Mid Sweden University

This study combines a media content analysis (N = 1158) and panel survey data (N = 1612) conducted during the Swedish 2010 national election campaign, to analyze the effects of both game-framed and issue-framed news on political cynicism, institutional trust, and political interest. The findings show that news framing matters. Whereas game-framed news increases cynicism and depresses interest, issue-framed news has mobilizing effects. Furthermore, by conceptually and empirically distinguishing frame exposure from motivated news attention as two different modes of news media use, the results show that the effects of exposure to game-framed and issue-framed news are distinct from motivated news attention. These findings suggest two different mechanisms behind media effects and shine new light on the spiral of cynicism-virtuous circle controversy.

This study investigates priming effects during the global financial crisis that erupted in September 2008. Using two longitudinal data sources on public opinion dynamics in Sweden between 2007 and 2010, we find no evidence of a basic priming hypothesis. Drawing upon the distinction between accessibility and applicability mechanisms, however, additional analysis indicates that priming of economic considerations was moderated by citizens’ attributions of responsibility for current economic developments. These results support the notion of priming as a two-step process, whereby heavy news coverage of the

financial crisis increases the accessibility of economic considerations among the audience, but whether these considerations are used in government approval assessments depends on their perceived applicability as well.

The article departs from an overarching research question: How does young people's engagement in different Internet spaces affect the development of their public orientation during adolescence? It analyses longitudinal panel data in order to explore how young people's public orientation develops during a phase in life (13-20) which is critical for political socialization. Data are derived from three waves of data collection among young people who were 13-17 years old at the time for the first data collection. The concept public orientation is measured by three indicators: young people's values, interests and everyday peer talk. These indicators are analysed with reference to respondents' Internet orientations, which we conceptualize as four separate but inter-related spaces (a news space, a space for social interaction, a game space and a creative space). The results primarily emphasize the importance of orientations towards news space and space for social interaction. Overall, the findings strongly suggest that orientations towards these spaces are related to adolescents' public orientation. The findings confirm the centrality of news and information in political socialization, but they also challenge the idea that social media facilities - such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging - enable forms of social interaction and creative production that have an overall positive impact on young people's public orientation.

While the majority of previous research suggests there are positive relationships between digital media use and political participation and knowledge, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and have thus not been able to firmly establish the chain of causality. Also, there is little research investigating use of different forms of digital media and their relative effects on political participation and knowledge. This study examines (a) the effects of digital media use on political participation and knowledge and (b) whether different forms of digital media use affect people differently. Drawing on two representative panel surveys, the study demonstrates that there are only weak effects of digital media use on political learning, but that the use of some digital media forms has appreciable effects on political participation.

This article investigates how television, by providing various news and special election programs, influenced the development of knowledge gaps during the 2010 Swedish national election campaign. By contrasting two competing claims on the knowledge-leveling role of television in today's high-choice media environment, the article further analyzes mechanisms of active and passive learning from television. Analysis of panel survey data shows that television functioned as a knowledge-leveler by narrowing gaps in knowledge over the course of the campaign. Additionally, the findings provide evidence of passive forms of learning as the key explanation as to why television news and special election programs narrow gaps in knowledge. The results are discussed in light of ongoing media market changes as well as recent longitudinal and cross-national studies on political information environments.

This article investigates how media use differs across age groups- and whether this matters for people's inclination to participate politically. More specifically, the study investigates the impact of social media use for political purposes and of attention to political news in traditional media, on political interest and offline political participation. The findings, based on a four-wave panel study conducted during the 2010 Swedish national election campaign, show (1) clear differences in media use between age groups and (2) that both political social media use and attention to political news in traditional media increase political engagement over time. Thus, this study suggests that frequent social media use among young citizens can function as a leveller in terms of motivating political participation.