<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The Swedish national parliamentary election of 2018 took place amidst considerable concern over the role of misinformation. This paper examines the role of digital media during the election against the background of the Swedish media system. It focuses on the role of bots and how they supported the Sweden Democrats, whose agenda was also promoted by anti-immigrant alternative news websites. This article reports on a study of Twitter that used computational techniques to distinguish bots from genuine accounts across hashtags related to the election and Swedish politics (such as #valet2018). I examine which parties are supported and criticised by bots and by genuine accounts, and discuss the content of the tweets. In this article, I place bots in the context of broader debates about the role of digital media in politics and argue that misinformation and alternative news websites will demand continued future vigilance.</p>
</abstract>

The Swedish national parliamentary election of 2018 took place amidst considerable concern over the role of misinformation. This paper examines the role of digital media during the election against the background of the Swedish media system. It focuses on the role of bots and how they supported the Sweden Democrats, whose agenda was also promoted by anti-immigrant alternative news websites. This article reports on a study of Twitter that used computational techniques to distinguish bots from genuine accounts across hashtags related to the election and Swedish politics (such as #valet2018). I examine which parties are supported and criticised by bots and by genuine accounts, and discuss the content of the tweets. In this article, I place bots in the context of broader debates about the role of digital media in politics and argue that misinformation and alternative news websites will demand continued future vigilance.

Even in Sweden?<xref ref-type="fn" rid="j_njms-2020-0009_fn_001"><sup>1</sup></xref>: Misinformation and elections in the new media landscape

Nordic Journal of Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Even in Sweden?: Misinformation and elections in the new media landscape

The Swedish national parliamentary election of 2018 took place amidst considerable concern over the role of misinformation. This paper examines the role of...

Even in Sweden?¹: Misinformation and elections in the new media landscape

Published Online: Jun 07, 2020

Page range: 97 - 108

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2020-0009

Keywords
Sweden, election, bots, misinformation, alternative websites

© 2020 Ralph Schroeder, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Even in Sweden?1: Misinformation and elections in the new media landscape

Published Online: Jun 07, 2020

Page range: 97 - 108

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2020-0009

KeywordsSweden, election, bots, misinformation, alternative websites

© 2020 Ralph Schroeder, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Even in Sweden?¹: Misinformation and elections in the new media landscape

Keywords
Sweden, election, bots, misinformation, alternative websites