQs in achieving gender balance on corporate boards, elites were significantly more likely to support gender quotas. Framing effects were primarily found among men, not women, and contrary to expectation, effects were stronger among the business elite. Thus, we should direct our attention to how the framing of issues also influences key stakeholders, and policy makers should consider opposition to gender equality measures as something that has the propensity to change.

• Wollebæk, Dag; Karlsen, Rune; Steen-Johnsen, Kari & Enjolras, Bernard (2019). Anger, fear, and echo chambers: The emotional basis for online behavior. Social Media + Society. 5(2). doi: 10.1177/2056305119829859. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Emotions, such as anger and fear, have been shown to influence people’s political behavior. However, few studies link emotions specifically to how people debate political issues and seek political information online. In this article, we examine how anger and fear are related to politics-oriented digital behavior, attempting to bridge the gap between the thus far disconnected literature on political psychology and the digital media. Based on survey data, we show that anger and fear are connected to distinct behaviors online. Angry people are more likely to engage in debates with people having both similar and opposing views. They also seek out information confirming their views more frequently. Anxious individuals, by contrast, tend to seek out information contradicting their opinions. These findings reiterate predictions made in the extant literature concerning the role of emotions in politics. Thus, we argue that anger reinforces echo chamber dynamics and trench warfare dynamics in the digital public sphere, while fear counteracts these dynamics.

• Allern, Elin Haugsgjerd; Karlsen, Rune & Narud, Hanne Marthe (2019). Kvinnerepresentasjon og parlamentariske posisjoner. Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning. 43(3), p. 230–245. doi: 10.18261/issn.1891-1781-2019-03-07. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Økt kvinnerepresentasjon utgjør den største endringen i Stortingets sosiale sammensetning etter andre verdenskrig. I denne artikkelen undersøkes disse kvinnenes videre vei i det parlamentariske beslutningssystemet: I hvilken grad har de erobret formelle maktposisjoner på Stortinget siden 1960-tallet – i presidentskap, komitelederskap og partiledelse? Mer presist studeres hvordan kvinneandelen har utviklet seg siden 1964 i tre interne maktsfærer på Stortinget: presidentskapet, ledelsen for de ulike fagkomiteene og i partigruppenes lederskap.

• Karlsen, Rune (2019). Partisentrert profesjonalisering - profesjonelle i norsk partipolitikk. In Allern, Elin Haugsgjerd; Saglie, Jo & Østerud, Øyvind (Ed.), Makt og opposisjon : De politiske partiene som demokratisk paradoks. Universitetsforlaget. p. 134–148. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  "Makt og opposisjon" diskuterer partienes rolle i det norske demokratiet. Hva ved partiene fungerer relativt bra i Norge, og hva fungerer mindre godt? Boka tar for seg de norske partienes utforming og virke både i sivilsamfunnet og i storting og regjering, sett i et internasjonalt perspektiv. "Makt og opposisjon" inneholder både fagartikler og essays. I første del presenterer ledende forskere status og bidrar med ny forskning på hver sine felt, og de diskuterer partienes bidrag til å fremme ulike demokratiske verdier og demokratiaspekter. I andre del skriver et knippe tidligere og nåværende politikere samt én erfaren journalist og politisk kommentator om mange av de samme temaene, basert på egne erfaringer. Slik får leseren kjennskap til hvordan problemstillingene fortoner seg for dem som selv er en del av eller jobber tett på det politiske liv, og vi får gode eksempler på hvordan partienes utfordringer fortoner seg i den politiske hverdagen.

• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Karlsen, Rune & Askim, Jostein (2019). Understanding reputational concerns within government agencies. Policy & Politics. 47(3), p. 473–493. doi: 10.1332/030557319X15579230420144. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2019). Politisk dagsorden og sakseierskap ved stortingsvalget i 2017. In Bergh, Johannes & Aardal, Bernt (Ed.), Velgere og valgkamp. En studie av stortingsvalget 2017. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 27–43. Full text in Research Archive
• Aalberg, Toril; Maurer, Peter & Karlsen, Rune (2019). Populistiske holdninger i norsk valgkamp. In Bergh, Johannes & Aardal, Bernt (Ed.), Velgere og valgkamp. En studie av stortingsvalget 2017. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 103–130. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle; Karlsen, Rune & Aalberg, Toril (2019). Velgere i valgkamp – forsterkes politiske forskjeller? In Bergh, Johannes & Aardal, Bernt (Ed.), Velgere og valgkamp. En studie av stortingsvalget 2017. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 81–102. Full text in Research Archive
• Schillemans, Thomas; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2019). Why do civil servants experience media-stress differently and what can be done about it? Policy & Politics. 47(4), p. 599–620. doi: 10.1332/030557319X15613701092525. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Pressure from the media affects the daily work of bureaucrats and induces ‘media stress’, with potentially critical effects on the quality of public policy. This article analyses how bureaucrats’ daily work has been adapted to the media (‘mediatised’) and which groups of bureaucrats experience the most media-stress. Reporting the results of an original and large-scale survey (N=4,655) this article demonstrates that levels of media-stress vary among different groups of civil servants. In turn, its analysis suggests that media-stress is more pronounced in the Netherlands than in Norway, is more concentrated in the lower rungs of administrative hierarchies and is related to media pressures on organisations. By untangling the underlying logic of mediatisation and the dynamics of media-stress, this article makes an important contribution to extant scholarship and also provides a series of practical recommendations.

• Teigen, Mari; Karlsen, Rune & Skjeie, Hege (2019). Framing and feedback: increased support for gender quotas among elites. European Journal of Politics and Gender. 2(3), p. 399–418. doi: 10.1332/251510819X15639713867651. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We address changes in support for quota policies, with an emphasis on corporate board quotas, among Norwegian elites. Applying theories of policy feedback and framing, we investigate whether changes in attitudes towards quotas correspond to changes in beliefs about the causes behind male dominance. The analysis rests on two comprehensive surveys from 2000 and 2015 of the entire national elite population within ten sectors of society. We found substantial changes in support for quotas and beliefs about the causes for male dominance. The results suggest that even controversial policies can create positive feedback and introduce new interpretations of problematic power dynamics.

• Figenschou, Tine Ustad; Karlsen, Rune; Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Schillemans, Thomas (2019). Mounting media pressure: Push and pull forces influencing agendas, resource allocation and decision-making in public bureaucracies. European Journal of Communication. 34(4), p. 377–394. doi: 10.1177/0267323119861513. Full text in Research Archive
• Heidar, Knut & Karlsen, Rune (2018). All about the Party? Constituency Representation—and Service—in Norway. Representation. 54(1), p. 69–85. doi: 10.1080/00344893.2018.1489890. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article investigates the relationship between Norwegian MPs and their home constituency. The approach is based on the concept of constituency representation, which combines representational focus and constituency service. The data used in the empirical analysis comprise both surveys and in-depth interviews with MPs. It shows that MPs have multiple representative foci. The party is most important, but (party) voters in the constituency are also considered essential. Moreover, MPs actively pursue constituency interests and rate this work very importantly. Indeed, constituency effort represents an essential and time-consuming part of Norwegian parliamentarians’ work. They target local policy-friendly organisations and media, and work for general constituency interest simultaneously—when possible also in cooperation with MPs from other parties. In conclusion, the article discusses contextual factors that may contribute to explain MPs’ constituency representation in Norway.

• Goerres, Achim; Karlsen, Rune & Kumlin, Staffan (2018). What Makes People Worry about the Welfare State? A Three-Country Experiment. British Journal of Political Science. 50(4), p. 1519–1537. doi: 10.1017/S0007123418000224. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Welfare states are exposed to a host of cost-inducing ‘reform pressures’. An experiment implemented in Germany, Norway and Sweden tests how various reform pressure frames affect perceptions about the future financial sustainability of the welfare state. Such perceptions have been shown to moderate electoral punishment for welfare reform, but little is known about their origins. Hypotheses are formulated in dialogue with newer research on welfare state change, as well as with older theory expecting more stability in policy and attitudes (the ‘new politics’ framework). Research drawing on ‘deservingness theory’ is also consulted. The results suggest large variations in impact across treatments. The most influential path to effective pressure framing is to ‘zoom in’ on specific economic pressures linked to undeserving groups (above all immigration, but also to some extent low employment). Conversely, a message emphasizing pressure linked to a very deserving group (population aging) had little effect. A second conceivable path to pressure framing entails ‘zooming out’ – making messages span a diverse and more broadly threatening set of challenges. This possibility, however, received weaker support.

• Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2018). The spy who loved me? Cross-partisans in the core executive. Public Administration. 96(2), p. 243–258. doi: 10.1111/padm.12392. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Political appointees from different parties from that of their minister—cross-partisan appointees (CPAs)—are increasingly found in the core executive. Ministerial advisory scholarship has overlooked CPAs, while the coalition governance literature sees them as ‘spies’ and ‘coalition watchdogs’. This article argues theoretically and demonstrates empirically that this conceptualization is overly limited. The empirical basis is a large-N survey of political appointees from two Norwegian coalitions, and a qualitative follow-up survey of CPAs. The results show that CPAs monitor on behalf of their party, provide cross-partisan advice to their minister and perform many of the same tasks as regular partisan appointees, including exercising independent decision-making power. In this research context, most CPAs act as coalition liaison officers who, rather than create tension and negative dynamics, contribute to building trust between coalition partners.

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• Winter, Lieven De; Karlsen, Rune & Schmitt, Hermann (2020). Parliamentary Candidates Between Voters and Parties: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge. 235 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes; Haugsgjerd, Atle & Karlsen, Rune (2020). Valg og politikk siden 1945. Velgere, institusjoner og kritiske hendelser i norsk politisk historie. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. 297 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Tønnesen, Hedvig; Karlsen, Rune & Magin, Melanie (2026). Political parties, platforms, and communication logics: A mixed-methods study of electoral campaigning on social media. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This dissertation examines political parties’ election campaigns on social media. It addresses the question of how we can understand the consequences of new media technologies being integrated in electoral communication by analyzing the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election campaign through a mixed-methods design. The main theoretical contribution of the dissertation is its use of media logics as a sensitizing concept. I understand logics as relational, emerging between political actors and technologies rather than residing in media institutions. I introduce the concept of communication logics, defined as the norms, rules, and practices political actors develop through their interaction with platforms, strategies, and feedback. The concept of communication logics is operationalized into four dimensions to guide investigations into parties’ electoral campaigns: parties’ strategic considerations, message strategies, platform variations, and feedback. Communication logics emerge in the interplay between these dimensions. The conceptualization enables empirically grounded discussions of how changes in the media environment affect the distribution of power in election campaigns. I study communication logics empirically by combining quantitative content analyses of campaign materials on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now X) with corresponding engagement metrics and in-depth qualitative interviews with campaign managers from political parties. The dissertation consists of four research articles and the introductory chapters (“kappa”). The first article uses in-depth interviews to examine parties’ strategic considerations and the factors shaping their message strategies across platforms. The second article fuses mediatization and agenda-setting research, demonstrating how communication logics can be measured through quantitative content analysis. The third article investigates platform variations by analyzing parties’ use of calls to action. The fourth article compares campaign practices in three countries (Norway, Germany, and Hungary). It focuses on one platform (Facebook), examining the potential for parties’ issue agendas to be shaped by users’ mediated expressions of emotions. This article also presents a multi-level framework for analyzing structural factors of election campaigns on social media platforms. Taken together, the study illustrates how communication logics on social media platforms emerge in an interplay between overarching strategies, use of feedback, and resources. Different logics are expressed in parties’ campaign practices, and different platforms appear to facilitate the emergence of certain logics. Overall, the articles support Chadwick’s (2013, p. 293) conclusion that the power-diffusing potential of social media is constrained by the rationalizing and centralizing tendencies of campaign strategies, and that the systemic balance in political communication still favors “older” media logics, particularly the agenda-setting power of legacy news media. Traditional media therefore continue to play a central role in shaping parties’ communication strategies – also on social media."

• Bergh, Johannes; Hesstvedt, Stine & Karlsen, Rune (2025). Dagsorden og sakseierskap: Stortingsvalget 2025. Institutt for samfunnsforskning. Full text in Research Archive
• Schia, Niels Nagelhus; Kalsnes, Bente; Sjøvaag, Helle; Karlsen, Rune; Åm, Heidrun & Borge, Julie Ane Ødegaard [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2025). Kunstig intelligens og demokratiske valg– internasjonale erfaringer og nasjonale anbefalinger. Ekspertgruppen for KI og valg, oppnevnt av Kommunal- og distriktsdepartementet. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  En helhetlig tilnærming til kunstig intelligens (KI) er nødvendig for å beskytte valg integriteten og fremme demokrati i en tid preget av rask teknologisk utvikling. KI har gitt oss kraftfulle verktøy som kan brukes på mange nyttige måter, men har også et potensiale for misbruk. Ekspertgruppen for KI og valg ble oppnevnt av Kommunal- og distriktsdeparte mentet for å kartlegge betydningen av KI for demokratiske valg, og for å komme med anbefalinger til tiltak for å møte utfordringene KI medfører i denne sammen heng. I arbeidet har ekspertgruppen tatt utgangspunkt i tre hovedspor: (1) informasjons- og medielandskapet, (2) fordekt valgpåvirkning og (3) valg gjennomføring og cybersikkerhet. Ekspertgruppen vil fremheve at det norske samfunnet har gode forutsetninger for motstandskraft mot demokratiske trusler, som det er viktig å bygge videre på og forsterke. Det norske mediesystemet med et mangfold av uavhengige, redaktør styrte medier gir et godt utgangspunkt for motstandsdyktighet både mot økende polarisering og fragmentering av samfunnet, men også mot uønsket påvirkning fra KI-generert innhold generelt og KI-drevne påvirkningsoperasjoner i forbindelser med valg. Likevel ser vi også i Norge tegn til at de redaksjonelle medienes rolle er under press fra sosiale medier og endrede medievaner, særlig hos unge. Algoritmestyrte systemer har forandret informasjonslandskapet ved å muliggjøre rask og omfattende distribusjon og spredning av innhold på sosiale medier. Det skjer på en måte som kan bidra til å forsterke personlige oppfatninger og redusere mangfoldet av synspunkter man eksponeres for. De sosiale mediene har blitt viktigere kanaler for informasjonsdeling, mens de redaktørstyrte mediene har større utfordringer med å nå ut til hele bredden i samfunnet. Det bidrar til et mer uoversiktlig informasjons- og medielandskap. Fremskritt innen KI, særlig store språkmodeller, har vakt bekymring for deres potensiale til å generere falsk informasjon og muliggjøre mer sofistikerte og fordekte påvirkningsoperasjoner. Hittil har vi hovedsakelig sett at KI bidrar til å forsterke allerede eksisterende trusler, men ekspertgruppen mener det er viktig å sørge for nødvendig demokratisk beredskap, motstandskraft i befolkningen og KI-kompetanse hos myndighetene, herunder etterretnings- og sikkerhetstjenestene. Teknologien og trendene utvikler seg raskt – og det gjør også utfordringsbildet. Valgene ekspertgruppen har undersøkt i 2024, viser at kombinasjonen av KI, sosiale medier og cyberoperasjoner har gitt utenlandske og innenlandske aktører nye muligheter for fordekt valgpåvirkning. Et spesielt urovekkende og illustrerende eksempel på dette er presidentvalget i Romania. KI-generert innhold fikk stor oppmerksomhet i valgåret 2024, særlig i USA. Det viser at generativ KI kan ha en klar betydning for den politiske dagsordenen i forkant av valget. Hvorvidt innholdet faktisk er sant synes å være mindre avgjørende for om det oppnår spredning, så lenge det bidrar til å forsterke eller representere mot takerens meninger og virkelighetsoppfatninger. Sammendrag 7 Vi har ikke oversikt over rekkevidden og potensialet til teknologien, eller hvordan den vil påvirke samfunnet og individene over tid. Ekspertgruppen har i arbeidet med denne rapporten identifisert noen endringer i utfordringsbildet for norske valg. Disse følger hovedsporene og viser hvor KI i særlig grad kan endre eller for sterke utfordringer som det vil være særlig viktig å være oppmerksom på. Med utgangspunkt i erfaringene fra valg i 2024, sammen med kunnskap om hvordan KI kan brukes og kunnskap om norske forhold, legger ekspertgruppen frem flere anbefalinger. Anbefalingene skal bidra til å redusere risikoen for at KI brukes på en måte som vil kan ha negativ betydning for valg og demokrati. For å imøtekomme endringene i utfordringsbildet har ekspertgruppen følgende over ordnede anbefalinger: – Sikre at valgmyndighetene har nødvendig kompetanse og kapasitet på KI og kommunikasjon. – Redusere grunnlag for at det kan spekuleres i feil og mangler i valggjennom føringen eller at valget er utsatt for uønsket påvirkning. – Kontakt mellom myndighetene og teknologi- og plattformselskapene. – Politiske aktører bør ansvarliggjøres og støttes. – Prioritere rask implementering av relevante EU-lover, særlig DSA og KI forordningen. – Føre en aktiv mediepolitikk som opprettholder frie, sterke og mangfoldige redaktørstyrte medier. – Bygge kildebevissthet og fremme kritisk medie-, teknologi- og KI-forståelse. – Mer forskning og samarbeid mellom myndigheter, forskere, sivilsamfunn og teknologiselskaper. – Være en pådriver for internasjonalt samarbeid på de ovennevnte områdene. Anbefalingene er nærmere spesifisert og omtalt i rapportens punkt 6.1. Ekspertgruppen mener disse anbefalingene vil bidra til å bygge bevissthet og beredskap i befolkningen og i myndighetene som har en rolle i valggjennom føringen, mediene og teknologiselskapene. Samtidig vil ekspertgruppen under streke at oppmerksomheten om betydningen av KI for valg ikke må overdrives, slik at oppmerksomheten i seg selv fører til en overdreven frykt og mistenksomhet omkring hva som er sant og usant

• Schia, Niels Nagelhus; Kalsnes, Bente; Sjøvaag, Helle; Karlsen, Rune; Åm, Heidrun & Borge, Julie Ane Ødegaard [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2025). Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Elections: International Experiences and National Recommendations. Ekspertgruppen for KI og valg, oppnevnt av Kommunal- og distriktsdepartementet. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Elections was appointed to assess the significance of AI for democratic elections and to propose measures in response. The work has focused on three areas: (1) the information and media landscape, (2) covert election interference, and (3) election administration and cybersecurity. Norway has strong foundations for democratic resilience, particularly through a robust and diverse media system. At the same time, editor-driven media are challenged by social media, algorithmic platforms, and changing media habits. AI—especially generative AI—amplifies existing threats by enabling rapid, wide dissemination of content and more sophisticated influence operations, as demonstrated in the 2024 elections and in cases such as Romania. The Expert Group recommends measures to strengthen competence, preparedness, and cooperation, including: – Ensuring that election authorities have the necessary expertise and capacity in AI and communication. – Reducing opportunities for speculation about errors in election administration or claims that elections have been subject to unwanted interference. – Strengthening contact between public authorities and technology and platform companies. – Holding political actors accountable and providing appropriate support. – Prioritizing the rapid implementation of relevant EU legislation, particularly the DSA and the AI Act. – Pursuing an active media policy that maintains free, strong, and diverse editor-driven media. – Building source awareness and promoting critical media, technology, and AI literacy. – Increasing research and cooperation between authorities, researchers, civil society, and technology companies. – Acting as a driver for international cooperation in these areas.

• Bergh, Johannes; Hesstvedt, Stine & Karlsen, Rune (2022). Dagsorden og sakseierskap ved stortingsvalget 2021. Institutt for samfunnsforskning. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Den politiske dagsorden og partienes troverdighet på de saksområdene som er på dagsorden er viktig for å forstå utfallet av et valg. Velgernes dagsorden referer til de sakene velgerne er opptatt av og som de mener er viktige for deres stemmegivning. Hvilke saker som dominerer velgernes dagsorden er sentralt fordi politiske partier har varierende troverdighet hos velgere på ulike saker. Dette refereres til, både i faglitteraturen og offentligheten, som partienes sakseierskap. Formålet med dette notatet er å presentere nye tall for dagsorden og sakseierskap ved stortingsvalget 2021.

• Karlsen, Rune; Steen-Johnsen, Kari & Sundet, Vilde Schanke (2021). Digitalisering og medienes samfunnsrolle. Hovedfunn fra prosjektet Disruptive Change and New Media Policies: A Field Approach. Institutt for samfunnsforskning. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Stoltenberg, Christina Hoelgaard (2018). Mediepåvirkning i offentlig sektor : Resultat- og dokumentasjonsrapport. Institutt for samfunnsforskning. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Rapporten dokumenterer og gjengir hovedfunnene fra spørreundersøkelsene om mediepåvirkning sendt ut til ledere, saksbehandlere og kommunikasjonsansatte i departementene, og i direktorater, ombud og tilsyn høsten 2015 og våren 2016.

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• Karlsen, Rune (2026). Digitalisering, KI og et informasjonslandskap i stadig endring. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Foredrag for forskningsrådet

• Karlsen, Rune (2026). Digitalisering, informasjonslandskapet og regjeringsapparatet. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2026). Digitalisering og den nye offentligheten. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2026). KI og polarisering. Full text in Research Archive
• Steen-Johnsen, Kari; Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Karlsen, Rune (2025). Concern and Enthusiasm for AI Across the Globe – The Role of Trust. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Haugsgjerd, Atle Hennum & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2025). Generative AI as a Source Cue in Information Processing. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). Hva betyr KI for valg – og hvordan tas det med i valgforskningen? Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). Agderposten Fra bakerste benk. Det er snart valg, blir vi lurt. [TV]. Agderposten. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). KI og demokrati: Hvordan beskytte demokratiet når KI tar over? Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). KI og valg. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). KI og valg. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). Kunstig intelligens og valgpåvirkning. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2025). The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Political Knowledge, Opinion Formation, and Democracy (KnowAI). Full text in Research Archive
• Schia, Niels Nagelhus; Kalsnes, Bente; Sjøvaag, Helle; Karlsen, Rune; Åm, Heidrun & Molandsveen, Anne Sofie [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2025). Kunstig intelligens og demokratiske valg - Internasjonale erfaringer og nasjonale anbefalinger. doi: https:/www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/23f8fd1726634f589724d96b49fe994c/kunstig-intelligens-og-demokratiske-valg.pdf. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Ekspertgruppen for kunstig intelligens, demokrati og valg ble oppnevnt for å kartlegge betydningen av KI for demokratiske valg, og for å foreslå tiltak. Arbeidet har fokusert på tre områder: (1) informasjons- og medielandskapet, (2) fordekt valgpåvirkning og (3) valggjennomføring og cybersikkerhet. Norge har gode forutsetninger for demokratisk motstandskraft, særlig gjennom et sterkt og mangfoldig mediesystem. Samtidig utfordres redaktørstyrte medier av sosiale medier, algoritmestyrte plattformer og endrede medievaner. KI, spesielt generativ KI, forsterker eksisterende trusler ved å muliggjøre rask, bred spredning av innhold og mer sofistikerte påvirkningsoperasjoner, slik valg i 2024 og eksempler som Romania viser. Ekspertgruppen anbefaler tiltak for å styrke kompetanse, beredskap og samarbeid, blant annet gjennom: – Sikre at valgmyndighetene har nødvendig kompetanse og kapasitet på KI og kommunikasjon. – Redusere grunnlag for at det kan spekuleres i feil og mangler i valggjennom- føringen eller at valget er utsatt for uønsket påvirkning. – Kontakt mellom myndighetene og teknologi- og plattformselskapene. – Politiske aktører bør ansvarliggjøres og støttes. – Prioritere rask implementering av relevante EU-lover, særlig DSA og KI- forordningen. – Føre en aktiv mediepolitikk som opprettholder frie, sterke og mangfoldige redaktør styrte medier. – Bygge kildebevissthet og fremme kritisk medie-, teknologi- og KI-forståelse. – Mer forskning og samarbeid mellom myndigheter, forskere, sivilsamfunn og teknologiselskaper. – Være en pådriver for internasjonalt samarbeid på de ovennevnte områdene.

• Karlsen, Rune (2025). Kunstig intelligens og valgpåvirkning. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2025). Bruk av valgomater - påvirker det lokalvalg? Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2025). Bruk av valgomater - påvirker det lokalvalg? Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2024). Norway: Political Developments and Data in 2023. Political Scandals in a Local Election Year. European Journal of Political Research: Political Data Yearbook. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2023). Polarisering og opinionsdynamikker i den digitale offentligheten. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2023). Polarisering og opinionsdynamikker i den digitale offentligheten. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS). 64(3), p. 282–291. doi: 10.18261/tfs.64.3.8. Full text in Research Archive
• Sundet, Vilde Schanke; Karlsen, Rune & Slangsvold, Einar Lie (2022). Unge som nyhetsunnvikere. [Radio]. NRK P2 Studio 2. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2022). Norway: Political Developments and Data in 2021. Victory for the Centre-Left. European Journal of Political Research: Political Data Yearbook. 61(1), p. 351–361. doi: 10.1111/2047-8852.12377. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The main political event in Norway in 2021 was the Storting (parliamentary) election in September. After eight years of rule by a Conservative Party/Høyre Prime Minister, the 2021 election was a decisive win for the centre-left. However, it was a win by a fragmented group of five parties, only two of which ended up forming the new government. Despite the new large centre-left majority in Parliament, the new government, like the previous one, is a minority government. The Covid-19 pandemic dominated Norwegian life through much of 2021, with two large-scale lockdowns early in the year and in December. While the last (December) lockdown was a bit controversial, the government's handling of the pandemic was largely depoliticized. The main issues for voters in the election were environmental issues (including climate change). The pandemic did not register as an important issue among voters.

• Steen-Johnsen, Kari & Karlsen, Rune (2022). Political agenda setting in the digital public sphere – an actor centered approach. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle; Karlsen, Rune; Steen-Johnsen, Kari & Beyer, Audun (2022). Less Informed and Less Confident Citizens: Social Media, Retrieval Accuracy and Confidence in Political Knowledge. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle; Karlsen, Rune; Steen-Johnsen, Kari & Beyer, Audun (2021). Misinformed or uninformed? A panel-study of how the use of social media as a news source influences political knowledge. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Sundet, Vilde Schanke & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2021). Slik er den nye digitale offentligheten. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2021). Norway: Political Developments and Data in 2020. European Journal of Political Research: Political Data Yearbook. doi: 10.1111/2047-8852.12325. Full text in Research Archive
• Beyer, Audun; Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2020). Social Media News Consumption and Political Surveillance Knowledge:Adding Motivation and Ability to the Equation. Full text in Research Archive
• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Karlsen, Rune & Figenschou, Tine Ustad (2020). Conceptualizing Communication Professionals in Public Bureaucracies: Ideal Types and Empirical Application. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergh, Johannes & Karlsen, Rune (2020). Norway: Political Developments and Data in 2019. European Journal of Political Research: Political Data Yearbook. 59(1), p. 279–285. doi: 10.1111/2047-8852.12301. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune; Beyer, Audun & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2019). Social Media News Consumption, News Finds Me Perceptions, and Political Knowledge. Full text in Research Archive
• Beyer, Audun; Karlsen, Rune & Steen-Johnsen, Kari (2019). News Habits Die Hard, but Die. A Longitudinal Study of Total News Avoidance in the transition from low to high-Choice Media Environments 1997-2016. Full text in Research Archive
• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Askim, Jostein & Karlsen, Rune (2018). Understanding Reputational Concerns within Government Agencies: The Importance of Individual Characteristics and Organizational Features. Full text in Research Archive
• Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Figenschou, Tine Ustad & Karlsen, Rune (2018). Communication workers in ministries: Strategic links between politics and administration. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2018). Surveymetode og mediemangfold. Full text in Research Archive
• Karlsen, Rune (2018). Nyhetsbruk i endring 1992-2014: får færre med seg nyheter? Full text in Research Archive

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