scholarly journals Real or Virtual? Political Communication in Romania (2004-2008/9)

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Marinescu ◽  
Bianca Mitu

AbstractThe civic and political participation is considered to be central to the concept of democracy and it is particularly relevant in the context of contemporary democracies. The participation of citizens in civic or political activities has been a constitutive element of democracy since ancient times. Any dis-cussion of participation needs to acknowledge the space within which the citizens engage. This article will focus on the online engagement and online civic and political participation. The existing studies in literature focus on the analysis of the online election campaigns [Klotz 2005; Xenos, Foot 2005], on the study of the characteristics of the individuals who engage in on-line and off-line activities [Rice, Katz 2004; Weber 2003] or on the identification of the role of the media as a main information source for the voters [Ramie 2005]. This article aims to analyze the main features of the use of new media in political life and the relation between new media and civil society in Romania during 2004-2012. Also the article aims to provide and answer to the following questions: Which were the main characteristics of the usage of new media during the Romanian electoral campaigns 2004-2008/2009? How is the Internet used in the civic life during the non-electoral periods in Romania?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (23) ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Umut Yıldız

The new media, which is under the traditional media, is rapidly becoming an extremely important channel for political communication. In our digital age, which refers to the electronic revolution shaped by means of communication, before the electronic revolution, which is accepted as a leap in the developmental line of the history of civilization as synonymous with the information and knowledge community, political communication also changes like every other issue. Radio and television have risen to a central position in the political relations of people in the electronic world; In this process, channels, radio and television, which are among the 3 issues in the classification between receivers, transmitters and channels, have made the way of using and benefiting from both transmitters and receivers into a habit, in accordance with their own characteristics. In this process, which took place within the boundaries drawn by television-mediated political communication, each of the parties had to construct roles, wishes, expectations, identity, constitutionalism, reconciliation, activities according to the instrumentality of television. By internalizing the drawn framework and borders more and more every day, it has indexed all kinds of political activities that can be realized through the media in daily life to radio and television, and then to new media tools. Key Words: Technology, Political Communication, New Media.


2021 ◽  
pp. 90-105
Author(s):  
Serhiy Danylenko ◽  

The article aims to outline the transformation in the functioning of modern democracy as a form of government, to explore the influence of modern media on the mechanisms of its implementation. The issue is raised about the preservation of its fundamental principles during the information revolution (primarily in the media sphere) and changes in the forms and methods of communication of people during political interaction. The model of „monitoring democracy” was chosen as the theoretical and conceptual basis for considering these processes, which is based on the „idea of a monitoring citizen” and which is caused by rapid growth of various extra-parliamentary (non-representative) mechanisms of government. Among them, the most important for us is the rapid development of media instruments, namely social networks. The imperative of elections, political parties and parliamentary life, typical for representative democracy over the last two centuries of the history of civilization, is now far behind the capacity of other actors of public life to influence the political decisions of citizens. The author also points to the fact that technology companies, which have concentrated both information − microtargeting supply of information based on psychological profiling, and business activities, demonstrate a new phenomenon, which is assessed by citizens as the most competent and ethical center of gravity and trust. At the same time, governments, independent public institutions and traditional media are perceived as less effective and ethical. Such a concentration of information and corporate influence in one actor (a small group of technology companies) is a new challenge for democracy. Respectively, basic principles that ensure its functioning as the most successful form of government, namely − election and control of power, protection of human rights, participation of citizens in political life and governance, rule of law and accountability of government agencies, prevention of usurpation of power – nowadays experience theoretical rethinking, and are embodied in new political practices. In addition, they (foundations of democracy) are torpedoed by negative phenomena of the period of transformation and political turbulence, among which populism in all its manifestations is the most threatening. Key words: representative democracy, monitoring democracy, mediacracy, constructive journalism, civil communication, social networks.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 330-339
Author(s):  
Abdul-Karim Ziani ◽  
Mokhtar Elareshi ◽  
Khalid Al-Jaber

Abstract Many critical questions concerning the relationship between the news media and political knowledge involve the extent to which the media facilitate learning about news, war and politics. Political awareness - via the news media - affects virtually every aspect of citizens’ political attitudes and behaviours. This paper examines how Libyan elites adopt the news media to access news and information regarding the current Libyan war and politics and how they use political communication and new media to build/spread political awareness. With the expansion of private and state-owned television in Libya, concern has grown that these new TV services will survive in providing information about citizens’ interests, including the new, developing political scene. A total of 134 highly educated Libyan professionals completed an online survey, reporting their perceptions of issues covered by national TV services. This account centres on how those elites consume the media and what level of trust they have in the media and in information and what the role of the media in their country should be. The results show that most respondents, especially those who live outside the country, prefer using different Libyan news platforms. However, 50 per cent of these do not trust these channels as a source of information regarding the civil war, associated conflicts and politics in general. They have grown weary of coverage that represents the interests of those who run or own the services and consequently place little trust in the media. Spreading ‘lies as facts’ has affected the credibility of these services. Politically, these respondents wish the media to discuss solutions and act as a force for good, not for division. They also differed in the number and variety of national news sources that they reportedly used. This paper also highlights the role of social media, mobile telephony and the Internet, as well as the rapidly proliferating private and national media. These findings are also discussed in relation to the growing impact of online sources in Libyan society, social and political change and the emergence of new media platforms as new sources of information.


1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman H. Nie ◽  
G. Bingham Powell ◽  
Kenneth Prewitt

Economic development has consequences for many aspects of social life. Some of these social consequences, in turn, have an impact on a nation's political life. Studies of social mobilization, for example, have demonstrated that economic development is associated with sharp increases in the general level of political participation. These studies report strong relationships between aggregate socio-economic measures such as per capita income, median level of education, and percentage of the population in urban areas, on one hand, and aggregate measures of political participation, such as voting turnout, on the other. Simultaneously, scholars conducting surveys of individual political participation consistently have reported that an individual's social status, education, and organizational memberships strongly affect the likelihood of his engaging in various types of political activities.In spite of the consistency of both sets of findings across many studies and although the findings appear frequently in analysis of political stability, democracy, and even strategies of political growth, we know little about the connections between social structure and political participation. With few exceptions the literature on individual participation is notable for low level generalizations (the better educated citizen talks about politics more regularly), and the absence of systematic and comprehensive theory. While the literature on the growth of national political participation has been more elaborate theoretically, the dependence on aggregate measures has made it difficult to determine empirically how these macro social changes structure individuals' life experiences in ways which alter their political behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Birgir Guðmundsson

AbstractThe increased importance of social media platforms and network media logic merging with traditional media logic are a trademark of modern hybrid systems of political communication. This article looks at this development through the media-use by politicians before the 2016 and 2017 parliamentary elections in Iceland. Aggregate results from candidate surveys on the use and perceived importance of different media forms are used to examine the role of the new platform Snapchat in relation to other media, and to highlight the dynamics of the hybrid media system in Iceland. The results show that Snapchat is exploited more by younger politicians and those already using social media platforms. However, in spite of this duality between old and new media, users of traditional platforms still use new media and vice versa. This points to the existance of a delicate operational balance between different media logics, that could change as younger politicians move more centre stage.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
. Wahyutama

<p>Some studies theorized social media as fostering youth political participation by facilitating the development of online participatory cultures (Jenkins, 2009). Online participatory cultures provide young citizens with opportunities to discuss and gain information about political topics, create capacity for action by promoting digital skills and norms for group interaction, and facilitate recruitment into civic and political life (Kahne et al., 2013). Against the backdrop of this discourse, this research aims to investigate social media and youth political participation in Indonesia’s context.  This project’s research questions ask: How politics is experienced by Indonesian youth and how social media is used by them to engage with political activities? To answer those questions, this research conducted a survey (n=265) and interviews (n=29) with students from three universities in Jakarta. This research adopted grounded theory approach in analysing the data.  This research revealed that social media in general provides affordances for youth to engage with activities related to political conversation and social-political campaign (as indicated by the findings that social media attracts more numbers of youth participating in these two categories of activity). Thus, this research in part support propositions advocated by the thesis of online participatory cultures that social media facilitates youth political participation.  However, under the specific context of ethnic and religious-based political polarization which happened during this research, this research also revealed that the salient form of social media use by youth is in fact monitoring political conversation. This activity is driven by the sense of “kepo” (the drive to asses how others are thinking, feeling, and responding to certain political issues) and has the effect on youth’s fear of social isolation (in the form of fear of breaking relationship with others). Eventually, this activity leads youth to the act of silence (in the form of refraining political expression on social media). In this case, this research (unintentionally) confirm the theory of spiral of silence proposed by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984).  Finally, this research contributes to the academic discourse by providing a critical insight into the way social media could lead its users to the process of spiral of silence i.e. by exacerbating the fear of social isolation obtained from the activity of social surveillance (in the form of monitoring political conversation).</p>


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
. Wahyutama

<p>Some studies theorized social media as fostering youth political participation by facilitating the development of online participatory cultures (Jenkins, 2009). Online participatory cultures provide young citizens with opportunities to discuss and gain information about political topics, create capacity for action by promoting digital skills and norms for group interaction, and facilitate recruitment into civic and political life (Kahne et al., 2013). Against the backdrop of this discourse, this research aims to investigate social media and youth political participation in Indonesia’s context.  This project’s research questions ask: How politics is experienced by Indonesian youth and how social media is used by them to engage with political activities? To answer those questions, this research conducted a survey (n=265) and interviews (n=29) with students from three universities in Jakarta. This research adopted grounded theory approach in analysing the data.  This research revealed that social media in general provides affordances for youth to engage with activities related to political conversation and social-political campaign (as indicated by the findings that social media attracts more numbers of youth participating in these two categories of activity). Thus, this research in part support propositions advocated by the thesis of online participatory cultures that social media facilitates youth political participation.  However, under the specific context of ethnic and religious-based political polarization which happened during this research, this research also revealed that the salient form of social media use by youth is in fact monitoring political conversation. This activity is driven by the sense of “kepo” (the drive to asses how others are thinking, feeling, and responding to certain political issues) and has the effect on youth’s fear of social isolation (in the form of fear of breaking relationship with others). Eventually, this activity leads youth to the act of silence (in the form of refraining political expression on social media). In this case, this research (unintentionally) confirm the theory of spiral of silence proposed by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984).  Finally, this research contributes to the academic discourse by providing a critical insight into the way social media could lead its users to the process of spiral of silence i.e. by exacerbating the fear of social isolation obtained from the activity of social surveillance (in the form of monitoring political conversation).</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uli Bernhard ◽  
Marco Dohle

Abstract The perception that many other people are being reached and affected by political communication can be a reason for intensifying one’s own communication activities. An online survey among German citizens (n = 2,957) was carried out to determine whether this is also true for political communication activities via social media. Results show that the presumed reach and the presumed influence of Facebook and Twitter with regard to the individual’s circle of friends/acquaintances affect the intensity of online communication. However, perceptions concerning the population in general are not relevant. This indicates that individuals primarily address their own social environment with their political social networking practices. Thus, by concentrating on perceptual processes, the findings contribute to shedding light on the causes and motives for political communication activities in the social media world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Walter ◽  
Zareh Ghazarian

Political communication and citizen engagement have been impacted by crises in both political parties and conventional media models. This article contends that the confluence of these crises has been insufficiently understood, and that this lack of understanding depends upon a third element: the dissolution of a ‘holding culture’, a sense of the ‘rules of the game’ that has constituted the ground on which parties and the media operated and generated the imaginative space for constituting community. This dissolution might be represented as resistance to a now discredited political class, once constituted by ‘old’ political and media elites, and promising a new culture – with the potential for parties to be more responsive to ‘the people’, and for a more diversified and representative media. By looking at case studies of leadership insurgency in parties and the impact of new media in creating the discursive conditions for their emergence, this article explores the realities in relation to political communication and democratic engagement.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482091041
Author(s):  
Maria Rae

Online media sites such as Breitbart News in the United States and The Canary in the United Kingdom have come to prominence as powerful new agents. Their reach and influence in the contemporary digital media ecology have been widely highlighted, yet there has been little scholarship to situate these important new players in the field of political communication. This article argues that, first, these ‘interlopers’ known as the ‘alt-right’ and ‘alt-left’ need to be understood as embedded in the context of populist politics. Second, ‘hyperpartisan’ describes these sites better than the framework of alternative media as it mirrors populism’s ideological pillar of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Finally, a deliberate provocation is argued to name these digital start-ups as news to create a starting point for conceptualising these disruptive new media forces.


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