The purpose of this study is to analyze the type of blogs written by EU commissioner Margot Wallström and Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt. We have also analyzed how Wallström and Bildt use their blogs to market themselves as politicians and as private individuals, and how they use their blogs to air political messages.

We lay the foundations for our work by using Rebecca Blood’s introduction of blogs, through theories on political communication, and through agenda-setting theory and parasocial interaction. We used a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative content analysis in

the form of a systematic text analysis to answer our questions. We also interviewed Kent Asp, professor at the Institution of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Gothenburg.

The result of the study shows that there are significant differences in the blogs written by Commissioner Wallström and Foreign Minister Bildt. The latter writes more frequently (almost ten times as often as Mrs Wallström) and usually publishes short and concise messages. Mr Bildt’s blog mostly describes his working day, his own political issues and he presents himself as a great political leader with an important and challenging job.

Mrs Wallström writes in a more informative manner about her tasks and she links her work to many types of information about her and the Commission’s work. Her texts are different from Mr Bildt’s in that they are quite personal – Mrs Wallström often writes about her family and personal life, for example.

By way of a summary then, our study shows that Commissioner Wallström’s blog is one containing information about the commission, while Mr Bildt’s blog describes a Swedish foreign minister’s hectic schedule and heavy workload. Mrs Wallström presents herself as the reader’s friend, whereas Mr Bildt prefers to portray himself as a great political leader.