From permanent campaign to permanent communication: parliamentarians’ cross-media practices in routine and election times

Abstract

With the advent of social media, politicians must navigate an increasingly complex and fast-paced political communication landscape. Scholars have argued that the development pushes politicians to be in permanent campaign mode and that this, in turn, weakens their engagement in other policy-making tasks. In this study, we examine parliamentarians’ cross-media behaviors and strategies in a hybrid media environment in light of the theory of permanent campaigning. Through cluster analyses of parliamentarians’ media behaviors and interviews with them about their media strategies during a routine and election period in the most likely case, Denmark, we contribute to the conceptual development of the permanent campaign in a hybrid media context.