Från likes till lojalitet: sociala medier som verktyg för svenska politiker.

Political communication is an essential pillar of democratic governance and gives rise to various conditions for citizens to influence decisions concerning social issues and future essential issues. Within a people's government, legitimacy is a great motivation for people to participate actively by voting, debating and getting involved in various social issues. In recent decades, social media has laid the new foundation for how citizens participate politically. This has both opened up new opportunities but also given rise to new challenges. With the help of various platforms, politicians and citizens can communicate more and more easily, without intermediaries. This has streamlined various factors such as disseminating information, running campaigns and mobilizing support. At the same time, we see that social media has contributed to an increasingly polarized and fragmented public debate. In this study, we will examine how Swedish politicians experience political communication on social media. Filter bubbles, selective exposure and the spiral of silence may be underlying factors that may have given rise to a change in the conditions for political communication. Politicians can effectively express simplistic messages on social media. On the other hand, there are added risks where filter bubbles, spiral of silence and selective exposure affect how politicians view politics and how they participate in the social debate. The main contributions that we found in the research that dealt with this research topic concluded that politicians routinely apply social media and that these media also have an impact on their work and private life. Furthermore, it provides the opportunity for Swedish politicians to shape their message independently and influence public opinion without filters from traditional media channels. Since there has been a shift, it is important to study how this has affected participation in the new sphere. Understanding this problem can provide insights into how new platforms shape political commitment according to Swedish politicians.