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RIP #almedalen: The rise and fall of the hashtag of a Swedish democracy festival

Gustafsson, Nils LU orcid and Larsson, Anders Olof (2025) In New Media and Society
Abstract
Democracy festivals are events that aim to strengthen democracy by engaging citizens, politicians and organisations in dialogue and provide a more equal access to the agenda. In recent years, social media have become important arenas for agenda building, supposedly equalising the access to such processes. This article uncovers patterns of activity and visibility in agenda building through an actor-centric study of the official X/Twitter hashtag of a Swedish democracy festival. We analyse all tweets containing the hashtag #almedalen for four election years and find that levels of activity in the hashtag are connected to the visibility of elite actors. We see a cycle of development concerning visibility in the hashtag over time with early... (More)
Democracy festivals are events that aim to strengthen democracy by engaging citizens, politicians and organisations in dialogue and provide a more equal access to the agenda. In recent years, social media have become important arenas for agenda building, supposedly equalising the access to such processes. This article uncovers patterns of activity and visibility in agenda building through an actor-centric study of the official X/Twitter hashtag of a Swedish democracy festival. We analyse all tweets containing the hashtag #almedalen for four election years and find that levels of activity in the hashtag are connected to the visibility of elite actors. We see a cycle of development concerning visibility in the hashtag over time with early adopters dominating the beginning of the period, establishment actors in the middle and right-wing populist actors at the end. There is little evidence of the hashtag as an equalising factor in agenda building. We discuss these findings in relation to the position of X/Twitter as an arena for opinion formation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
agenda-setting, agenda building, Twitter, Almedalen, social media, opinion formation, Sweden
in
New Media and Society
pages
22 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
ISSN
1461-4448
DOI
10.1177/14614448251336426
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bcd9ef52-507e-46af-8c5f-c6b71d50e421
date added to LUP
2025-05-19 13:17:13
date last changed
2025-05-20 03:09:54
@article{bcd9ef52-507e-46af-8c5f-c6b71d50e421,
  abstract     = {{Democracy festivals are events that aim to strengthen democracy by engaging citizens, politicians and organisations in dialogue and provide a more equal access to the agenda. In recent years, social media have become important arenas for agenda building, supposedly equalising the access to such processes. This article uncovers patterns of activity and visibility in agenda building through an actor-centric study of the official X/Twitter hashtag of a Swedish democracy festival. We analyse all tweets containing the hashtag #almedalen for four election years and find that levels of activity in the hashtag are connected to the visibility of elite actors. We see a cycle of development concerning visibility in the hashtag over time with early adopters dominating the beginning of the period, establishment actors in the middle and right-wing populist actors at the end. There is little evidence of the hashtag as an equalising factor in agenda building. We discuss these findings in relation to the position of X/Twitter as an arena for opinion formation.}},
  author       = {{Gustafsson, Nils and Larsson, Anders Olof}},
  issn         = {{1461-4448}},
  keywords     = {{agenda-setting; agenda building; Twitter; Almedalen; social media; opinion formation; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{New Media and Society}},
  title        = {{RIP #almedalen: The rise and fall of the hashtag of a Swedish democracy festival}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614448251336426}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/14614448251336426}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}