On behalf of Norrköpings Tidningar, Novus carried out a local voter barometer which, for the first time, used Kivra as its main method. 

The interest stemmed from the challenges Norrköping has faced in recent years, including a rise in violence, a major debate on culture and tense relations between the politicians in Norrköping.

“With two years since the last election and halfway to the next one, we wanted to hear how voters felt things had gone and whether they were satisfied with what had been done so far. Norrköping also went through a local government crisis in which two parties left the ruling coalition, which made a local voter barometer even more interesting,” says Fredrik Lagerqvist, Editor-in-Chief of Norrköpings Tidningar.

A new approach

The survey for Norrköpings Tidningar was the first local voter barometer to be carried out using the digital mailbox Kivra, supplemented by text messages for those who do not use the service. This reaches a large audience, which in turn gives a broader representation of local opinion. Our access to Kivra gives all users the opportunity to take part and share their views on political issues. As Kivra now covers more than 70% of the population, we can offer residents even in smaller municipalities the chance to help shape their community.

Hjalmar Strid, adviser at Novus, has led the work on the project. Local voter barometers have been a common request to Novus, but they used to be harder to carry out because they were mainly done by telephone, which is both time-consuming and limited.

“Using Kivra as the method for a local voter barometer opens up a new way of carrying out local surveys. It is a completely new approach in the industry that makes the work more efficient for local media, among others. It offers a more accurate picture of citizens’ voices,” says Hjalmar Strid.

“Through Kivra, Novus can quickly reach a large share of the Swedish population at local level and ensure broader representativeness, especially among young people and people with a foreign background, groups that otherwise risk being under-represented in telephone surveys. We also supplement this with our other methods to reach those who do not use Kivra. This increases the opportunity for a broader dialogue with citizens,” says Mikael Ohlsson, Head of Quality at Novus.

Looking ahead

Fredrik Lagerqvist describes the vision of taking the pulse of local residents ahead of a future municipal election. Asked about the benefit to citizens from a journalistic perspective, he mentions the user needs that Norrköpings Tidningar has identified and strives to meet: keeping readers updated, guiding, explaining and engaging them.

“Not every article meets all of these needs at once, but offering guidance and explaining, which this Novus survey did, is otherwise difficult to do at a local level. Being able to run local voter barometers when needed is very interesting.”

Kivra’s portal gives Novus a completely new opportunity to reach out with social surveys to target groups that can otherwise be hard to contact. With the help of Kivra, we can quickly reach even the smallest target groups and give them the opportunity to say what they think. This is revolutionary for local politicians, local media and the local community alike.

“Quite simply, power moves a little closer to the individual,” says Hjalmar Strid. Something we at Novus are proud to help with.

Would your organisation like to run its own local survey? Get in touch and I will tell you more!