Thanks for (actually) responding! How citizen demand shapes politicians’ interactive practices on Twitter

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 676-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Tromble
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
The Impact

Social media are frequently touted for their potential to strengthen democratic processes by bringing politicians and citizens into dialogue with one another. Social media may enrich the public sphere and improve democratic decision-making by allowing politicians and constituents to discuss matters of political import directly, free from intermediaries. But what factors impact whether this potential is realized? Previous research has focused on politicians’ structural incentives for strategic communication online but neglected the impact of citizen demand for politicians’ attention. I examine the role of citizen demand using an original dataset comprising the Twitter activity from and to members of the lower legislative houses in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States during the latter half of October 2013. The data suggest that citizen demand plays a crucial role in determining the presence, as well as the extent, of politicians’ reciprocal engagement with members of the public.

scholarly journals The Demise of Moderate Islam: new media, contestation, and reclaiming religious authorities

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Wahyudi Akmaliah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Desk Research

The landscape of the Indonesian public sphere amidst the rise of new media has opened both opportunities and threats dealing with Islamic teaching. This condition shapes a danger for the two largest of moderate Muslim Organisations (Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul Ulama/NU), in which they do not engage a lot of this development of the digital platform. Consequently, dealing with religious issues, their voices become voiceless. By employing desk research through some relevant references and collecting information from social media, specifically Instagram and Youtube, this article examines the role of the Islamic organization of moderate Islam in the rapid of the digital platform as the new of the public sphere. The article finds that they have difference respond to dealing with the presence of the new religious authorities. In comparison, while Muhammadiyah is more accepting of them calmly, NU is more reactively in responding.Lanskap ruang publik Indonesia di tengah muncunya media sosial membuka kesempatan sekaligus ancaman terkait dengan dakwah Islam. Hal itu merupakan ancaman bagi dua organisasi besar Moderat Islam di Indonesia (Muhammadiyah dan NU), di mana mereka menjadi kelompok minoritas dalam aktivitas dakwah online. Akibatnya, berkaitan dengan issu-isu keagamaan, suara mereka menjadi tidak terdengar/didengarkan. Dengan melakukan riset studi literatur yang relevan dan informasi yang didapatkan dari akun media sosial, khususnya Instagram dan Youtube, artikel ini menjelaskan peranan organisasi Islam moderat di tengah cepatnya platform digital di ruang publik. Artikel ini menemukan bahwa Muhammadiyah dan NU memiliki respon yang berbeda terkait dengan kehadiran otoritas keagamaan baru. Sebagai perbandingan, penerimaan Muhammadiyah terhadap kehadiran mereka terlebih lebih biasa ketimbang dengan NU yang reactif.

scholarly journals Social media as public sphere: a stakeholder perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Rohde Johannessen ◽  
Øystein Sæbø ◽  
Leif Skiftenes Flak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Communication Preferences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Stakeholder Perspective ◽  
The Public Sphere

Purpose This paper aims to examine major stakeholders’ communication preferences in eParticipation initiatives and discuss how this affects the public sphere. Despite the potential of social media, it has proven difficult to get people actively involved in the decision-making processes. There is a need for more research on how stakeholders manage and use social media to communicate. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted as a qualitative case study. Data sources include interviews, social media content, document analysis and field notes. Findings Communication preferences of stakeholders vary according to their salience level. Stakeholders with higher salience are less likely to participate in social media, whereas those who are less salient will use every available medium to gain influence. This challenges the opportunity to create a traditional public sphere in social media. Research limitations/implications The authors contribute to a better understanding of who participates in social media and why. Stakeholder salience analysis shows that in the case of citizen-initiated eParticipation, social media cannot be seen as a Habermasian public sphere. Practical implications The authors suggest two approaches for government officials’ handling of social media: to treat social media as a channel for input and knowledge about the concerns of citizen groups and to integrate social media in the formal processes of decision making to develop consultative statements on specific policy issues. Social implications The study shows that power and urgency are the most important salience attributes. These findings indicate that social media may not be as inclusive as early research indicates, and less active social media users may have power and influence through other channels. Originality/value The findings extend current knowledge of the public sphere by adding the stakeholder perspective in addition to existing evaluative models of the public sphere.

Pro-Active Digital Citizenship

2018 ◽  
pp. 62-79
Author(s):  
Lesley Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Citizen Journalism ◽  
Digital Citizenship ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
The Impact

Technology advances, particularly in terms of information access and sharing, give rise to complex ethical issues that youth need to grapple with. Digital citizenship necessitates gleaning electronic information and participating actively and ethically in cyberspace to act wisely on that information for social and personal improvement. Today's youth tend to avoid traditional politics; instead, they get their information about the public sphere from social media and engage in lifestyle causes. This chapter explores the role of digital citizenship, civic engagement and the impact of technology on it, current issues in pro-active digital citizenship, conditions for teaching proactive digital citizenship, its curriculum and instruction, and the potential of citizen journalism as a mechanism for facilitating youth-centered proactive digital citizenship.

Defining Urban Planning Strategy Through Social Media Application

2019 ◽  
pp. 268-286
Author(s):  
Alessandro Scuderi ◽  
Luisa Sturiale
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Web

Social networks in the public sphere support the process of innovation that aims to make the action of the municipalities more efficient and participatory. Due to their characteristics, social media seem to be able to contribute significantly to the development of e-governance and e-democracy as tools based on dialogue and on the enhancement of the contribution of users-citizens or, more generally, of users-local stakeholders. Web 4.0 and social media are progressively taking on a role of primary importance in the contemporary socio-economic context, contributing to change not only the processes and methods of communication of individuals, citizens and businesses, but also the organization and business management itself. In the new dimension of the Web 4.0 the user's behavior is not predetermined, but the user can derive and autonomously build the services, as the web is decentralized and enriched by the experiences of the users who participate in the definition and improvement of content.

Moral Universalism at a Time of Political Regression: A Conversation with Jürgen Habermas about the Present and His Life’s Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Claudia Czingon ◽  
Aletta Diefenbach ◽  
Victor Kempf
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Communicative Rationality ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Impact

In the present interview, Jürgen Habermas answers questions about his wide-ranging work in philosophy and social theory, as well as concerning current social and political developments to whose understanding he has made important theoretical contributions. Among the aspects of his work addressed are his conception of communicative rationality as a countervailing force to the colonization of the lifeworld by capitalism and his understanding of philosophy after Hegel as postmetaphysical thinking, for which he has recently provided a comprehensive historical grounding. The scope and relevance of his ideas can be seen from his reflections on current issues, ranging from the prospects of translational democracy at a time of resurgent nationalism and populism, to political developments in Germany since reunification, to the role of religion in the public sphere and the impact of the new social media on democratic discourse.

Too Much Information? Political Science, the University, and the Public Sphere

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Public ◽  
Technological Structure ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The University

This article argues that the technological structure of the modern world has reshaped drastically the role of political scientists as purveyors of information. Only a few decades ago, scholars were still central to the development, collection and dissemination of knowledge. But the transformation in the availability of data due to the proliferation of social media and research engines creates a new environment in which scholars can no longer claim to be the erudite carriers of hard-to-get facts. In order to play a constructive role in this quickly changing setting, political scientists need to invent a new identity for themselves as active practitioners engaged in a dynamic dialogue with students and policymakers.

Keeping the Internal Tension Under Check

2021 ◽  
pp. 289-320
Author(s):  
Margit Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Concerned with the role of the judiciary as a constraining agent of fuzzy law, the chapter is laid out in two layers. First, in light of the special problems attached to reliance on fuzzy law, it advances arguments that call for enhanced review in this context. Secondly, the chapter joins the ongoing general debate over the role of the judiciary in the shaping of the public sphere. The argument for active review is based both on the principles reflected in the rule of law ideal, and on an argument from governance. Setting judicial review in a framework that seeks to enhance participation, the judiciary, stripped of accusations of supremacy over all other forms of decision-making, operates as an intermediator by offering members of society, especially those who do not have direct access to government corridors, an additional forum for voicing their concerns and thereby contributing to public deliberation over all contested aspects of social and political life.

Public Theology in the Age of Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-328
Author(s):  
Bryan K. M. Mok
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Patterns Of Communication ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The ubiquity of social media is a defining characteristic of our contemporary life. It has significantly changed the patterns of communication and altered the landscape of the public sphere. As a consequence the discipline of a public theology needs to reconsider its methodologies. With the aid of the study of political and media scholars, this article contends that the traditional public sphere, which is relatively stable and homogeneous, is experiencing a process of destabilization and pluralization under the impact of social media. The theoretical foundation of the widely adopted bilingual approach to public theology has been shaken. This article proposes that a transformational approach that attempts to shift public perception with the language of faith as its resource may fit the changing landscape of the public sphere better.

scholarly journals Amerykański język praw podmiotowych a demokracja

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Tomasz Raburski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

The article explores the link between the language of rights and democracy. The author asks whether the dominance of the language of rights in the United States is responsible for the overall condition of American democracy, and the lack of such dominance may have a negative impact on the Polish public sphere. The beginning of the article describes the problems with translating the word „right” from English into Polish. In the next part, the different forms and types of rights are described. Then, a meaning of the „language of rights” is presented. Other languages of public discourse are mentioned for comparison. The consequences and functions of the language of law for the public sphere and democracy are widely discussed. The critical voices about the impact of rights are examined. Finally, the article answers the question about the role of rights in the Polish public sphere and democracy.

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