From entertainment to elections: When social media profiles enter political debates

Public talk by Vilde Schanke Sundet, professor of media and communication at the Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)

This talk is a part of the FoMe lecture series. Follow Me: The Influence of Danish Digital Media Creators is a research project funded by the independent Research Fund Denmark – PI: Bjarki Valtysson

Influencers and content creators were once associated mainly with entertainment, lifestyle and advertising. Today they increasingly help shape how news spreads, how opinions form, and how politics is discussed, especially among young people. Scholars and commentators have described social media profiles as one-person media or even a Fifth Estate: actors who can shape attitudes and build narratives without following journalistic standards or going through editorial gatekeepers. Yet we know little about why these profiles move from entertainment into politics, what their political content looks like, and how their followers respond.

In this public lecture, Vilde Schanke Sundet addresses these questions through the research project ‘Social media profiles and political debates’. The study examines profile-driven political debates during Norway’s 2025 parliamentary election. It draws on interviews with leading profiles and their producers, an analysis of debate formats, and a study of nearly 7,000 YouTube comments on one of them.

The findings suggest that entertainment profiles enter political debate for personal, reputational and financial reasons. Political posts can boost engagement, especially during elections, but may also lead followers and collaborators to demand fairness and balance. Profiles therefore have to weigh commercial goals such as engagement and monetisation against brand consistency and professional standards, from influencer practices to journalistic norms. Although the study focuses on Norway, it points to a wider shift: as political profiles gain ground, public debate increasingly centres on individual personalities, and agenda-setting influence may be moving from editorial outlets to entertainment-based actors.

Bio

Vilde Schanke Sundet, professor of media and communication at the Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). Her work examines changes in the media industries and how media institutions strive to maintain relevance and legitimacy as platforms, audiences and power dynamics evolve. Sundet has led and participated in several research projects, including ‘GLOBAL NATIVES? Serving young audiences on global media platforms’ (2021-2025), ‘Social media profiles and political debate’ (2026), and ‘A profile-based political public sphere’ (2026-). She is the author of Television Drama in the Age of Streaming. Transnational strategies and digital production cultures at the NRK (2021) and Global Natives: how youth media cultures shape legacy media (forthcoming, with Marika Lüders).