1st Edition
Citizen Participation and Political Communication in a Digital World
The arrival of the participatory web 2.0 has been hailed by many as a media revolution, bringing with it new tools and possibilities for direct political action. Through specialised online platforms, mainstream social media or blogs, citizens in many countries are increasingly seeking to have their voices heard online, whether it is to lobby, to support or to complain about their elected representatives. Politicians, too, are adopting "new media" in specific ways, though they are often criticised for failing to seize the full potential of online tools to enter into dialogue with their electorates. Bringing together perspectives from around the world, this volume examines emerging forms of citizen participation in the face of the evolving logics of political communication, and provides a unique and original focus on the gap which exists between political uses of digital media by the politicians and by the people they represent.
Foreword Simeon Yates Introduction. Alex Frame and Gilles Brachotte Part 1: Participation and Political Communication: The Perspective of Politicians and Parties 1. Talking to Themselves: A Classification of Facebook's Political Usages and Representatives' Roles among Israeli Members of Knesset. Sharon Haleva-Amir 2. Two Step Flow Twitter Communication in 2013 Italian Political Election. A Missed Opportunity for Citizen Participation. Guido Di Fraia and Maria Carlotta Missaglia 3. Ad Hoc Mini-publics on Twitter: Citizen Participation or Political Communication? Examples from the German National Election 2013 Jessica Einspänner-Pflock, Mario Anastasiadis, and Caja Thimm 4. Is Twitter Invigorating Spanish Democracy? A Study of Political Interaction through the Accounts of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Main Opposition Party. Elena Cebrián Guinovart, Tamara Vázquez Barrio and David Sarias Rodríguez 5. Candidate Orientation to ICTs in Canadian Municipal Elections. Angelia Wagner 6. "I show off, therefore I am": The Politics of the Selfie. Christelle Serée-Chaussinand Part 2: Emerging Forms of Digital Media-based Political Participation by Citizens and Civic Activists 7. Re-imagining the Meaning of Participation for a Digital Age. Darren G. Lilleker 8. Who’s afraid of clicktivism? Exploring Citizens’ Use of Social Media and Political Participation in the Czech Republic. Jaromír Mazák and Václav Štětka 9. Twitter as a Counterpublic Sphere: Polemics in the Twittersphere during French Electoral Campaigns. Arnaud Mercier 10. Cultural Creation and Political Activism in the Digital World. Lluís Anyó and Iasa Monique Ribeiro 11. The Mediatization of Politics and the Digital Public Sphere: The Dynamics of Mini-publics. Caja Thimm 12. Alternative Media Spaces: The case of Russian LGBT News Blogging Community. Evgeniya Boklage 13. Online Lobbying of Political Candidates. Paula Keaveney Concluding Note. Geoff Craig
Biography
Alex Frame is associate professor in Communication Science at the University of Burgundy (Dijon, France) and TIL research group (EA4182). Recent publications include Communication et Interculturalité (2013) and Communication and PR from a Cross-Cultural Standpoint (edited with Valérie Carayol, 2012).
Gilles Brachotte is associate professor in Communication Science at the University of Burgundy, member of the CIMEOS/3S research team (EA 4177), and teaches in the web design department of Dijon-Auxerre Technological Institute (IUT Dijon-Auxerre). His research focuses on social change linked to ICT in society, among young people and in the political sphere.
