The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns

Digital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik,...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eva Bakøy, Øyvind Kalnes
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences 2010-11-01
Series:Seminar.net
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2446
_version_ 1828112614927892480
author Eva Bakøy
Øyvind Kalnes
author_facet Eva Bakøy
Øyvind Kalnes
author_sort Eva Bakøy
collection DOAJ
description Digital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik, has used digital storytelling to construct her political identity, and a discussion of the consequences of her experiments with this genre. The focus is on the five video stories she released during the 2009 parliamentary election campaign and the reactions they evoked on the net and in the traditional media during the same (time) period. During the 2009 electoral campaign Tajik moved from being a relatively unknown politician to becoming a political household name and the only member of the new Parliament with a migrant background. The digital stories were instrumental in this development for numerous reasons, the most important probably being that they gave her prime time television coverage. Norwegian news media have in general been very concerned with Web 2.0 and Tajik’s videos were regarded as an innovative kind of political communication. The videos also functioned as an effective marketing tool on the net. As an integral part of her extensive viral network, they attracted numerous views and they were with a few exceptions met with positive reactions. This was probably due to their relatively high production values and their catch-all communication strategy that downplayed her ethnic, educational and political background and emphasized her universal human qualities.
first_indexed 2024-04-11T11:53:09Z
format Article
id doaj.art-8525325db7484b1ab365f6936d04ce4d
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1504-4831
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-11T11:53:09Z
publishDate 2010-11-01
publisher Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
record_format Article
series Seminar.net
spelling doaj.art-8525325db7484b1ab365f6936d04ce4d2022-12-22T04:25:15ZengInland Norway University of Applied SciencesSeminar.net1504-48312010-11-01622446The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election CampaignsEva Bakøy0Øyvind Kalnes1Professor Faculty of Television Production and Film Studies Lillehammer University CollegeAssistant Professor Faculty of Humanities, Sport and Social Sciences Lillehammer University CollegeDigital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik, has used digital storytelling to construct her political identity, and a discussion of the consequences of her experiments with this genre. The focus is on the five video stories she released during the 2009 parliamentary election campaign and the reactions they evoked on the net and in the traditional media during the same (time) period. During the 2009 electoral campaign Tajik moved from being a relatively unknown politician to becoming a political household name and the only member of the new Parliament with a migrant background. The digital stories were instrumental in this development for numerous reasons, the most important probably being that they gave her prime time television coverage. Norwegian news media have in general been very concerned with Web 2.0 and Tajik’s videos were regarded as an innovative kind of political communication. The videos also functioned as an effective marketing tool on the net. As an integral part of her extensive viral network, they attracted numerous views and they were with a few exceptions met with positive reactions. This was probably due to their relatively high production values and their catch-all communication strategy that downplayed her ethnic, educational and political background and emphasized her universal human qualities.https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2446digital storytellingnet politicsviral networkingmulticulturalelection campaigns
spellingShingle Eva Bakøy
Øyvind Kalnes
The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
Seminar.net
digital storytelling
net politics
viral networking
multicultural
election campaigns
title The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
title_full The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
title_fullStr The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
title_full_unstemmed The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
title_short The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns
title_sort hadia story digital storytelling in election campaigns
topic digital storytelling
net politics
viral networking
multicultural
election campaigns
url https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2446
work_keys_str_mv AT evabakøy thehadiastorydigitalstorytellinginelectioncampaigns
AT øyvindkalnes thehadiastorydigitalstorytellinginelectioncampaigns
AT evabakøy hadiastorydigitalstorytellinginelectioncampaigns
AT øyvindkalnes hadiastorydigitalstorytellinginelectioncampaigns