The logics of agenda-setting: how political parties form their issue strategies across social media

In a campaign landscape dominated by broadcasting media, political parties typically pursued either issue ownership or wave-riding strategies to shape their campaign agendas. Social media introduce a third strategy where parties adapt to the instant feedback users provide. This article uses parties’ issue strategies to demonstrate how they combine traditional and digital media logics in their social media campaigning. Conceptually, the study provides a framework for understanding political communication on social media by fusing mediatization and agenda-setting literature. Methodologically, it suggests how different logics can be measured through content analysis. I apply the conceptual framework to a typical Western European multiparty campaign context. Using a manual, standardized content analysis of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now X) posts (n = 1,616) from 9 political parties and their party leaders in the 2021 Norwegian election campaign, the study asks: To what extent is parties’ issue emphasis shaped by issue ownership, wave-riding, and engagement logics? The analysis shows that parties predominantly follow a wave-riding logic, an issue ownership logic, and, to a lesser degree, an engagement logic. Thus, agenda-setting logics traditionally tied to broadcasting media persist on social media and have more influence on parties’ issue emphasis than the engagement logic introduced by social media.