scholarly journals Why so quiet? Exploring inhibition in digital public spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312110173
Author(s):  
Hilde Sakariassen ◽  
Irene Costera Meijer
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Spiral Of Silence ◽  
The Spiral Of Silence

Social network sites have been considered as important arenas for public debate, but as a large proportion of users do not actively participate, there is a need to further our understanding of a phenomenon as hidden, unnoticed and invisible as non-participation. We argue that inhibition is a valuable socio-psychological lens to study non-participation, usefully extending the conceptual framework of political communication regarding non-participation, and offering a more precise way of theorising the intent behind this apparent passivity. Using representative survey data collected in Norway in 2017 ( N = 2064), we first sensitise the multi-layered concept of inhibition through combining different dominant approaches: the spiral-of-silence theory, the harsh debate climate, political efficacy, and specific properties of social network sites related to identity and impression management. Second, we show that inhibition functions as an in-between concept balancing participation and non-participation in social network sites. Through factor analysis principal component factor (PCF), we integrate established theories that allow us to define overarching dimensions of inhibition, demonstrating that it is a complex phenomenon not easily understood through one specific theoretical perspective.

scholarly journals Political Humour in the Social Network Sites

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shared Social Values ◽  
The Arab Spring

“Social network sites” first began to be used as new tools of political communication during the 2008 Presidential Election in the United States, and their importance became even more apparent during the Arab Spring. In the course of this, the social network sites became a new and widely discussed channel of communication. In addition to its ability to bring together people from different parts of the world by removing any time and space barriers, creates a virtual network that allows individuals with shared social values to take action in an organized manner. Furthermore, this novel, versatile and multi-faceted tool of political communication has also provided a new mean for observing various aspects of social reactions to political events. Instead of voters expressing their political views through their votes from one election to the other, we nowadays have voters who actively take part in political processes by instantly demonstrating their reactions and by directly communicating their criticisms online.

Managing celebrity via impression management on social network sites

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 440-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwame J.A. Agyemang ◽  
Antonio S. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Context ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Celebrity Status ◽  
Proactive Measures ◽  
Analytic Design

Purpose Central to the celebrity creation process is mass media communication and impression management (IM) behaviors of social actors. The emergence of social network sites (SNSs) such as Twitter offers a platform for social actors to engage both of these means in efforts to manage their celebrity. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how celebrity athletes manage their celebrity status by investigating IM tactics employed by National Basketball Association (NBA) celebrities on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach A content analytic design was employed to examine the Twitter posts of the top ten most popular and influential NBA celebrity athletes (past and present) at the time of tweet acquisition. Findings The findings revealed the celebrity athletes used a variety of IM tactics to manage their celebrity. Defensive IM tactics (i.e. reactive measures taken) were used sparingly when compared to offensive IM tactics (i.e. proactive measures taken). Also, consistent with extant IM literature, the celebrity athletes utilized IM tactics in isolation as well as in combination. Practical implications The extant literature suggests that celebrities cultivate their relationships with the various media outlets with the potential to create (or even damage) one’s celebrity. This study offers celebrity athletes and their managers with useful insight on celebrity management. Originality/value This study is the first to examine IM in a sport business context, particularly the use of IM of athletes on SNSs.

scholarly journals Congressmen in the age of social network sites: Brazilian representatives and Twitter use

First Monday ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Paulo Jamil Almeida Marques ◽  
Jakson Alves de Aquino ◽  
Edna Miola
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Leadership Positions

This paper investigates the factors that influence how members of the Brazilian House of Representatives adopt Twitter as part of their political communication strategy. Our intention is to understand the main variables that lead legislators to invest time and resources in microblogging. This quantitative study examined all of the 457 official congressional accounts registered on Twitter. These accounts were monitored weekly between February 2012 and February 2013. After empirically exploring the data, this work reflects on the results thanks in part to an examination of the literature on the intersection of the Internet and politics. The results indicate correlations between the use of Twitter and attributes like age and occupation of leadership positions.

scholarly journals Political “Postwriting” on Facebook: Public Perceptions About Parliamentarians’ (Un)Real SNS Involvement

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511988169
Author(s):  
Chen Sabag Ben-Porat ◽  
Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Opinion Poll ◽  
Public Opinion Poll ◽  
Ethical Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Use Patterns

Theoretical research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities, and perceptions of the MPs themselves without noting the existence of an intermediate layer: parliamentary assistants (PAs). This study attempts to investigate how the public perceives, practically and ethically, the (non)involvement of MPs, that is, reliance on PAs for SNSs (social network sites) communication with the public and to fill out the theoretical void in the discourse process. Questionnaires were sent to all 120 members of the 20th Israeli Knesset (MKs), with 44 responding. We examined the extent of their involvement and the MKs’ use patterns of Facebook, creating a model of four MK involvement levels. The idea was to check the extent of PAs’ authoring posts on behalf of MKs, what we call “Postwriting” (= post ghostwriting) in the MK’s name (or giving the impression that the MKs had themselves posted). Then we conducted a public opinion poll ( N = 505) in order to discern what the public thought about the nature of its relationship with MKs on Facebook, compared to the findings that emerged from the model of the MKs’ involvement in actual practice. The two parts of the study also enabled us to investigate the ethical perceptions and implications arising from the study.

Pathfinding Discourses of Self in Social Network Sites

2011 ◽  
pp. 1634-1659
Author(s):  
Mariza Georgalou
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Online Ethnography ◽  
Pilot Survey ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Analytical Tools

It has been argued that social network sites (SNSs) constitute a cultural arena which gives rise to the processes of self-presentation, impression management and friendship performance (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Based on the tenets of discourse-centered online ethnography, this study investigates how identity can be discursively generated, reproduced and co-constructed within the genre of SNSs, taking as a case in point Pathfinder, a Greek portal which incorporates social networking features. The tendencies suggested by interviewing a Pathfinder web developer as well as by a pilot survey on social networking are traced in a popular Pathfinder networker’s profile. Adopting Zhao et al.’s (2008) sociological model of implicit and explicit identity claims on SNSs and leaning on critical discourse analytical tools (Fairclough, 2003; Reisigl & Wodak, 2001), the chapter explores how the online self can be cemented and disseminated in narrative, enumerative and visual terms via an armory of linguistic and multimodal strategies. In this fashion, SNSs should not be approached as a sheer technological artefact, but as a “space for growth” (Turkle, 1997) that encourages users to have agency shaping collaboratively their own linguistic, social and psychological development.

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