The 2019 Danish General Election Campaign: The ‘Normalisation’ of Social Media Channels?

The Internet first played a role in a Danish general election in 1998. At that time, its impact was very limited as web access was nothing like the level of today. During election campaigns in 2001 and 2005, the Internet use developed into two-way communication between citizens and politicians, and multimedia formats, including videos, started to flourish. Today, virtually all Danes have Internet access and this creates huge potential for mobilisation and campaigning online. The 2007 election was the first in which social media played a role. Even though Facebook was much hyped among journalists and the prime minister bragged that he had 'got 5,000 Facebook friends' - more than his main opponent - the use of social media among citizens was still limited. The 2011 election was a breakthrough for social media as they had gained traction among the general population. For the first time, we saw intense cross-media interaction. This occurred, for instance, when the Prime Minister challenged the trustworthiness of the opposition leader in a TV debate, prompting widespread discussion on social media. In contrast, the traditional media also referred to events and content from social media and kept tabs on social media interaction.