Kari Steen-Johnsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 277165 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kari Steen-Johnsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kari |
| FAMILY NAME | Steen-Johnsen |
| SIGNATURE | STEEN-JOHNSEN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute for Social Research |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 154 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The road to citizenship: How discussing politics shapes political interest across the lifespan
Political interest is key to explaining democratic outcomes such as political knowledge and participation, and its development has been particularly studied in the context of socialization processes during adolescence. Building on a theory of expression effects, this study highlights the relationship between political discussion and political interest among individuals age 15 and above. Based on a seven-year panel study in Norway ( n = 10,695), w…
Right-wing alternative media users in Scandinavia: A comparative study of ideological attitudes and (dis)trust
The emergence of right-wing alternative media has raised concerns about the diffusion of radical ideas among citizens and growing distrust in the media and public institutions. Based on representative surveys in Denmark ( n = 1,958), Norway ( n = 2,009), and Sweden ( n = 1,991), we examine what characterises right-wing alternative media users in terms of political attitudes and political, media, and social trust. The analysis reveals that right-w…
Polarisering og opinionsdynamikker i den digitale offentligheten
Uninformed or Misinformed in the Digital News Environment? How Social Media News Use Affects Two Dimensions of Political Knowledge
This article examines how the use of social media for news affects citizens' knowledge about politics and current affairs. We employ a two-dimensional perspective on political knowledge and investigate how factual political knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, and misinformation, understood as the mismatch between factual political knowledge and confidence in knowledge, are related to social media news consumption. While earlier studies have …
You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic
Empirical results regarding the role of interpersonal trust in the pandemic setting have been inconsistent. We argue that one explanation may be an inherent weakness in the standard measure of generalised trust, requesting respondents to choose between the options ‘most people can be trusted' and ‘you can't be careful enough in dealing with people'. The item measures two inter-related yet separate dimensions - trust and caution. A sense of cautio…
Do High-Choice Media Environments Facilitate News Avoidance? A Longitudinal Study 1997–2016
The well-known “high-choice news avoidance thesis” and the alternative “network structure perspective” stipulate somewhat conflicting expectations about news consumption in today’s digital media systems. Based on annual survey data from Norway, the article examines news avoidance from 1997–2016, a period when digitalization processes transformed the media environment. Results show that news avoidance increased only marginally. The decrease in use…
Policy windows and converging frames: A longitudinal study of digitalization and media policy change
This study analyzes how media industry players have influenced media political solutions to digitalization, using data from the daily press and policy documents in the period from 1998 to 2017 as sources. It concentrates on two specific areas of media policy: public service broadcasting (PSB) and press subsidies. Based on a media policy field approach, this study identifies key collective frames and the players that promote them, and shows how po…
Perceived Societal Fear and Cyberhate after the November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks
Fear is one of the negative outcomes of terrorist attacks. Currently, there is a need to understand how societal fear and fear of terrorism might be shaped and induced by social-media discussions. This study analyzed how exposure to cyberhate was associated with perceived societal fear after the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Demographically balanced data sets were collected from France, Spain, Finland, Norway, and the United States four …
Theorizing policy-industry processes: A media policy field approach
This article develops a theoretical perspective to study the conditions for media policy formation under the condition of digitalization – the Media Policy Field approach – building on an organizational field approach in combination with theories of policy development. The theory of strategic action fields offers a meso-level view of how actors in media fields interact and how their respective opportunities for influencing policy are structured b…
Anger, Fear, and Echo Chambers: The Emotional Basis for Online Behavior
Emotions, such as anger and fear, have been shown to influence people's political behavior. However, few studies link emotions specifically to how people debate political issues and seek political information online. In this article, we examine how anger and fear are related to politics-oriented digital behavior, attempting to bridge the gap between the thus far disconnected literature on political psychology and the digital media. Based on surve…
Introduction: The Public Sphere in Change. Institutional Perspectives on Neo-corporatist Society
The Public Sphere in Change.
Institutional Change in the Public Sphere: Views on the Nordic Model
The main focus of the book is institutional change in the Scandinavian model, with special emphasis on Norway. There are many reasons to pay closer attention to the Norwegian case when it comes to analyses of changes in the public sphere. In the country’s political history, the arts and the media played a particular role in the processes towards sovereignty at the beginning of the 20th century. On a par with the other Scandinavian countries, Norw…
Leap of Faith or Judgment of Deservingness? Generalized Trust, Trust in Immigrants and Support for the Welfare State
Echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates
In this article, we take issue with the claim by Sunstein and others that online discussion takes place in echo chambers, and suggest that the dynamics of online debates could be more aptly described by the logic of ‘trench warfare’, in which opinions are reinforced through contradiction as well as confirmation. We use a unique online survey and an experimental approach to investigate and test echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online de…
Internet Research Ethics
This anthology addresses ethical challenges that arise within the field of Internet research. Among the issues discussed in the book are the following: When is voluntary informed consent from research subjects required in using the Internet as a data source? How may researchers secure the privacy of research subjects in a landscape where the traditional public/private distinction is blurred and re-identification is a recurring threat? What are th…
Internet Research Ethics
This anthology addresses ethical challenges that arise within the field of Internet research. Among the issues discussed in the book are the following: When is voluntary informed consent from research subjects required in using the Internet as a data source? How may researchers secure the privacy of research subjects in a landscape where the traditional public/private distinction is blurred and re-identification is a recurring threat? What are th…
The Fear of Offending: Social Norms and Freedom of Expression
ISTR Voluntas Best Paper Award 2014
Digitale data – bruk og begrensninger
Sosiale medier, samfunnspolitisk deltagelse og kontroll
Kausalitet – i teori og praksis
Social media and mobilization to offline demonstrations: Transcending participatory divides
This paper examines how the use of social media affects participation in offline demonstrations. Using individual web survey data from Norway, we ask whether social media usage serves to re-affirm or transcend socioeconomic divides in participation. In addition to data on demonstration participation in general, we also use the data on the Rose Marches that were organized after the 22/7 terror events as a critical case. Our results show that the t…
Bourdieu knew more than how to play tennis! An empirically based discussion of habituation and reflexivity
This paper explores the role of reflexivity in habituation by contrasting the learning of aerobics and basketball with the acquisition of gendered bodily skills. The discussion is inspired by the paper So, how did Bourdieu learn to play tennis? Habitus, consciousness and habituation, by Noble and Watkins (2003), which represents a fruitful contribution to the debate on the roles of reflexivity and consciousness in learning. Still, this model of h…
After Utøya: How a High-Trust Society Reacts to Terror—Trust and Civic Engagement in the Aftermath of July 22
The article examines short-term effects of terror on trust and civic engagement in Norway. Prior to the July 22, 2011 attacks, Norway ranked among the nations with the highest levels of trust and civic engagement in the world. How does a nation of trusters react to terror? Based on two web surveys conducted in March/April 2011 and August 2011 short-term effects on trust, fear, and political interest and participation are analyzed. Two competing h…
On the terms of the recipient? Norwegian sports development aid to Tanzania in the 1980s
This article discusses the donor-recipient1 relationship in a sports development aid context, and identifies potential dilemmas occurring when aiming to give aid on the recipient's terms. Using the case of the Norwegian sports development aid project Sport for All, it is argued that the Norwegian Confederation of Sports was clearly in control of the project throughout its various phases, and thus a contradiction between the discourse of equality …
Social media and mobilization to offline demonstrations: Transcending participatory divides
This paper examines how the use of social media affects participation in offline demonstrations. Using individual web survey data from Norway, we ask whether social media usage serves to re-affirm or transcend socioeconomic divides in participation. In addition to data on demonstration participation in general, we also use the data on the Rose Marches that were organized after the 22/7 terror events as a critical case. Our results show that the t…
Anger, Fear, and Echo Chambers: The Emotional Basis for Online Behavior
Emotions, such as anger and fear, have been shown to influence people's political behavior. However, few studies link emotions specifically to how people debate political issues and seek political information online. In this article, we examine how anger and fear are related to politics-oriented digital behavior, attempting to bridge the gap between the thus far disconnected literature on political psychology and the digital media. Based on surve…
After Utøya: How a High-Trust Society Reacts to Terror—Trust and Civic Engagement in the Aftermath of July 22
The article examines short-term effects of terror on trust and civic engagement in Norway. Prior to the July 22, 2011 attacks, Norway ranked among the nations with the highest levels of trust and civic engagement in the world. How does a nation of trusters react to terror? Based on two web surveys conducted in March/April 2011 and August 2011 short-term effects on trust, fear, and political interest and participation are analyzed. Two competing h…
Echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates
In this article, we take issue with the claim by Sunstein and others that online discussion takes place in echo chambers, and suggest that the dynamics of online debates could be more aptly described by the logic of ‘trench warfare’, in which opinions are reinforced through contradiction as well as confirmation. We use a unique online survey and an experimental approach to investigate and test echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online de…
Uninformed or Misinformed in the Digital News Environment? How Social Media News Use Affects Two Dimensions of Political Knowledge
This article examines how the use of social media for news affects citizens' knowledge about politics and current affairs. We employ a two-dimensional perspective on political knowledge and investigate how factual political knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, and misinformation, understood as the mismatch between factual political knowledge and confidence in knowledge, are related to social media news consumption. While earlier studies have …
Perceived Societal Fear and Cyberhate after the November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks
Fear is one of the negative outcomes of terrorist attacks. Currently, there is a need to understand how societal fear and fear of terrorism might be shaped and induced by social-media discussions. This study analyzed how exposure to cyberhate was associated with perceived societal fear after the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Demographically balanced data sets were collected from France, Spain, Finland, Norway, and the United States four …
On Civil Society Governance: An Emergent Research Field
Globalized Fitness in the Norwegian Context: The Perfect Meets the Popular
This article analyses the corporatization of a national sports culture, Norwegian keep-fit exercise, by commercial fitness organizations. The introduction of commercial fitness in Norway from the 1980s is examined based on advertisements from the major Norwegian commercial fitness chains, media texts and qualitative interviews with commercial fitness entrepreneurs. The neo-institutional concept of translation is used to identify how this new, glo…
Theorizing policy-industry processes: A media policy field approach
This article develops a theoretical perspective to study the conditions for media policy formation under the condition of digitalization – the Media Policy Field approach – building on an organizational field approach in combination with theories of policy development. The theory of strategic action fields offers a meso-level view of how actors in media fields interact and how their respective opportunities for influencing policy are structured b…
Bourdieu knew more than how to play tennis! An empirically based discussion of habituation and reflexivity
This paper explores the role of reflexivity in habituation by contrasting the learning of aerobics and basketball with the acquisition of gendered bodily skills. The discussion is inspired by the paper So, how did Bourdieu learn to play tennis? Habitus, consciousness and habituation, by Noble and Watkins (2003), which represents a fruitful contribution to the debate on the roles of reflexivity and consciousness in learning. Still, this model of h…
Policy windows and converging frames: A longitudinal study of digitalization and media policy change
This study analyzes how media industry players have influenced media political solutions to digitalization, using data from the daily press and policy documents in the period from 1998 to 2017 as sources. It concentrates on two specific areas of media policy: public service broadcasting (PSB) and press subsidies. Based on a media policy field approach, this study identifies key collective frames and the players that promote them, and shows how po…
The Fear of Offending: Social Norms and Freedom of Expression
You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic
Empirical results regarding the role of interpersonal trust in the pandemic setting have been inconsistent. We argue that one explanation may be an inherent weakness in the standard measure of generalised trust, requesting respondents to choose between the options ‘most people can be trusted' and ‘you can't be careful enough in dealing with people'. The item measures two inter-related yet separate dimensions - trust and caution. A sense of cautio…
Kausalitet – i teori og praksis
On the terms of the recipient? Norwegian sports development aid to Tanzania in the 1980s
This article discusses the donor-recipient1 relationship in a sports development aid context, and identifies potential dilemmas occurring when aiming to give aid on the recipient's terms. Using the case of the Norwegian sports development aid project Sport for All, it is argued that the Norwegian Confederation of Sports was clearly in control of the project throughout its various phases, and thus a contradiction between the discourse of equality …
Globalized Fitness in the Norwegian Context: The Perfect Meets the Popular
This article analyses the corporatization of a national sports culture, Norwegian keep-fit exercise, by commercial fitness organizations. The introduction of commercial fitness in Norway from the 1980s is examined based on advertisements from the major Norwegian commercial fitness chains, media texts and qualitative interviews with commercial fitness entrepreneurs. The neo-institutional concept of translation is used to identify how this new, glo…
On Civil Society Governance: An Emergent Research Field
Social media and mobilization to offline demonstrations: Transcending participatory divides
This paper examines how the use of social media affects participation in offline demonstrations. Using individual web survey data from Norway, we ask whether social media usage serves to re-affirm or transcend socioeconomic divides in participation. In addition to data on demonstration participation in general, we also use the data on the Rose Marches that were organized after the 22/7 terror events as a critical case. Our results show that the t…
Bourdieu knew more than how to play tennis! An empirically based discussion of habituation and reflexivity
This paper explores the role of reflexivity in habituation by contrasting the learning of aerobics and basketball with the acquisition of gendered bodily skills. The discussion is inspired by the paper So, how did Bourdieu learn to play tennis? Habitus, consciousness and habituation, by Noble and Watkins (2003), which represents a fruitful contribution to the debate on the roles of reflexivity and consciousness in learning. Still, this model of h…
After Utøya: How a High-Trust Society Reacts to Terror—Trust and Civic Engagement in the Aftermath of July 22
The article examines short-term effects of terror on trust and civic engagement in Norway. Prior to the July 22, 2011 attacks, Norway ranked among the nations with the highest levels of trust and civic engagement in the world. How does a nation of trusters react to terror? Based on two web surveys conducted in March/April 2011 and August 2011 short-term effects on trust, fear, and political interest and participation are analyzed. Two competing h…
On the terms of the recipient? Norwegian sports development aid to Tanzania in the 1980s
This article discusses the donor-recipient1 relationship in a sports development aid context, and identifies potential dilemmas occurring when aiming to give aid on the recipient's terms. Using the case of the Norwegian sports development aid project Sport for All, it is argued that the Norwegian Confederation of Sports was clearly in control of the project throughout its various phases, and thus a contradiction between the discourse of equality …
Sosiale medier, samfunnspolitisk deltagelse og kontroll
Kausalitet – i teori og praksis
ISTR Voluntas Best Paper Award 2014
Digitale data – bruk og begrensninger
Internet Research Ethics
This anthology addresses ethical challenges that arise within the field of Internet research. Among the issues discussed in the book are the following: When is voluntary informed consent from research subjects required in using the Internet as a data source? How may researchers secure the privacy of research subjects in a landscape where the traditional public/private distinction is blurred and re-identification is a recurring threat? What are th…
Internet Research Ethics
This anthology addresses ethical challenges that arise within the field of Internet research. Among the issues discussed in the book are the following: When is voluntary informed consent from research subjects required in using the Internet as a data source? How may researchers secure the privacy of research subjects in a landscape where the traditional public/private distinction is blurred and re-identification is a recurring threat? What are th…
The Fear of Offending: Social Norms and Freedom of Expression
Introduction: The Public Sphere in Change. Institutional Perspectives on Neo-corporatist Society
The Public Sphere in Change.
Institutional Change in the Public Sphere: Views on the Nordic Model
The main focus of the book is institutional change in the Scandinavian model, with special emphasis on Norway. There are many reasons to pay closer attention to the Norwegian case when it comes to analyses of changes in the public sphere. In the country’s political history, the arts and the media played a particular role in the processes towards sovereignty at the beginning of the 20th century. On a par with the other Scandinavian countries, Norw…
Leap of Faith or Judgment of Deservingness? Generalized Trust, Trust in Immigrants and Support for the Welfare State
Echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates
In this article, we take issue with the claim by Sunstein and others that online discussion takes place in echo chambers, and suggest that the dynamics of online debates could be more aptly described by the logic of ‘trench warfare’, in which opinions are reinforced through contradiction as well as confirmation. We use a unique online survey and an experimental approach to investigate and test echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online de…
Theorizing policy-industry processes: A media policy field approach
This article develops a theoretical perspective to study the conditions for media policy formation under the condition of digitalization – the Media Policy Field approach – building on an organizational field approach in combination with theories of policy development. The theory of strategic action fields offers a meso-level view of how actors in media fields interact and how their respective opportunities for influencing policy are structured b…
Anger, Fear, and Echo Chambers: The Emotional Basis for Online Behavior
Emotions, such as anger and fear, have been shown to influence people's political behavior. However, few studies link emotions specifically to how people debate political issues and seek political information online. In this article, we examine how anger and fear are related to politics-oriented digital behavior, attempting to bridge the gap between the thus far disconnected literature on political psychology and the digital media. Based on surve…
Do High-Choice Media Environments Facilitate News Avoidance? A Longitudinal Study 1997–2016
The well-known “high-choice news avoidance thesis” and the alternative “network structure perspective” stipulate somewhat conflicting expectations about news consumption in today’s digital media systems. Based on annual survey data from Norway, the article examines news avoidance from 1997–2016, a period when digitalization processes transformed the media environment. Results show that news avoidance increased only marginally. The decrease in use…
Policy windows and converging frames: A longitudinal study of digitalization and media policy change
This study analyzes how media industry players have influenced media political solutions to digitalization, using data from the daily press and policy documents in the period from 1998 to 2017 as sources. It concentrates on two specific areas of media policy: public service broadcasting (PSB) and press subsidies. Based on a media policy field approach, this study identifies key collective frames and the players that promote them, and shows how po…
Perceived Societal Fear and Cyberhate after the November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks
Fear is one of the negative outcomes of terrorist attacks. Currently, there is a need to understand how societal fear and fear of terrorism might be shaped and induced by social-media discussions. This study analyzed how exposure to cyberhate was associated with perceived societal fear after the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Demographically balanced data sets were collected from France, Spain, Finland, Norway, and the United States four …
You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic
Empirical results regarding the role of interpersonal trust in the pandemic setting have been inconsistent. We argue that one explanation may be an inherent weakness in the standard measure of generalised trust, requesting respondents to choose between the options ‘most people can be trusted' and ‘you can't be careful enough in dealing with people'. The item measures two inter-related yet separate dimensions - trust and caution. A sense of cautio…
Polarisering og opinionsdynamikker i den digitale offentligheten
Uninformed or Misinformed in the Digital News Environment? How Social Media News Use Affects Two Dimensions of Political Knowledge
This article examines how the use of social media for news affects citizens' knowledge about politics and current affairs. We employ a two-dimensional perspective on political knowledge and investigate how factual political knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, and misinformation, understood as the mismatch between factual political knowledge and confidence in knowledge, are related to social media news consumption. While earlier studies have …
Political science (19 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Social Media and Politics (9 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Norwegian (6 works)