Gunn Sara Enli is Associate Professor and project leader for "Social media and Election Campaigns" (2012-2015) at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published extensively in the field of media and communication studies, with a recent focus on politics and social media, media history, Nordic media, and authenticity.Hallvard Moe is Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests are public service broadcasting, online media, ICT and cultural policy, television studies, democratic theory and media history.

• Introduction: social media and election campaigns – key tendencies and ways forward 1. Wave-riding and hashtag-jumping: Twitter, minority ‘third parties’ and the 2012 US elections 2. Political networks on Twitter: tweeting the Queensland state election 3. Between broadcasting political messages and interacting with voters: the use of Twitter during the 2010 UK general election campaign 4. Mastering the art of social media: Swiss parties, the 2011 national election and digital challenges 5. Dodging the gatekeepers?: social media in the campaign mix during the 2011 Danish elections 6. Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication 7. Untangling a complex media system: a comparative study of Twitter-linking practices during three Scandinavian election campaigns 8. An investigation of influentials and the role of sentiment in political communication on Twitter during election periods

Gunn Sara Enli is Associate Professor and project leader for "Social media and Election Campaigns" (2012-2015) at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published extensively in the field of media and communication studies, with a recent focus on politics and social media, media history, Nordic media, and authenticity.Hallvard Moe is Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests are public service broadcasting, online media, ICT and cultural policy, television studies, democratic theory and media history.

• Introduction: social media and election campaigns – key tendencies and ways forward 1. Wave-riding and hashtag-jumping: Twitter, minority ‘third parties’ and the 2012 US elections 2. Political networks on Twitter: tweeting the Queensland state election 3. Between broadcasting political messages and interacting with voters: the use of Twitter during the 2010 UK general election campaign 4. Mastering the art of social media: Swiss parties, the 2011 national election and digital challenges 5. Dodging the gatekeepers?: social media in the campaign mix during the 2011 Danish elections 6. Personalized campaigns in party-centred politics: Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political communication 7. Untangling a complex media system: a comparative study of Twitter-linking practices during three Scandinavian election campaigns 8. An investigation of influentials and the role of sentiment in political communication on Twitter during election periods