Will Live Streaming Platforms and Influencers Consolidate or Disrupt Democracy?

2022 ◽  
pp. 209-233
Author(s):  
Yowei Kang ◽  
Kenneth C. C. Yang

New communication technologies have enabled politicians to interact and engage with their constituents constantly and unmitigated by mainstream media. Among them, emerging live streaming platforms rise as an essential political communication tool. However, in consolidating politicians' base, these technologies similarly run the risk of polarizing the society, resulting in disruption and healthy development of democracy. This case study describes and examines the role of live streaming platforms and influencers in generating political participation to account for the success of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2020 re-election campaign in Taiwan. This study focuses on the roles of live streaming platforms and influencers in contributing to the growing and alarming global phenomenon of populism and polarization associated with politicians' campaign strategies. This study also discusses whether the employment of live streaming influencers as a viable political communication tool in this campaign may ultimately contribute to the democratic deepening in Taiwan.

Human Affairs ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matouš Hrdina ◽  
Zuzana Karaščáková

AbstractThe ongoing expansion of new communication technologies is inseparably linked to the transformation of political communication. The new thinking behind communication is embedded directly in the code of popular social networks. Can a formal political party successfully implement a decentralized mode of communication based on personal connections and weak social ties, or is it against the very logic of both the hierarchical organizations and the technology itself? Our case study describes the vast spectrum of various types of behavior of political actors on Twitter through computer-assisted analysis of Twitter communication in Czech Republic before the elections to the European Parliament in May 2014. The research is based on the concept of connective action, as defined by Bennett and Segerberg. Preliminary results show an emerging typology of campaign strategies, from formal and centralized campaigns on one hand to various hybrid overlaps of traditional and new forms of communication on the other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 92-118
Author(s):  
Kenneth C. C. Yang ◽  
Yowei Kang

Abstract Livestreaming platforms have emerged as an important political communication tool for engaging with constituents. Twitch, YouTube Live, Mixer, and Facebook can broadcast real-time video contents via Web-based services and mobile app platforms. Our case study aims to determine whether livestreaming influencers generated political participation during Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election. This case study is based on a framework that integrates the literature on political communication and influencer marketing. In this article, we describe the rise of livestreaming platforms and explain the role of livestreamers in political communication. We also examine whether the characteristics of livestreaming influencers and the type of influence they exert increased political participation by their fans and followers and whether this accounted for the success of Tsai Ing-wen’s victory in her 2020 campaign for re-election as president.


Author(s):  
Vitaliy Peresada

The article studies the role of party press in the electoral process and political communication based on the example of the elections toVerkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2012. The classical party and short-term party periodicals are analyzed according to thematic orientation, content of publications, political and ideological bias. In particular, such official print periodicals of the leading political organizations as Communist, Svoboda/Liberty, Vseukrainski Visti/All-Ukrainian News and the party short-term periodicals distributed during the 2012 parliamentary campaign, were examined. The analysis of the party’s legal press and illegal press during the parliamentary election campaign is caused by a sharp increase of its circulation and titles, as well as by the renewed interest of a wide spectrum of recipients and future voters. Methods. The following general scientific research methods were used in the article: 1. Method of abstraction, which made it possible to determine the main categories of scientific work of mass communication direction: party periodicals, hidden party press, election periodicals, etc. The modeling method by which the role of party press in the election campaign was highlighted, which stipulated the influence on the voter’s final will. The method of analysis that provided a systematic study of the functional purpose of party periodicals in the election campaign. The method of induction and deduction, which contributed to a clearer definition of the party press role in information support of the election campaign. The study also used a comparison method. Results and conclusions. The study ascertained that in the 2012 election campaign, the party periodicals played a prominent role, which, however, was far from clear. Most of participants of the electoral process underestimated or neglected the importance of official party print media, focusing on the publications of alternative, cheap and primitive products (special issues, newsletters, etc.). Due to its bias, the party periodicals could not give the voters an objective idea of of electoral process and intra-party tendencies, all the more to form their conscious choices. The electoral practice of party periodicals showed mass inadequacy in solving typical propaganda tasks (declarativism, populism, meeting rhetoric, emphasis on supplementary aspects, etc.). The wide spread practice of the 2012 election campaign was the use of unethical methods of cross-party competition (“jeans” and “smearpiece”) as well as the use of semi-legal and illegal publications for public opinion’ provocations and manipulations.


2019 ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Francis L. F. Lee

This chapter reviews the relationship between the media and the Umbrella Movement. The mainstream media, aided by digital media outlets and platforms, play the important role of the public monitor in times of major social conflicts, even though the Hong Kong media do so in an environment where partial censorship exists. The impact of digital media in largescale protest movements is similarly multifaceted and contradictory. Digital media empower social protests by promoting oppositional discourses, facilitating mobilization, and contributing to the emergence of connective action. However, they also introduce and exacerbate forces of decentralization that present challenges to movement leaders. Meanwhile, during and after the Umbrella Movement, one can also see how the state has become more proactive in online political communication, thus trying to undermine the oppositional character of the Internet in Hong Kong.


Author(s):  
Kimiz Dalkir

In Knowledge Continuity Management (KCM), knowledge from highly experienced employees leaving the organization is particularly challenging to document, classify and organize so that it can be accessed, understood and used by the successor to that employee. Horizontal knowledge sharing (in the context of peer-to-peer networks) and vertical knowledge transfer (in the context of KCM) are distinguished in order to address some of the conceptual confusion in this field. Both Human Resources (HR) and Knowledge Management (KM) units contribute to KCM but they need to do so in a more integrated fashion. The complementary roles played by the KM and HR teams are analyzed in a case study to show how they can work in tandem to ensure knowledge continuity in an organization. Key recommendations are made on how to implement a comprehensive KCM strategy for tacit knowledge, including the role that can be played by information and communication technologies.


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. C. Yang ◽  
Yowei Kang

On March 18, 2014, a group of student protestors raided and occupied the Legislative Yuan and later the Executive Yuan in Taiwan. The student-led movement lasted for about 3 weeks after Taiwan's President made significant concessions to change his non-transparent practices when signing the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) with People's Republic of China. Mostly labelled as a movement of civil disobedience against government's dealings with China, the 318 Sunflower Student Movement is viewed as an important step toward the deepening of Taiwan's democratization process. Its repercussions were felt in Hong-Kong and Macao where similar civil disobedience movements had emerged. On the basis of the resource mobilization theory (RMT), the authors used a combination of case study and thematic analysis methods to examine the role of social media in political mobilization in Taiwan. This chapter identified two major recurrent themes as follows: challenging mainstream media and mobilizing multi-movement resources.


2015 ◽  
pp. 1488-1507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Takavarasha, Jr. ◽  
Eldred V. Masunungure

This chapter uses Illich's (1973) concept of conviviality for analysing the challenges and opportunities of using email for political communication in authoritarian states. Based on evidence from a case study of Zimbabwe's Media Monitoring Project (MMPZ), it contends that while conviviality allows the use of ICTs for political mobilisation, it also enables a counterproductive “big brother” effect. In addition to constant censorship and overt operations, covert strategies are often used for disrupting communication platforms. This calls for a framework for harnessing ICTs for political mobilisation. This chapter is a case study on how perceived state surveillance disrupted a vibrant communicative space in Zimbabwe. Based on evidence from the volumes of email traffic transacted over two weeks of panic, anger, and heroism, the chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities of using email for political mobilisation and warns against uncritical celebration of the role of ICTs in political mobilisation. It concludes by suggesting how the adaption of e-strategies from email marketing to political communication is among the skills that could break the tie between political opponents armed with the same convivial tools for political communication in the information age.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usha M. Rodrigues ◽  
Michael Niemann

Abstract Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) is one of the world's most followed political leaders on Twitter. During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, he and his party used various social media networking and the Internet services to engage with young, educated, middle-class voters in India. Since his first sweeping win in the 2014 elections, Modi's political communication strategy has been to neglect the mainstream news media, and instead use social media and government websites to keep followers informed of his day-to-day engagements and government policies. This strategy of direct communication was followed even during a critical policy change, when in a politically risky move half-way through his five-year prime ministership, Modi's government scrapped more than 85 per cent of Indian currency notes in November 2016. He continued to largely shun the mainstream media and use his social media accounts and public rallies to communicate with the nation. As a case study of this direct communication strategy, this article presents the results of a study of Modi's Twitter articulations during the three months following the demonetization announcement. We use mediatization of politics discourse to consider the implications of this shift from mass communication via the mainstream news media, to the Indian prime minister's reliance on direct communication on social media platforms.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 166-188
Author(s):  
Aistė Valiauskaitė

The article analyses the information that spreads in the media during the election campaign. It looks at the aspect of promises made by politicians through an academic lens. The definition of a political promise is explained; some insights are devoted to an analysis of the reasons why some promises are more commonly fulfilled. The paper mostly concentrates on the role of the media, combining ideas of media theorists with the investigation of pre-election TV debates “Lyderių forumas”.Keywords: campaign, objectivity, parliamentary elections, political communication, professionalism, promise, tv debates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Agil Nanggala ◽  
Elly Malihah

This study aimed to analyze the role of the irung-irung tradition in strengthening civic engagement of the younger generation of Cihideung Village. This study used a qualitative approach with the case study method. Data collection techniques used interviews, observations, and literature studies. The results showed that the traditional irung-irung procedure: praying together, marching to water resources, custom ceremonial process, sacrificing animals, eating together, and closing prayers, the younger generation’s involvement in the irung-irung tradition was more focused on the aspect of democracy through the positive role it plays, not yet at the traditional level, the strategy for strengthening the engagement of the younger generation was through the empowerment of youth and utilizing information and communication technologies.


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