Y Moyano The visibility of political discourse on the Internet (original) (raw)
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In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Habermas described the bourgeois public spheres of the 18th and 19th century in England, France, and Germany. These spheres arose as arenas of cultural critique often arising from reading societies that focused on novels and the like. Cultural critique became political critique as these groups turned to issues of public concern fighting policies of censorship and for freedom of opinion. The public sphere is in the work of Jürgen Habermas conceived as a neutral social space for critical debate among private persons who gather to discuss matters of common concern in a free and rational way. This public sphere is open and accessed for public. Habermas pointed out that media has contributed to the decay of the rational-critical discourse and causing the decline of the public sphere.
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Research has shown consistently that news consumption both online and offline is related positively to interpersonal discussion, political involvement and political engagement. However, little consideration has been given to the role that new sources of information may exert on different forms of political engagement. Based on secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this article contrasts the influence of traditional sources of information online with that of emergent sources (blogs) in predicting further political discussion, campaigning and participation in both the online and the offline domains. The results show that the use of traditional sources online is related positively to different types of political engagement, both online and offline. Most interestingly, the article finds that blog use emerges as an equally important predictor of political engagement in the online domain. new media & society Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications Lo...
Spring 2012: The Internet, Politics and Society
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Pre- and post-election 2010 online: What happened to the political conversation?
Following the trend of election campaigns in the US in 2000, 2004, and particularly the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign and the 2010 UK election, Australians went to the polls in August 2010 in a media-hyped flurry of ‘tweeting’, YouTube videos, Facebook befriending and ‘liking’, blogging, and other social media activities. Research found that the volume of political communication through social media increased by more than 100 per cent in the 2010 Australian federal election compared with 2007. However, a question that has not been adequately explored is what happens with online political communication after the cacophony of electioneering fades away? Do the thousands of blogs, social networks, Twitter accounts, and photo and video sharing sites of politicians and political parties continue to seek citizen engagement, or do they fall silent once the prize of election has been won or lost? This article reports quantitative and qualitative content analysis of social media use by politicians during the 2010 federal election and analysis of Twitter use by the 10 most active social media users among Australian federal politicians in the 60 days immediately following the 21 August 2010 election to explore the extent to which social media are a permanent part of the mediated public sphere and, if so, how they are used outside of election periods as well as during electioneering.