IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v9y2022i1d10.1057_s41599-022-01051-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s posts on Facebook

Author

Listed:
  • Sanjana Arora

    (University of Stavanger)

  • Jonas Debesay

    (Oslo Metropolitan University)

  • Hande Eslen-Ziya

    (University of Stavanger)

Abstract

This article explores the Facebook posts of Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg to highlight the key features of her crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on data from Solberg’s Facebook posts from February 27, 2020 to February 9, 2021 (i.e., starting from the day when the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Norway until the time of data collection for this study). Out of her 271 posts, 157 of them were about COVID-19 and were chosen for analysis. The analyses identified five major themes: (1) Promoting responsibility and togetherness (2) Coping (3) Being in control amidst uncertainty (4) Fostering hope and (5) Relating with the followers. Drawing inspiration from Boin, Stern and Sundelius’, work on persuasive narratives, this study shows the ways that Solberg’s posts about COVID-19 exhibit all five identified frame functions. In addition, the findings add contextual nuances to the frame functions through the theme of ‘Responsibilization and togetherness’, which are reflected through references to Norwegianness and the cultural concept and practice of dugnad. This study adds to our knowledge about how persuasive narratives are incorporated into the social media communication strategies of leaders and highlights the usefulness of this framework for studying ongoing and future crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanjana Arora & Jonas Debesay & Hande Eslen-Ziya, 2022. "Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s posts on Facebook," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01051-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Golbeck & Justin M. Grimes & Anthony Rogers, 2010. "Twitter use by the U.S. Congress," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(8), pages 1612-1621, August.
    2. Boas Shamir & Robert J. House & Michael B. Arthur, 1993. "The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 577-594, November.
    3. Jennifer Golbeck & Justin M. Grimes & Anthony Rogers, 2010. "Twitter use by the U.S. Congress," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(8), pages 1612-1621, August.
    4. Peter D. Lunn & Cameron A. Belton & Ciarán Lavin & Féidhlim P. McGowan & Shane Timmons & Deirdre A. Robertson, 2020. "Using behavioral science to help fight the Coronavirus," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(1).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Binh Thi Hai Le & Cong Van Nguyen, 2024. "Studying the impact of profitability, bankruptcy risk, and pandemic on narrative tone in annual reports in an emerging market in the East," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Minjeong Kim & Han Woo Park, 2012. "Measuring Twitter-based political participation and deliberation in the South Korean context by using social network and Triple Helix indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(1), pages 121-140, January.
    2. Amoah John & Nutakor Felix & Li Jinke & Jibril Abdul Bashiru & Sanful Benjamin & Odei Michael Amponsah, 2021. "Antecedents of social media usage intensity in the financial sector of an emerging economy: a Pls-Sem Algorithm," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 16(4), pages 387-406, December.
    3. Zachary J. Auter & Jeffrey A. Fine, 2018. "Social Media Campaigning: Mobilization and Fundraising on Facebook," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 185-200, March.
    4. Reza Mousavi & Bin Gu, 2019. "The Impact of Twitter Adoption on Lawmakers’ Voting Orientations," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 133-153, March.
    5. Mirza Ashfaq Ahmed, 2017. "Political Marketing: Role Of Socialization Process In The Evelopment Of Voting Intentions," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 4607305, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    6. Michael Kowal, 2023. "The Value of a Like: Facebook, Viral Posts, and Campaign Finance in US Congressional Elections," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 153-163.
    7. Fabio Padovano & Pauline Mille, 2022. "Education, fake news and the PBC," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2022-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    8. Fabio Padovano & Pauline Mille, 2023. "Education, fake news and the Political Budget Cycle," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2023-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    9. Nocca Florence, 2017. "A Semi-automatic Method to Retrieve Twitter Accounts," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 139-151, December.
    10. Lukas Obholzer & William T Daniel, 2016. "An online electoral connection? How electoral systems condition representatives’ social media use," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(3), pages 387-407, September.
    11. Lihua Wang & Xin Luo, 2021. "Understanding the Interplay Between Government Microblogs and Citizen Engagement: Evidence from China," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 487-520, June.
    12. Tracie Farrell & Genevieve Gorrell & Kalina Bontcheva, 2020. "Vindication, virtue, and vitriol," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 401-443, November.
    13. Kafferine Yamagishi & Lanndon Ocampo & Dharyll Prince Abellana & Reciel Ann Tanaid & Ann Myril Tiu & Maria Esther Medalla & Egberto Selerio & Chrisalyn Go & Rey Cesar Olorvida & Amalia Maupo & Deariel, 2021. "The impact of social media marketing strategies on promoting sustainability of tourism with fuzzy cognitive mapping: a case of Kalanggaman Island (Philippines)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 14998-15030, October.
    14. Zhenjiao Chen & Yaqing Liu, 2020. "The Effects of Leadership and Reward Policy on Employees’ Electricity Saving Behaviors: An Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    15. Mara Del Baldo & Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli, 2017. "Renewing and improving the business model toward sustainability in theory and practice," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Justin J. P. Jansen & Gerard George & Frans A. J. Van den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2008. "Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 982-1007, July.
    17. Matthias Graf & Sebastian Schuh & Niels Quaquebeke & Rolf Dick, 2012. "The Relationship Between Leaders’ Group-Oriented Values and Follower Identification with and Endorsement of Leaders: The Moderating Role of Leaders’ Group Membership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 301-311, March.
    18. Gayoung Kim & Woo Jin Lee, 2021. "The Venture Firm’s Ambidexterity: Do Transformational Leaders Boost Organizational Learning for Venture Growth?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    19. Nadir Kolachi, 2015. "Effective Factors of Diversified HR and Relationship Management: A Qualitative Case Study on TokyaTech, NY," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(1), pages 242-242, December.
    20. Pawan V. Bhansing & Erik Hitters & Yosha Wijngaarden, 2018. "Passion Inspires: Motivations of Creative Entrepreneurs in Creative Business Centres in the Netherlands," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 27(1), pages 1-24, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01051-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.