Wahlkreisarbeit in der Pandemie: Mehr Adaption als Transformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-775
Author(s):  
Kevin W. Settles ◽  
Sahand Shahgholi ◽  
Sven T. Siefken
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Public Life ◽  
German Bundestag ◽  
District Offices ◽  
District Work

The Covid-19 pandemic is causing massive restrictions on public life worldwide, affecting the work of parliamentarians in their districts as well . Based on interviews with 33 mem­bers of the German Bundestag, activities “back home” during the early phase of the pan­demic are analyzed and compared to information from an earlier study . After a brief phase of adaptation, new digital ways of work were used by MPs and their district offices, some­times leading to closer networking with party and constituency and giving them new spa­tial flexibility . A strong use of new social media also became apparent but that is only partly caused by Covid-19 . The focus of representation has changed towards a clearer regional orientation and more pronunciation of the leadership function . But all in all, district work of MPs in Germany has continued with only minor changes .

Parteikommunikation im Zeitalter von Social Media

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Datts
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Comprehensive Data ◽  
Party Members ◽  
District Offices

How active are the local branches of political parties on social media? Do such parties use social media on the training ground of democracy? This study answers these questions using a comprehensive data set consisting of big data and data from surveys. It identifies political parties’ key reasons for using social media by developing and examining a complex explanatory model, the results of which reveal that the majority of parties’ district offices are active on social media, for example on WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube in addition to Facebook. One key reason for them using social media sites is their desire to meet the expectations of their own party members. Furthermore, they appear to use social media in their election campaigns and because of their general distrust of the conventional media’s reporting. What is noticeable is that the local divisions of the AfD in particular seem to be extremely successful in using social media.

Electoral system influence on social network usage patterns of parliamentary assistants as their legislators’ stand-in: The United States, Germany, and Israel

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482090655
Author(s):  
Chen Sabag Ben-Porat ◽  
Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Communications ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Media Work ◽  
German Bundestag

Social networks are generally regarded as channels through which parliamentarians establish direct contact with the public. However, do they engage in these activities personally or rather delegate them to their parliamentary assistants? This study examines the intermediary relationship between parliamentarians and the public (henceforth PAs)—seeking to understand their role in contemporary, political communications. While numerous studies have looked at types of parliamentarian contact with the public, PAs have received little scholarly attention. Adopting a comparative perspective, this study will suggest a theoretical model of the MP/PA social media work relationship, creating a new questionnaire for PAs in the US House of Representatives, German Bundestag, and Israeli Knesset, exploring whether level of parliamentarians’ involvement in social networking is influenced by working within different electoral systems: representatives elected directly (the United States), mixed (Germany), and indirectly (Israel). The study investigates the level of parliamentarians’ engagement with social media communication according to a four-category model.

Agile, Lean, and Service-Oriented Development, Continuum, or Chasm

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Juha Rikkilä
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Major Shift

A fad, hype, and a paradigm shift are often the words that are used about the agile, lean, and now also about service-oriented development. What starts as a step in evolution, grows into a mass movement in Internet and social media, and results in an avalanche of books, training, and consultancy services. Each proponent tries to differentiate from others with extreme statements of own superiority and blames of others’ shortcomings. Only a next fad, hype, or paradigm shift seems to be able to override the previous. This chapter looks through the fad, hype, or paradigm shift statements and describes the principles of the agile and lean approaches to the software development. Then it introduces the service orientation that is expected to be the next major shift. If it will overshadow the agile and lean excitement in the software industry, is discussed at the end of the chapter. In addition, this chapter looks into the past in order to find a continuum between these topics till today and to the future. Further some chasms in this continuum are identified, where a new idea has made a major shift and consequently has become a major force in the field. The service orientation in the software development is in the early phase of its lifecycle. The question is: will it still go through some chasm until it settles for large use, or is it already through all of adaptations and ready to be the next wave of evolution, or the next fad, hype and paradigm shift in software industry? The last part of this chapter proposes one more adaptation that creates continuum from the agile and lean approaches but brings up also the revitalization of architecting and design methodologies.

Poland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gorwa
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Social Media Marketing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Marketing Firms ◽  
Digital Politics

This chapter provides the first overview of political bots, fake accounts, and other false amplifiers in Poland. Based on extensive interviews with political campaign managers, journalists, activists, employees of social media marketing firms, and civil society groups, the chapter outlines the emergence of Polish digital politics, covering the energetic and hyper-partisan “troll wars,” the interaction of hate speech with modern platform algorithms, and the recent effects of “fake news” and various sources of apparent Russian disinformation. The chapter then explores the production and management of artificial identities on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks—an industry confirmed to be active in Poland—and assesses how they can be deployed for both political and commercial purposes. Overall, the chapter provides evidence for a rich array of digital tools that are increasingly being used by various actors to exert influence over Polish politics and public life.

Social Media and Democracy in Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 212-227
Author(s):  
Bradshaw Samantha ◽  
Howard Philip N.
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
The Uk

The Internet and social media were originally viewed as democratizing technologies that would lead to a more vibrant digital public sphere. Following the outcomes of the 2016 US Presidential Election and the UK Brexit referendum, however, social media platforms have faced increasing criticism for allowing fake news, disinformation campaigns, and hate speech to spread. But how much bad information was spread? What can be done to address the problem? This chapter examines how social media algorithms and computational propaganda are reshaping public life. The authors explore how modern citizens are especially susceptible to computational propaganda, due not only to the prevalence of disinformation, but also to a political psychology that is often called “elective affinity” or “selective exposure.” The authors use their findings to discuss the responsibilities of both users and platforms for protecting the digital public sphere.

scholarly journals Shedding light on the dark social: The connective role of news and journalism in social media communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 4329-4345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joëlle Swart ◽  
Chris Peters ◽  
Marcel Broersma
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Community Type ◽  
Local Work

Messaging apps and Facebook groups are increasingly significant in everyday life, shaping not only interpersonal communication but also how people orient themselves to public life. These “dark social media” are important spaces for “public connection,” a means for bridging people’s private worlds and everything beyond. This article analyzes how people perceive news on such platforms, focusing on the different roles it plays in key social networks that rely on dark social media for communication. Arguing that the use of these platforms is foremost a social practice, the study employs focus groups with local, work, and leisure-related communities to investigate questions of inclusiveness, engagement, relevance, and constructiveness associated with sharing and discussing news. We find the perceived value of news on dark social media hinges on the control and privacy it provides. Community type was less significant than communicative aims of the group for shaping the uptake of news and journalism.

An internet utopia? Government use of web technologies to engage citizens in the US

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori A. Brainard
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Bright Spots ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Government

AbstractIn recent decades, scholars and politicians have concerned themselves with how to more robustly engage people in public life. “Internet Utopians” have looked to various web technologies, including social media, to be helpful; even transformative. This article looks at extant research on which technologies governments in the US use, whether their use of technologies facilitates offline and online civic engagement, and the extent to which the government-citizen relationship has changed or may be changing. For Internet Utopians the picture is dismal, though not without some bright spots. This article ends with areas for future research.

scholarly journals Exit/Entry, Voice/Noise, and Loyalty/Apathy in the era of social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 338 ◽  
pp. 417-429
Author(s):  
Hiroko Kudo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Virtual Network ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
Entry Cost ◽  
The Social ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Cost

Use of Social Media in public life has changed the way how citizens relate to public sector. Modern communication tools, in particular Social Media, have made citizens easier to use their “voice” to mobilize. When citizens can easily mobilize, the cost of mobilization is low for them, while its impact can lead to a larger cost for the State. As the exit/entry cost of Social Media is very low or almost nothing, a virtual network has been substituting institutions, causing new issues to the State. This leads to the issue of loyalty: citizens now feel that they do not need institution like the State to belong to, as many networks substitute its function. This paper analyses the Social Media use by citizens and its impact on public sector through Albert Hirschman’s classis “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” and tries to address new aspects.

scholarly journals A Decade of Research on Social Media and Journalism: Assumptions, Blind Spots, and a Way Forward

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth C. Lewis ◽  
Logan Molyneux
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Blind Spots

Amid a broader reckoning about the role of social media in public life, this article argues that the same scrutiny can be applied to the journalism studies field and its approaches to examining social media. A decade later, what hath such research wrought? In the broad study of news and its digital transformation, few topics have captivated researchers quite like social media, with hundreds of studies on everything from how journalists use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat to how such platforms facilitate various forms of engagement between journalists and audiences. Now, some 10 years into journalism studies on social media, we need a more particular accounting of the assumptions, biases, and blind spots that have crept into this line of research. Our purpose is to provoke reflection and chart a path for future research by critiquing themes of what has come before. In particular, our goal is to untangle three faulty assumptions—often implicit but no less influential—that have been overlooked in the rapid take-up of social media as a key phenomenon for journalism studies: (1) that social media would be a net positive; (2) that social media reflects reality; and (3) that social media matters over and above other factors.

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