Chen Sabag-Ben Porat | Bar-Ilan University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Chen Sabag-Ben Porat

International Journal of Communication, 2023

Research on social media political communication with the public has neglected the important role... more Research on social media political communication with the public has neglected the important role of the intermediate layer. This article bridges the gap to enable an insider reflection on online political discussions between members of parliament (MPs) and the public. Using quantitative questionnaires, this study surveys intermediaries in Israel, Germany, and the United States to examine their political discussion management practices on social media, which indirectly reflect their MPs' attitudes. Reading and responding to users' comments, reflect a more tolerant and pro-discussion attitude, while the blocking of users and the deletion of comments reflect censorship and anti-discussion attitudes. Findings expose the political aides' "deletion paradox," which differentiates oppositional comments' deletions, which they disapprove of, from plain comments' deletion, which is an unavoidable necessity. The two-sided scale, developed for this study, on which each country is situated twice, according to its positive and negative political discussion management practices, reveals that the countries' positions, on both sides of the scale, are an exact mirror image, the greater the pro-political discussion, the less the anti-political discussion, and vice versa.

Politics & Policy, 2020

Theoretical research on political communication between Members of Parliament (MPs) and the publi... more Theoretical research on political communication between Members of Parliament (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 examines the presence of PAs in the process of MPs' interactions with the public, and their PA's role in this process. The study investigates the perception that social media involves direct contact between the public and parliamentarians, raising questions regarding how communication is conducted between these two actors in political representation. The study found that PAs' social media skills and knowledge are hardly considered in the hiring process, although they play a central role in the MPs' social media connection with the public. Subjective variables generate differences in PA level of involvement operating MP social media channels. Based on these findings, a typology of PA involvement in MP social media operation is offered.

Time & Society

A number of studies have sought to understand how mobile phones affect time practices, and beyond... more A number of studies have sought to understand how mobile phones affect time practices, and beyond them, the experience of time in users’ daily lives. This article is a further effort in that direction, employing the deprivation study method. We conducted a field study of 80 adolescents, or “cellular natives,” separating them from their cellphones for 1 week. The findings indicate that the cellphone’s absence indeed had a dominant impact on a variety of adolescents’ time-related practices and experience, that yielded in turn both negative and positive feelings. We propose three main axes for understanding the cellphone’s implications for the time experience: The mobile’s flexible time v. Rigid time, its ritual time v. Linear time, and its fragmented time v. Continuous time. In all these dimensions, we point to distinct features of the time experience associated with the mobile phone, and also try to relate it to the emotional state and state of mind of today’s teens. In conclusion, w...

Social networks are generally regarded as channels through which parliamentarians establish direc... more 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 (Germa...

Social Media + Society

Theoretical research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the rol... more 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...

Social Media + Society, 2019

New Media & Society, 2020

Politics and Policy, 2020

Journal of Legislative Studies,, 2017

Research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activitie... more Research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities and perceptions of the members of parliament (MPs) themselves. However, the authors’ prior research demonstrated that in fact social media necessitate a new prism through which to study such communication. The contribution of the present study is to look at this relationship through the heretofore under-researched prism of those who in fact are doing much of the actual communication (at least in Israel): the parliamentary assistants (PAs). Whereas other studies tend to focus on the communicative contents, the present research deals mainly with the behind-the-scenes processes that produce such content. In this study 26 PAs were interviewed in Israel’s Knesset regarding three central questions: What are the goals of the MPs’ activities on Facebook? What are the key obstacles perceived by the assistants while maintaining MPs’ Facebook presence? What are the main professional dilemmas that PAs run into during their Facebook activity on behalf of MPs? By addressing these questions, the paper contributes to generating a more comprehensive picture of the ways political Facebook posts are born, and of the processes through which MPs’ social media presence is generated.