Genres of Participation in Social Networking Systems: A Study of the 2009 Norwegian Parliamentary Election

In the Norwegian context, eParticipation in the form of online campaigning has been on the agenda since 2001. After Obama’s successful presidential campaign in 2008, expectations about the use of SNS in the Norwegian parliamentary election were high. This study explores genres of participation in the early stages of the 2009 Norwegian parliamentary election campaign. The main finding is that the political parties have seen the need for a presence in SNS’, and that a genre repertoire for political communication through SNS is beginning to evolve. However, there is little agreement between citizens and politicians about how the different genres should be enacted. Further work with genres is presented as a possible solution to lessening this communication gap.