1st Edition

The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Democracy

Edited By Zizi Papacharissi Copyright 2026
500 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

500 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

A comprehensive collection that offers an overview of digital technologies and democratic practice, this Companion explores the topic of digital media and democracy from a historically rich and socio‑culturally broad perspective. Edited by one of the foremost leaders in the field, Zizi Papacharissi, this cutting‑edge collection outlines the current state of theory and research in the field and... Read more

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

Zizi Papacharissi

FOUNDATIONS & THEORY

2. TOGETHER WE CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS: UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS TO SHAPE DEMOCRATIC DELIBERATIONS

Brooke Foucault Welles, Sagar Kumar and Sharaj Kunjar

3. EMOTION, DIGITAL MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

Johana Kotisova  and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

4. THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS' CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY

Raquel Recuero and Camilla Quesada Tavares

5. THE TRANSNATIONAL PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES – PROMISES AND THREATS OF DIGITAL MEDIA TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

Barbara Pfetsch, Curd Knüpfer and Annett Heft

6. DIGITALIZING DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA: INTERROGATING SHORTCOMINGS AND EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENHANCED PARTICIPATION

Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey and Michael Etrue

7. TECHNOSOCIAL IMAGINARIES AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Adrienne Russell         

8. DIGITAL RESSENTIMENT, POLARIZATION, AND THE NEOLIBERAL LOGICS OF PAIN

Megan Boler

9. POLARIZATION AND CONNECTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Talia Stroud

10. FROM CYBERDEMOCRACY TO CYBERAUTOCRACY: THE SHIFTING POLITICAL AND MEDIATED LANDSCAPES IN THE ARAB WORLD

Sahar Khamis

11. THE IMPACT OF AI ON DEMOCRACY

Yin Yang, Timilehin Durotoye, and Homero Gil de Zúñiga

PRACTICES: ENGAGEMENT, PARTICIPATION, AND VOICE

12. WHAT IS GONE AND WHAT REMAINS IN THE RESEARCH ON DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT?

Andrew Chadwick

13. FEATURE, NOT BUG: TOWARDS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ONLINE INCIVILITY

Patrícia Rossini

14. WHEN PARTICIPATION THREATENS DEMOCRACY: THE CASE OF ANTI-ABORTION INFLUENCERS

Zelly C. Martin and Samuel C. Woolley

15. DEMOCRACY “INSIDE OUT”: ON FAR-RIGHT REFRACTED PUBLICS IN BRAZIL

Letícia Maria Costa da Nóbrega Cesarino, Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento, and Paulo Fonseca

16. MISINFORMED OR UNINFORMED: SCALABLE INTERVENTIONS FOR A LOW-KNOWLEDGE CITIZENRY

Dhavan V. Shah, Sijia Yang and Michael Wagner

17. NEWS AVOIDANCE AND DIGITAL INEQUALITIES IN NEWS USE     

Antonis Kalogeropoulos

PRACTICES: TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

18. RE-STACK-TIONARY: THE INFRASTRUCTURAL TURN IN FAR-RIGHT DIGITAL MEDIA

Reed Van Schenck

19. VIRALITY AND REVERSAL: HOW RIGHT-WING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CO-OPT AND MANIPULATE DIGITAL NETWORKS

Meredith L. Pruden  and Caitlin Apone

20. USING TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE SOCIAL CHANGE: DARK PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL

Josephine Lukito and Joao V. S. Ozawa

21. REVISITING RECREANCY

Christy Khoury and Calvin Cousin

22. LEGITIMATING RESISTANCE: EMPOWERING PRO-DEMOCRATIC JOURNALISM THROUGH ALTERNATIVE NEWS          

Elliott Edsall and Matt Carlson

23. SHIFTING THE NARRATIVE: DIGITAL JOURNALISM STARTUPS AS CATALYSTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Alfred Hermida & Mary Lynn Young

24. ONLINE HATE SPEECH: CATALYSTS, CHALLENGES, AND PATHS TO SOCIAL CHANGE IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES

Raluca Buturoiu and Nicoleta Corbu

25. TECHNOLOGY AFFORDANCES AND COLLECTIVE ACTIONS: NOTES ON THE PARADOXICAL INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON PROTEST MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Karen Gheza, Marcelo Santos, and Sebastián Valenzuela

PRACTICES: DIGITAL POLITICS, POLICY & DEVELOPMENT

26. THE BANNON DOCTRINE: NETWORK INSURRECTIONISM AND DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING

Marco Bastos and Olívia Freitas

27. THE MAKING OF MISINFORMED CHOICE: DIGITAL MEDIA, DEMOCRACY, AND   NEW CHALLENGES TO ELECTORAL PRACTICES IN ASIA

Nishant Shah and Anushree Majumdar

28. DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND PRACTICES IN THE AGE OF DISINFORMATION, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND AI

José Emilio García, Norma Elva Chávez, and Saiph Savage

29. REIMAGINING LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS FOR TODAY’S DEMOCRACY

Andrea Lorenz

30. EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ALTERNATIVE PLATFORM GOVERNANCE 

Philipp Lorenz-Spreen

31. ETHIOPIA’S CIVIL WAR AND PATTERNS OF EXCLUSION IN GLOBAL CONTENT MODERATION REGIMES

Kirubel Tadesse and Samantha Bradshaw

32. BEYOND TOKEN DEMOCRACY: AI, SELF DETERMINATION, AND THE QUESTION OF INCLUSIVE GLOBAL REGULATION

Scott Timcke and Herman Wasserman

33. #REJECTFINANCEBILL2024: GEN Z’S SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM, DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE IN KENYA

Fredrick Ogenga

FUTURES

34. DIGITAL MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY: COPING WITH AMBIVALENCE

Cristian Vaccari

35. HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CONTRIBUTES TO DEMOCRATIC EROSION

Jesper Strömbäck and Mathilda Åkerlund

36. NETWORKED REPETITION AND GRASSROOTS STRUGGLES FOR ALTERNATIVE DIGITAL FUTURES

Guobin Yang

37. FUTURE-PROOFING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN DEMOCRACY

Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam

38. FEELING FEMINIST FUTURES IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS

Margreth Lünenborg  and Ana Makhashvili

INDEX

Biography

Zizi Papacharissi is a UIC Distinguished Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Illinois‑Chicago and Department Head of Communication. She is also a university scholar and affiliate faculty with the Discovery Partners Institute at the University of Illinois System. Her work focuses on the social and political consequences of online media. She has published ten books and over 80 journal articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial board of 15 journals. Zizi is the founding and current editor of the open access journal Social Media & Society. Her work has been translated in Greek, German, Korean, Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Turkish, and Persian.