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Technological change and the shifting nature of political organization
... We first revisit the theoretical connection between communication technologies and collective action, focusing on the communicative and organizing functions of online media in collective action. Based on the framework of collective action space (Bimber et al., 2009;Flanagin et al., 2006), we then examine the organizing process in two dimensions and their influences on online mobilization from a network perspective. We detail the procedure of data collection and analysis and report the results in the following sections. ...
... From the communicative perspective, the major obstacles to collective action can be interpreted as a set of organizing challenges; that is, how to contact, motivate, persuade, and coordinate the self-interested participants to contribute (Bimber et al., 2005). As discussed earlier, formal organizations used to undertake these tasks (Flanagin et al., 2006), resulting in hierarchical organizational structures with the interactions among participants being limited within clear organizational boundaries (Bimber et al., 2009). ...
... To delineate how collective action is organized and communicated, it is necessary to investigate the organizing processes of collective action. As Bimber et al. (2012) pointed out, the fundamental issue of collective action is pertaining to the process of organizing, which consists of a set of communicative tasks (Bimber et al., 2009). In this sense, collective action can be analyzed by looking at how people interact with each other, how agendas are established, and how actions or engagements are coordinated. ...
This study investigates the role of online media in mobilizing large-scale collective action. Adopting the theoretical framework of collective action space, we formulated the organizing process of collective action into a model with two dimensions—hierarchy and closure—and analyzed how they influence mobilization. The model was tested against Twitter data collected during the 2020 Hong Kong protest, including a total of 54,365 tweets posted by 14,706 distinct users between 1 May and 31 May 2020. Social networks analysis metrics—k-coreness and brokerage of individual users in their following networks—were employed to quantify the organizing process of the protest and estimate their effects on message virality. The results showed that messages generated by users who occupied peripheral positions (i.e., lower k-coreness) and by those connecting others within closed communities (i.e., lower brokerage) were more likely to diffuse than those generated by central users or those who bridged different communities. That is, online media facilitate mobilization in a decentralized yet fragmented fashion. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the current findings and suggests the directions for future research on collective action on online media.
... Este estudo se alinha à corrente de pesquisadores que consideram a participação online um fenômeno que abre novas dimensões de participação, requerendo, portanto, uma abordagem conceitual e um enquadramento diferente da participação convencional (MICHELLETI; STOLLE, 2008;VISSERS;STOLLE, 2013;HOOGHE, 2004). Nesse sentido, já não é mais possível ignorar que as tecnologias digitais potencializam novas formas de engajamento e mobilização e que curtir, comentar e compartilhar conteúdo político é uma delas (BIMBER, 2003;STOHL;FLANAGIN, 2009;PAPACHARISSI, 2015;VISSERS;STOLLE 2013). ...
... Este estudo se alinha à corrente de pesquisadores que consideram a participação online um fenômeno que abre novas dimensões de participação, requerendo, portanto, uma abordagem conceitual e um enquadramento diferente da participação convencional (MICHELLETI; STOLLE, 2008;VISSERS;STOLLE, 2013;HOOGHE, 2004). Nesse sentido, já não é mais possível ignorar que as tecnologias digitais potencializam novas formas de engajamento e mobilização e que curtir, comentar e compartilhar conteúdo político é uma delas (BIMBER, 2003;STOHL;FLANAGIN, 2009;PAPACHARISSI, 2015;VISSERS;STOLLE 2013). ...
Este artigo investiga o uso de plataformas digitais de mídias sociais pelos eleitores de Salvador, nas dez regiões administrativas da capital baiana, durante as eleições presidenciais brasileiras de 2018. Os dados foram levantados por meio de pesquisa domiciliar[1], com amostragem estratificada por sexo, idade e escolaridade e sorteio aleatório dos bairros, ruas e entrevistados. As cotas foram definidas e aplicadas com base nas estatísticas do eleitorado brasileiro, do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), e na distribuição da população de Salvador prevista no último Plano Diretor de Desenvolvimento Urbano (PDDU). Os resultados da investigação comprovaram uma associação/correlação entre renda e escolaridade e participação política. As áreas que concentram populações com nível de vida mais alto registraram maior número de votantes usuários de mídias sociais que curtiram, comentaram e compartilharam conteúdos sobre política. Assim, o uso dessas ferramentas reproduziu as redes dominantes de poder da capital soteropolitana, com os mais abastados e mais escolarizados participando mais.[1] A pesquisa foi aplicada pelo Instituto PA - Pesquisa e Análise, um dos mais antigos de Salvador, a partir de questionário elaborado pela autora.
... I also think that an over-abundance of single-case analyses limits our ability to develop a coherent knowledge base. 4 See, for example, Bilton, 2010;Bimber et al., 2005Bimber et al., , 2009Carr, 2008;Carlson, 2010;Clifford, 2010;Connolly, 2010;The Editors, 2010;Giridharadas, 2010;Holland, 2010;Johnson, 2010;Madden & Rainie, 2010;Miller, 2010;Parker-Pope, 2010;Pinker, 2010;Richtel, 2010;Robbin, 2010;Scelfo, 2010;Singer, 2010;Smith, 2010;Vandam, 2010;Wang & Wellman, 2010;Winerip, 2010; Is technology unhinging our brains?, 2010. ...
... Two articles and a book chapter by Bruce Bimber and his colleagues Andrew Flanagin and Cynthia Stohl assess Mancur Olsen's (1965) theory of collective action for its relevance to conditions in the contemporary new media environment of advanced information and communication technologies (Bimber et al., 2005;Flanagin et al., 2006;Bimber et al., 2009). They argue that "many new kinds of collective actions are not well explained by existing collective action theory" (Flanagin et al., 2006, p. 30). ...
Advances in new digital platforms, innovative applications, and the convergence of computer, information, and communication technologies are transforming our everyday lives. ICTs have consequences for governance, community, work, information, knowledge, human communication, and well being, to name only a few. We live in a world where change is a constant, where interdependencies are multiple, heterogeneous, and increasingly fragile, and where uncertainty, ambiguity, incomplete information, and unanticipated consequences are the norm. The outcomes of our engagement with technology are complex and unpredictable. They defy simple conclusions because they are historical, temporal, situational, and embedded. Moreover, they are problematic and surprising: inconsistent, paradoxical, disorderly, contradictory, and contingent. In this talk I want to examine some of the empirical evidence about the complexity of our technological landscape and suggest ways to make sense of what is happening through theoretical frameworks drawn from different disciplinary traditions. Following Nobel Laureate in Economics Elinor Ostrom, our aim should be to “dissect and harness complexity rather than eliminate it” so that we can create responsive and resilient systems.
... Flynn's post-hoc reinterpretation of his original response, which we call "retroactive doublespeak," illustrates an important dilemma extremist groups face when seeking to influence mainstream political culture: how does a group energize their base internally via exclusionary, anti-democratic rhetoric, yet legitimate themselves in the public arena? The dilemma is heightened by a hybrid media environment that blurs the line between public and private communication (Bimber et al., 2008;Chadwick, 2017). As our analyses will show, an unintended audience member watching the live-stream of the perceived internal, offline event triggered a flurry of news and social media criticism of Flynn's answer. ...
... Before building on Earl and Kimport's (2011) analysis of how affordances are deployed, we want to challenge the idea that digital affordances necessarily have made organizing and social action more participatory and enabled flatter decision-making structures. Bimber et al. (2008) suggest that Web 2.0 platforms make it possible for activists to enable many-to-many communication at higher scale and lower cost. Lower costs, in turn, expand the potential for less reliance on paid staff. ...
... Actors in such networks may not know each other in person, yet they may share ideas and interests (Dang et al., 2019). Because of the adaptability of social media, diverse players may generate chances for action rather than simply reacting to centrally planned objectives (Bimber et al., 2008). This peculiarity enables a large number of like-minded individuals to share ideas and debate important issues in horizontal networks that cut beyond geographical borders (Park et al., 2015). ...
Purpose
There is a strong prerequisite for organizations to analyze customer review behavior to evaluate the competitive business environment. The purpose of this study is to analyze and predict customer reviews of halal restaurants using machine learning (ML) approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected customer review data from the Yelp website. The authors filtered the reviews of only halal restaurants from the original data set. Following cleaning, the filtered review texts were classified as positive, neutral or negative sentiments, and those sentiments were scored using the AFINN and VADER sentiment algorithms. Also, the current study applies four machine learning methods to classify each review toward halal restaurants into its sentiment class.
Findings
The experiment showed that most of the customer reviews toward halal restaurants were positive. The authors also discovered that all of the methods (decision tree, linear support vector machine, logistic regression and random forest classifier) can correctly classify the review text into sentiment class, but logistic regression outperforms the others in terms of accuracy.
Practical implications
The results facilitate halal restaurateurs in identifying customer review behavior.
Social implications
Sentiment and emotions, according to appraisal theory, form the basis for all interactions, facilitating cognitive functions and supporting prospective customers in making sense of experiences. Emotion theory also describes human affective states that determine motives and actions. The study looks at how potential customers might react to a halal restaurant’s consensus on social media based on reviewers’ opinions of halal restaurants because emotions can be conveyed through reviews.
Originality/value
This study applies machine learning approaches to analyze and predict customer sentiment based on the review texts toward halal restaurants.
... The second benefit allows traditional and nontraditional Social Organizations to form and incorporate new members more easily, because they can reach a bigger number of citizens and reduce the price of communication and planning activities (Bimber et al., 2009). These organizations can be trusted by citizens, because without the need to spend large amounts of money, they can keep their followers informed of their progress. ...
To identify the progress made for the Colombian government in the regulation of electronic democracy and the effectiveness in its implementation it is necessary to clarify the concept of electronic government and distinguish it from electronic democracy. This is because the current use of electronic government exceeds its theoretical and dogmatic limits and falls into the meaning of electronic democracy. This confusion has occurred in Colombia since the design of the first “Government Online” policy, that pursued the construction of a more efficient, transparent and participative government to citizens and companies, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. Therefore, this confusion must be clarified, because otherwise there is a risk of mistakenly believing that all advances made in the area of electronic government are necessarily aimed at generating advances towards electronic democracy. This research article, following an analytical-descriptive method, seeks to identify if the use of ICT for the Colombian government has really improved the quality of its democracy and recognize the actions it must take to efficiently implement the regulation of electronic democracy.
... However, findings reveal that there are well established elements, which are like standards that moderate political participation within a public space for instance political interest and social capital. (Bimber, Stohl & Flanagin, 2008) expounded further that digital transformation will be a cause towards deepening democratic division particularly between those who do have skills and resources to enable their engagement on political process and those without them. ...
Democracy is something that is discussed differently from various public discourses. It should definitely be known that there is a reason for these different school of thoughts whether one looks from the left, centre or right of the political continuum. Additionally, through participatory democracy, ordinary citizens are engaged and empowered to have a voice on policy and/or decision-making process, which in turn nurtures democracy both at national and local levels. However, studies carried out in Tanzania on democratic process have not paid attention on the relationship between participatory democracy and digital transformation. Therefore, this paper focuses on addressing this relationship by looking first at how public/citizen participation and civic engagement has been increased through participatory democracy and secondly, how digital transformation succeeded in initiating public opinion on pertinent issues including politics and policies? The focal point of this paper is on the potentialities of the digital transformation in creating space for the very disadvantaged population to participate significantly in the political and public sphere.
... Durante las dos últimas décadas, diversos estudios han mostrado que las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC) no solo han cambiado la forma en que los activistas se comunican, colaboran y se manifiestan, sino que, también han tenido un impacto en los procesos políticos y en la participación ciudadana (Castells, M, 2007;Juris, 2008a;Bimber, Stohl y Flanagin, 2009;Chadwick y Howard, 2009;Earl y Kimport, 2011). Castells (2007), por ejemplo, señala que la difusión de la internet, la comunicación móvil, los medios digitales y diferentes herramientas de software para uso social, han propiciado el desarrollo de redes horizontales de comunicación interactivas. ...
La identidad afrocolombiana, se ha visto envuelta en hibridaciones cul- turales que conllevan la pérdida de su tradición e historia esto da lugar a la discriminación racial y al surgimiento de generaciones carentes de autorreconocimiento. La población afrocolombiana del país en el 2015 era de 311.757, representada en 10,62%. En el último censo (2005) desarrollado por el dAnE, se registró que en el departamento de Norte de Santander, Colombia, habitan 22.123 afrocolombianos, por lo tanto este trabajo permitió identificar las habilidades comunicativas acompañadas por el autorreconocimiento y autoestima de los jóvenes entre 12 y 18 años de edad de la población afro de la organización CEnAfro, Cúcuta. Para lograr el objetivo se aplicaron encuestas semiestructuradas, grupos focales, actividades educomunicativas realizadas en 120 horas en el ba- rrio Buenos Aires, donde se usó la comunicación instrumental, a través de la radio comunitaria; herramienta que aporta a la construcción de historias de vida narradas por ellos, cápsulas radiales, boletines infor- mativos con temática propia de sus raíces y sondeos de opinión. Como resultado, se registró que un 80 % de los jóvenes padecen de baja auto- estima y el 20% desconoce su idiosincrasia. La comunidad en general se ve afectada por la falta de educación en el ámbito cultural, desde la comunicación para el desarrollo enfocado a lo social y humano se apli- can estrategias de sensibilización, integración, disciplina y valores, con pautas que aporten a construir acciones de comunicación necesarias para sensibilizar e involucrar a los actores sociales en el desarrollo incluyente de las comunidades afro.
Dentro del contexto social que rodea a la comunidad afrocolombiana es fundamental trabajar por la apropiación histórica de aquellas raíces ancestrales que han caracterizado a generaciones llenas de presaberes, autonomía y libertad para expresar sus tradiciones; aquellas que han marcado y defendido su identidad y cultura, pilares para lograr el auto- rreconocimiento y autoestima de la juventud de la organización CEnA- fro, como escenario de expresión comunicativa para el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida y educación para la inclusión social.
... Online participation, as it is often called, includes a wide variety of activities that range from the rather static posting of political content in government forums or signing a petition on a "petition warehouse website" (Earl & Kimport, 2011) like Change.org, to interactive activities such as responding to a local representative on Twitter, or posting a call for support about an issue of interest on Facebook (Dennis, 2019;Mercea, 2016). The hybridization of some online and offline forms of participation (Gibson & Cantijoch, 2013) and the increasing blurring of boundaries between these realms when it comes to political organization (Bennett & Segerberg, 2013;Bimber, Stohl, & Flanagin, 2009) have ensured that online and offline activism are nowadays strongly intermingled. Concurrently, several approaches to online participation find it to be a continuation of some offline acts into the online realm (Hirzalla & van Zoonen, 2011;Oser, Hooghe, & Marien, 2013). ...
Political participation has seen substantial changes in terms of both its structure and its scope. One of the most prominent venues of citizen engagement today is participation that relies on online means. Several approaches to online participation have attempted to understand its nature as a continuation of offline acts into the online realm, or as an independent form. In this article, we determine the place of online participation in the repertoire of political participation with greater precision. We ask whether, in particular, digitally networked participation (DNP) is an expansion of lifestyle politics, or whether there are empirical grounds to classify it as a new, independent mode of participation. We study a large variety of participatory activities using data from an online survey conducted among 2,114 politically active individuals in Belgium in 2017. We use an innovative measurement approach that combines closed-with open-ended questions, which allows us to explore new forms of participation that have previously not been considered or measured. Our results show that DNP is a core part of today's activists' repertoire and a distinct mode of political participation that is clearly attractive to younger, critical citizens.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Die vorliegende Studie hat Digitalisierungsprozesse auf der Mesoebene zum Thema und untersucht diese Prozesse am Beispiel der Onlinekommunikation von Interessenorganisationen. Das Erkenntnisinteresse liegt darin, zu beschreiben, wie Interessenorganisationen langfristig auf die Verbreitung von Onlinekommunikation als Bestandteil der Digitalisierung reagieren.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Ziel der Arbeit ist die Entwicklung einer theoretischen Konzeption, mit der analysiert werden kann, wie sich Digitalisierung auf der Mesoebene vollzieht. Um eine Analyse zu entwickeln, die der Komplexität des Phänomens gerecht wird, muss allerdings über die Mesoebene der Organisationen hinausgegangen werden. Digitalisierung ist ein Megatrend, der tiefgreifende Veränderungen für alle gesellschaftlichen Teilbereiche bedeutet – und sich auf globaler Ebene vollzieht.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Digitalisierungsprozesse führen zu Veränderungen in allen gesellschaftlichen Teilbereichen. Dies gilt auch für Interessenorganisationen als zentralen Akteuren der politischen Kommunikation auf der Mesoebene. Paula Nitschke untersucht deshalb, wie sich Onlinekommunikation im Binnengefüge von Interessenorganisationen institutionalisiert. Dieser Zugriff hat den Vorteil, dass Onlinekommunikation nicht bloß als Werkzeug in der Toolbox politischer PR erscheint. Es wird stattdessen gezeigt, wie Onlinekommunikation zum dauerhaften Bestandteil der Strukturen von Interessenorganisationen wird. Die Autorin verbindet Forschung unterschiedlicher Wissenschaftsdisziplinen zu einer theoretischen Konzeption, die in zwei Fallstudien mit teilnehmender Beobachtung empirisch erprobt wird.
Der Inhalt
• Forschungsstand zur Onlinekommunikation von Interessenorganisationen
• Überblick über den Neoinstitutionalismus in der Kommunikationswissenschaft
• Forschungsprogramm zur Institutionalisierung von Onlinekommunikation in Organisationen
• Methodenteil zur teilnehmenden Beobachtung mit Beobachtungsinstrument
Die Zielgruppen
• Dozierende und Studierende der Kommunikationswissenschaft, Organisationssoziologie und Politikwissenschaft
• Fachkräfte der Bereiche Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und NGO-Kommunikation
Die Autorin
Dr. Paula Nitschke ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Medien, Wissen und Kommunikation der Universität Augsburg.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Um zu analysieren, wie sich Onlinekommunikation als soziale Praktik institutionalisiert, braucht es eine Operationalisierung des Institutionalisierungsprozesses. In diesem Kapitel wird deshalb eine vierdimensionale Forschungsheuristik entwickelt, anhand derer der Weg nachgezeichnet werden kann, entlang dessen institutionelle Ordnungen aus der Organisationsumwelt Eingang in organisationale Strukturen und organisationales Handeln finden. Dieses Vorgehen unterscheidet sich in entscheidenden Punkten von Herangehensweisen, in denen nach dem Vorkommen einer (Online-) Medienlogik oder anderen, gut abgrenzbaren Elementen, zum Beispiel Organisationsmodellen, gefragt wird.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Die vorliegende Studie hat die Onlinekommunikation von Interessenorganisationen zum Thema. Das Erkenntnisinteresse der Arbeit lag darin, zu beschreiben, wie Interessenorganisationen langfristig auf die Verbreitung von Onlinekommunikation als Bestandteil der Digitalisierung reagieren. Die langfristige Reaktion wurde auf Basis neoinstitutionalistischer Theorie als Institutionalisierung von Onlinekommunikation verstanden.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Im Folgenden werden die Befunde der empirischen Untersuchung anhand der Forschungsheuristik dargestellt, die den komplexen Institutionalisierungsprozess der Untersuchung zugänglich macht und dafür die Dimensionen Artefakte, Arbeitsroutinen und Arbeitsregeln, Beziehungsnetzwerke und Koordination sowie sprachbasierte Sinnwelten unterscheidet. Um die Befunde zu den beiden untersuchten Organisationen sinnvoll aufeinander zu beziehen, werden die Organisationen nicht einzeln besprochen und anhand der vier Dimensionen durchdekliniert. Es wird stattdessen andersherum vorgegangen und innerhalb der Analysedimensionen die Befunde beider Organisationen dargestellt.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
In diesem Kapitel werden die bislang vornehmlich getrennt voneinander behandelten theoretischen Ausführungen kurz zusammengefasst und aufeinander bezogen, bevor auf dieser Basis einzelne Forschungsfragen als Konkretisierung der leitenden Fragestellung abgeleitet werden. Die leitende Fragestellung der Arbeit wurde bereits formuliert und lautet.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Um die entwickelte theoretische Konzeption explorativ zu erproben, wurden zwei vertiefende Organisationsfallstudien durchgeführt. Das Herzstück dieser Fallstudien stellt eine teilnehmende Beobachtung dar, die durch weitere Methoden ergänzt wurde. Zur Vorbereitung der Organisationsfallstudien wurden Interviews mit Kommunikationsverantwortlichen von insgesamt 28 Interessenorganisationen geführt.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Zu den zentralen Fragen der politischen Internetforschung gehört, ob das Internet politische Partizipation fördert und zu einer starken Demokratie beiträgt. Von Beginn an lassen sich in der Debatte über die Folgen des Internets auf die Verfasstheit demokratischer Systeme und politische Partizipation die Positionen der Cyberenthusiasten und der Cyberpessimisten unterscheiden (vgl. Park und Perry 2009; Rowell 2009; Wright 2012). Die Cyberenthusiasten argumentieren, dass die Demokratie-Internet-Beziehung positiv ist.
... Die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation betrifft auch die bereits in Kapitel 2.3 behandelte Frage nach organisationaler Grenzziehung und die Frage, ob Onlinekommunikation die Grenzen von Organisationen weniger klar und durchlässig werden lässt. Die These von Bimber, Flanagin und Stohl (Bimber et al. 2009;Bimber et al. 2012) zur Verwischung von Grenzen sowohl zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre als auch zwischen der privaten und öffentlichen Kommunikation von Personen ist hochrelevant für die Neuorganisation von Beziehungsnetzwerken durch Onlinekommunikation. Konkret zeigt sich die Grenzverwischung an der Veränderung des Verständnisses was es heißt ‚Mitglied' einer Organisation zu sein. Durch Onlinekommunikation können Personen in Kommunikationsbeziehungen eintreten, die früher Mitgliedern vorbehalten waren: Jemand muss kein Mitglied einer Organisation sein, um an einem Webinar teilzunehmen, sich an Diskussionen auf Facebook zu beteiligen, online zu spenden oder Aktionsaufrufe zu retweeten (vgl. ...
Nachdem das vorherige Kapitel eine Operationalisierung des Institutionalisierungsprozesses geliefert hat, nimmt dieses Kapitel eine Präzisierung der Kontextfaktoren vor, die als Moderatoren einen Einfluss auf den Institutionalisierungsprozess haben. Diese Präzisierung ist vor allem notwendig, da die bisherigen Ausführungen von allgemeiner Natur waren, sodass sie im Prinzip auch für andere Formen kollektiven Handelns, andere gesellschaftliche Teilbereiche und andere institutionelle Ordnungen gültig sind. Deshalb dient dieses Kapitel dazu, dem Status von Interessenorganisationen als spezifische Organisationen und den Spezifika von Onlinekommunikation als Teil der Digitalisierung gerecht zu werden.
... I pray to God that will never be the case. (DSNI2-2) The incorporation of new technologies into mission critical activities, such as communicating with constituents, is often met with resistance (Bimber, Stohl, & Flanagin, 2009;Mercea, 2013). DSNI, for instance, understands itself as the facilitator of community relationships and as a vehicle for voice in the community (Medoff, 1999). ...
This article reports on a qualitative study of community based organizations’ (CBOs) adoption of information communication technologies (ICT). As ICTs in the civic sector, otherwise known as civic tech, get adopted with greater regularity in large and small organizations, there is need to understand how these technologies shape and challenge the nature of civic work. Based on a nine-month ethnographic study of one organization in Boston and additional interviews with fourteen other organizations throughout the United States, the study addresses a guiding research question: how do CBOs reconcile the changing (increasingly mediated) nature of civic work as ICTs, and their effective adoption and use for civic purposes, increasingly represent forward-thinking, progress, and innovation in the civic sector?—of civic tech as a measure of “keeping up with the times.” From a sense of top-down pressures to innovate in a fast-moving civic sector, to changing bottom-up media practices among community constituents, our findings identify four tensions in the daily practice of civic tech, including: 1) function vs. representation, 2) amplification vs. transformation, 3) grassroots vs. grasstops, and 4) youth vs. adults. These four tensions, derived from a grounded theory approach, provide a conceptual picture of a civic tech landscape that is much more complicated than a suite of tools to help organizations become more efficient. The article concludes with recommendations for practitioners and researchers.
... The first theoretical field related to social media and political participation started with Bimber's contributions on the Internet impact in communication and interaction of citizens and politics (Bimber & Copeland, 2013;Bimber, Stohl, & Flanagin, 2009;Bimber, 1998Bimber, , 1999. The contribution for this field was the analysis of integrated social media efforts that consider Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as a combined strategy in different political fields like political party communities (Effing, Hillegersberg, & Huibers, 2012) or local politics (Effing, Hillegersberg, & Huibers, 2013). ...
Political messaging is adapting to new digital spaces. However, the power of citizens through the use of this digital spaces is still unknown. Many citizens criticize political candidates using Facebook or Twitter, others build networks in Snapchat and some others try to collaborate with candidates using Periscope or WhatsApp. This research is focused in understanding this adaptation of political message on this platforms, analyzing the case of the presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI) in Mexico who won the presidency with a large participation but without the support of Twitter users. After two online protests against this presidential candidate - #IamnotProletariat and #Iam132 – political image could have been undermined and voters could have thought differently. But this was not the case and despite of this, the candidate won. The challenge to understand this online protest and its link to the political message is addressed in this paper.
... The first theoretical field related to social media and political participation started with Bimber's contributions on the Internet impact in communication and interaction of citizens and politics (Bimber & Copeland, 2013;Bimber, Stohl, & Flanagin, 2009;Bimber, 1998Bimber, , 1999. The contribution for this field was the analysis of integrated social media efforts that consider Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as a combined strategy in different political fields like political party communities (Effing, Hillegersberg, & Huibers, 2012) or local politics (Effing, Hillegersberg, & Huibers, 2013). ...
Social media has invaded elections in Mexico. However, the power of citizens through the use of this platform is still unknown. Many citizens criticize political candidates using Twitter, others build networks and some others try to collaborate with candidates. This research is focused in understanding this kind of behavior, analyzing the case of the presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI) in Mexico who won the presidency with a large participation but without the support of Twitter users. After two online protests against this presidential candidate - #IamnotProletariat and #Iam132 – political image could have been undermined and voters could have thought differently. But this was not the case and despite of this, the candidate won. The challenge to understand this online protest and its link to the political campaign is addressed in this paper.
... Based on these results, we can draw at least three concrete conclusions. First, as previous research has discussed (Bennett, 2008;Bimber et al., 2009;Dahlgren, 2009;Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2009;Shah et al., 2007), patterns in news media consumption seem to drive differences in the way people participate in politics. Second, there are stark differences in patterns of media consumption and political participation between age groups (Patterson, 2007;Zukin et al., 2006). ...
News consumption in today’s media environment is increasingly characterized by reliance on multiple platforms: People now get their news from the web, television, radio, and various social media. Employing a nationally representative survey from the United States, this study develops an index of multi-platform news use. The index is validated by testing age group differences in the way people participate in politics. Results show that Millennials are more likely to rely on multiple platforms for news. Multi-platform news is also positively related to alternative modes of political engagement. Results are discussed in light of generational shifts in political behavior.
... These conclusions imply that social media have a positive influence on democracy. Digital optimists have pointed to three reasons that digital media may strengthen democratic governance: They lower information costs (e.g., Dahlgren 2005), they facilitate social connection in a way that promotes political engagement (e.g., Bennett and Segerberg 2012), and they expand the repertoires for political action (e.g., Bimber et al. 2009). Political expression on social media satisfies all of these criteria. ...
In the context of the United States, research shows a positive relationship between network heterogeneity and political expression on social media at the individual level. This study builds on that research, relying on multilevel analysis that (1) leverages a twenty-country comparative survey and (2) includes country-level data on freedom of expression. Results show a positive relationship between network heterogeneity and political expression on social media across countries, but that relationship is stronger where freedom of expression is more limited. Keywords social media, political expression, network heterogeneity, freedom of expression index, democracy, political communication This paper examines how a country's freedom of expression shapes "risky" political expression on social media. Political expression has flourished on social media (Halpern and Gibbs 2013; Vaccari et al. 2015), and individuals who express their political views in these environments enjoy an increasingly substantial role, alongside political and media elites, in shaping public narratives about political issues in Western societies (Chadwick 2017; K. Thorson and Wells 2015). Recent research in the
... In a stage with these characteristics, represented in figure 8, cultural production is characterized by niche contents directed to an increasing number of audiences dispersed by an ever-increasing variety of platforms (here identified by the letters A, B,C,D,E and F) causing a ideological fragmentation (here identified by letters a, b, c, d, e, f, the largest number of ideas circulating among the three market types analysed) in a increasing free access framework but also of increasing uncertainty and instability, generated by the absence of monopolization. In this sense, the niche-media will tend to generate nicheideologies and niche-parties, the latter already characterized by Bimber as "postbureaucratic structures" (Bimber, 2003(Bimber, , 2009) anchored in their communicative capacity that generates social support. ...
Acknowledging the recognition of the media as international actors, this article discusses their role in the process of ideological production in contemporary democracies. The interconnection between the global media industry and market configuration emerges as the structural link of this process, which determines the conditions of reproduction and dissemination of ideas and the construction of the reference frames that allow defining the positioning of voters-consumers. Following Downs’ theory, this paper examines the conceptual relationship between social positioning and political positioning, proposing the introduction of a third variable in Downs’ analysis, media positioning, in order to define and update its postulates. Finally, the stages, processes and outputs involved in the process of ideological construction in three different market configurations are identified. The conclusion is that there is a qualitative change in the action of global media, which have evolved from being informal actors in the democratic process to formal actors.
... Relationship between social networks and politics was first researched in Bimber's 'contributions on the Internet impact in communication and interaction of citizens and politics' (Sandoval-Almazan (2017) according to Bimber and Copeland, 2013;Bimber, Stohl, and Flanagin, 2009;Bimber, 1998;Bimber, 1999). The importance and the influence of social networks in the context of politics was also proven by Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan (2013). ...
The power and the influence of Internet and the emergence of new media has significantly changed the world together with people’s habits, behavior and communication. Over the years, social media have spread in most aspects of people’s lives, especially among young generations. The role of social media has been investigated in many areas and it has also become very popular in the area of politics. Socially desirable goal is to encourage and increase the level of political participation, especially among young people. Previous research has shown that one of the influential factors for political participation is interest in politics. The purpose of this research was to determine the role of social media in shaping young people’s interest in politics and political issues. The survey was conducted using online questionnaire among young people between the ages of 15 to 29. Results have shown that using Facebook for political discussions has a significant positive influence on young people’s interest in politics. Using Twitter, however, has shown not to have significant influence on political interest of young people.
... For Castells, networks are "open structures", representative of decentralized and flexible society, made of individuals (Gane & Beer, 2008: 20). Facebook offers useful space for supranational political organizations like the European Parliament first because it is flexible, which makes it different from other media (Bimber et al., 2008), because it can reach more audience than classical media (as there is no traditional media published/broadcasted on the EU level). At the same time, social network sites are suitable for communication about political issues because young adults use them often, therefore through entertaining and informing the audience, they can get a feeling of being closer, which could encourage them to engage in politics. ...
Osnovni cilj ovog istraživanja jeste da se dobiju empirijski dokazi o uticaju
globalnih novinskih agencija u spoljnopolitičkim rubrikama makedonskih dnevnih novina,
čime bi se potvrdile ili odbacile teorijske tvrdnje o monopolu globalnih novinskih agencija
na informacije o međunarodnim događajima i o stepenu zavisnosti makedonskih štampanih
medija od njih.
Pomoću metode analize sadržaja u istraživanju su dobijeni podaci o pitanjima vezanim
za izvore objavljenih informacija, o broju izvora informacija, njihovom geografskom
poreklu i žanrovskoj pripadnosti napisa preuzetih od transnacionalnih novinskih agencija
tokom jednog meseca.
U vezi sa izvorima informacija, istraživanje je pokazalo veliki uticaj globalnih agencija
na tekstualni sadržaj u listu Vest i na druge sadržaje objavljene u listu Nova Makedonija.
Rezultati su takođe pokazali manju zastupljenost tekstualnih sadržaja preuzetih od ovih
agencija u listovima Nova Makedonija i Utrinski vesnik. Zabrinjavajući su podaci koji
ukazuju na to da je većina sadržaja u svim dnevnim novinama objavljena bez navođenja
izvora iz kojih su preuzeti, što je posebno izraženo u slučaju fotografskog materijala.
Pojedinačni rezultati pokazuju da je većina sadržaja o međunarodnim novostima u listovima
Večer, Vreme i Dnevnik, objavljena bez navedenih izvora informacija.
Velika zavisnost od globalnih agencija potvrđena je u slučajevima svih makedonskih
novina u odnosu na broj izvora informacija i na geografsko poreklo preuzetih napisa iz
ovih agencija u spoljnopolitičkim rubrikama. Povezanost između žanrovske pripadnosti
preuzetih tekstova i velikog uticaja transnacionalnih novinskih agencija nije potvrđena u
okviru ovog istraživanja.
... Es decir, no sería internet una fuente de mayor participación política sino la inclinación a participar, una causa del uso de internet para hacer política. Algunos autores han señalado que la expansión de internet podría reforzar el poder de los que ya son activos políticamente mientras ampliaría la brecha entre quienes participan y quienes no (Bimber et Al. 2008). Sin embargo, otros señalan que las redes sociales que han multiplicado exponencialmente su difusión en los años más recientes, podrían cambiar radicalmente los resultados observados hasta ahora (Chadwick 2012). al espacio virtual. Anduiza et al. (2010) señalan que hay acciones online que no son nuevas y tienen su equivalente , por ejem ...
... Meanwhile, many of the climate-focused advocacy groups founded during the mid-to late 2000s, such as 350.org, embraced the organizational hybridity made possible by the internet and related technologies (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012;Bimber, Stohl, & Flanagin, 2009;Chadwick, 2013 On a tactical level, it can be expected that climate change advocacy campaigns over the next several years will have to navigate changes in the digital media landscape by following users' enthusiastic adoption of cutting-edge digital media audiovisual features, including live video. To quote but one statistic, "[t]he number of hours people spent watching videos on mobile is up 100% year-over-year" (Waters, 2016). ...
The past two decades have transformed how interest groups, social movement organizations, and individuals engage in collective action. Meanwhile, the climate change advocacy landscape, previously dominated by well-established environmental organizations, now accommodates new ones focused exclusively on this issue. What binds these closely related trends is the rapid diffusion of communication technologies like the internet and portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Before the diffusion of digital and mobile technologies, collective action, whether channeled through interest groups or social movement organizations, consisted of amassing and expending resources-money, staff, time, etc.-on behalf of a cause via top-down organizations. These resource expenditures often took the form of elite persuasion: media outreach, policy and scientific expertise, legal action, and lobbying. But broad diffusion of digital technologies has enabled alternatives to this model to flourish. In some cases, digital communication technologies have simply made the collective action process faster and more cost-effective for organizations; in other cases, these same technologies now allow individuals to eschew traditional advocacy groups and instead rely on digital platforms to self-organize. New political organizations have also emerged whose scope and influence would not be possible without digital technologies. Journalism has also felt the impact of technological diffusion. Within networked environments, digital news platforms are reconfiguring traditional news production, giving rise to new paradigms of journalism. At the same time, climate change and related issues are increasingly becoming the backdrop to news stories on topics as varied as politics and international relations, science and the environment, economics and inequality, and popular culture.
Digital communication technologies have significantly reduced the barriers for collective action—a trend that in many cases has meant a reduced role for traditional brick-and- mortar advocacy organizations and their preferred strategies. This trend is already changing the types of advocacy efforts that reach decision-makers, which may help determine the policies that they are willing to consider and adopt on a range of issues— including climate change. In short, widespread adoption of digital media has fueled broad changes in both collective action and climate change advocacy. Examples of advocacy organizations and campaigns that embody this trend include 350.org, the Climate Reality Project, and the Guardian’s “Keep It in the Ground” campaign. 350.org was co-founded in 2007 by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben and several of his former students from Middlebury College in Vermont. The Climate Reality project was founded under another name by former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The Guardian’s “Keep It in the Ground” fossil fuel divestment campaign, which is a partnership with 350.org and its Go Fossil Free Campaign, was launched in March 2015 at the behest of outgoing editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger.
... Apesar dos problemas, não é possível negar o impacto que as ferramentas digitais têm nas formas de organização dos movimentos tradicionais, ao possibilitarem uma menor dependência de recursos materiais, conhecimento especializado e localização da organização (BIMBER et al, 2009). No caso que nos interessa aqui, da internet como recurso de prestação de contas, vale investigar em que medida as mídias digitais podem facilitar o acesso a informações e a justificação pública, que parece um empreendimento ainda não explorado no campo da representação não eleitoral. ...
Análisis de la presencia de lenguas indígenas en Internet.
As we enter a new decade, the international security landscape never ceases to change and evolve, both
on a macro and micro level. This is compounded by the fact that the remit of the security professional not
only continues to expand to meet new threats but also requires the exploitation of new opportunities and
technologies to ensure the continuing safety of people and other assets. Undoubtedly, there will be many
new challenges to face in the decade ahead. Instability in the Asia-Pacific must be on the agenda, as US�China security competition increases and climate migration from the Pacific Islands becomes a greater
issue. The realities of climate change have a security dimension, as well as their wider impact on the
world population and the environment. Extreme weather conditions such as drought affect agricultural
output and bring into sharp focus the need for potable water, one of the fundamental human rights. In
turn, this leads to food insecurity and increased criminality.
Climate change and potential food insecurity inevitably leads to an increase in migrants seeking to move
to more stable areas. Mass relocation due to geopolitical tensions has already witnessed a rise a migration
crisis which is likely to foreshadow further potential security threats unless this situation is managed
effectively and sympathetically. The last few years have also seen a major rise in populist Governments
gaining power, which often includes a move towards prioritising a country’s interests and culture, with
increased opposition in the form of protest movements against such regimes. This is increasingly common
worldwide and is a trend that’s likely to continue shaping the security sector moving forwards.
The rise of technological capabilities has also led to a sharp increase in human trafficking incidents and
involvement of the non-state actor in matters of international security. Therefore, the international
security framework will experience significant adjustments in its scope, as non-traditional security
becomes more of a prominent threat to society. Security threats will always continue to evolve and
change over time and the nexus between matters of traditional and non-traditional security will also
become further intertwined.
Social media has become the favored digital communication channel and offers many advantages, such as spreading information faster than conventional media. However, social media's disadvantages have been the increase in fake news driven mainly by the growing digitalization of information and the increase of deepfakes. Nowadays, fake news has a new scope beyond traditional, cold war-style disinformation because of its unprecedented capacity to mobilize an assortment of news and media simultaneously. The impact of social media and fake news so dramatically impacted social movements in both Tunisia and Egypt that it is often characterized as the first social media-influenced social movement. These movements became known as the Arab Spring, which was mainly in response to oppressive regimes and low standard of living. This chapter focuses on the lead-up and impact of social media, and online-activists that influenced the Arab Spring. The authors use a narrative and exploratory research approach to conceptually understand digital communication's role and impact throughout the Arab Spring.
This dissertation seeks to explore the impact of new participatory opportunities on intra-party democracy in new party organizations through the detailed study of two crucial cases: the Five Star Movement in Italy and Podemos in Spain. This case selection is justified by the fact that both parties have been forerunners in their national party systems in terms of adopting new decision-making mechanisms that rely on the Internet, however, they have implemented such mechanisms based on different conceptions of intra-party democracy (plebiscitary vs. assembly-based). The thesis relies on party statutes, party documents, party websites, and media reports of party events; semi-structured qualitative interviews with party representatives (n=28); and two online membership surveys conducted by the author (n=187 [M5S] + 176 [Podemos]) to reveal the extent to which new forms of participation within political parties as exemplified in Podemos and the Five Star Movement grant power to ordinary party members and supporters, and the way this affects intra-party democracy (RQ). The thesis also uses data from the Political Party Database Project (PPDB) to compare these cases with other parties within the same party systems. Besides exploring the effect of participatory innovations on intra-party democracy, the thesis also addresses the theoretical debate regarding whether more inclusive structures inevitably lead to the hierarchization of political parties, in line with the predictions of Michel’s “iron law of oligarchy” (Michels 1911) and the cartel party literature.
The thesis has four main findings. The first is that organizational structure is the chief determinant of intra-party democracy, regardless of the participatory tools that are implemented. The lack of intermediary organs makes it much easier for the party administration to control and manipulate membership ballots, as well as to act as an agenda-setter. Second, the role of the party leader has severe implications on the extent to which the tools that are meant to foster intra-party democracy achieve their stated goals. While charismatic leaders can dominate decisions in almost any organizational setting, not institutionalizing their leadership makes them substantially less accountable and responsive. Members have more influence vis-à-vis charismatic leaders who are replaceable, even if these leaders use sophisticated agenda-setting techniques to constrain their choices. Third, online decision-making tools are more accessible, but not necessarily more conducive to intra-party democracy than their offline counterparts. Moreover, complicated tools and processes might still be subject to the “digital divide”. Online policy-making instruments are a promising avenue for fostering citizens’ participation but so far have failed to generate meaningful results due to the lack of feedback and mediation. Fourth, party activists display higher levels of commitment to the party when they also have regular offline meetings. This suggests that even if online tools are a promising way to engage a larger number of citizens in party work, these need to be balanced by face-to-face meetings to offer a satisfying social experience. More comparative work is needed to demonstrate whether these findings hold for a broader universe of cases.
Few studies have explored the distinct role played by social media in information diffusion. This study investigates the structure, interaction patterns, opinion leaders and communities’ distribution of actors involved in cross-national halal food Twitter networks. A social network analysis (SNA) is employed using a data scraping software to collect around 12,000 halal food tweets. A relatively low density and heterogeneous hub-and-spoke network emerged, with only few influencers/social mediators within small communities controlling the diffusion of information through the network. This result lends strong support to the “Matthew Effect”, which is a variation of the “rich get richer” model. Robustness checks confirmed the existence of small world preferential attachment network linking digital halal food consumers. Our findings hold important implications for different stakeholders as they underscore the relational nature of halal food networks and the importance of the strategic management of social media at the international marketing level as a critical communication tool.
No previous studies have explored the distinct role played by halal food discourse on social media. This study fills this research gap by investigating the structure, dynamics and sentiments related to halal food tweets using methods borrowed from text mining and social network analytics. Based on sample of 11,700 world-wide random tweets, we used both the NRC and the AFINN lexicons to gauge worldwide sentiments towards halal food. Although results show a generally positive sentiment, the tweets also reflect a general concern about animal welfare. Community detection techniques revealed a strong homophily effect among different halal food communities. This effect occurs when actors in an environment similar to a virtual room deal with topics of common interest or discuss common agenda. Our findings hold important implications for different stakeholders as they underscore the relational nature of halal food networks and the importance of the strategic management of social media as a critical communication tool.
During the Arab uprising in 2011, new media have been used as effective tools to express dissent and mobilize people. Flattening the transaction costs necessary to organize collective actions, new technologies have introduced innovative forms of political struggle, based on networked individualism and “connective action” (Bennett and Segerber, 2012) rather than on institutions and hierarchical organizations. During the Arab uprisings, the “synchronization” (Alexander and Aouragh, 2014) between old and new media enabled in some cases the emergence of counter-hegemonic narratives capable to create a large consensus towards the ongoing mobilizations. However, the limits of web 2.0 in terms of public sphere dynamics as well as a space to organize collective actions have also emerged.
In this article we will focus in particular on the case of the Syrian networked public sphere. We argue that in Syria the virtual sphere appears since the beginning as a contested space on which pro-democracy activists, differently from other Arab contexts, were not able to impose their narratives. Rather than a connected networked public sphere, a “self-directed mass communication” mode (Castells, 2005) became prevalent resulting in fragmented networks.
In order to describe the dynamics of the fragmented Syrian networked public sphere, we will focus in particular on what we define here as “non-aligned” micro-celebrities. We argue that the Syrian revolt witnessed the emergence of online personas shaping their web identities on individual narratives that worked in opposition to the main collective narratives circulating in the Syrian political scene.
In this sense, the relevance of “non-aligned” micro-celebrities has to be considered as one of the causes and at the same times of the products of the shaping of a networked public sphere characterized by fragmentation and media a-synchronization, rather than coordination and media synchronization.
Intercultural relations scholars have recently focused on investigating the impact of the news coverage and the media on society in general. However, although social media have become a valuable resource for mining opinions, there are no previous studies investigating the Arab image sentiments expressed on social media. This study fills this gap through the analysis of a random sample of 26,905 tweets dealing with the Arab image in Spanish tweets. To conduct the analysis, an expert-predefined lexicon of around 6,800 seed adjectives was used. Descriptive analysis detected a generally positive sentiment towards the Arab image while partitioning around medoids (PAM) clustering suggested that it is possible to cluster the tweets into four distinct clusters. Thus, it seems that the Arab image represents a complex construction. By analysing opinions expressed on social media towards the Arab image, this research adds breadth and depth to the debate over such an under-represented area.
A multilateral approach to the governance of environmental health risk could be regarded as a possible response to the complexity of current risk problems. Such multilateral governance is deemed advisable in consideration of the need to achieve an adaptive risk management approach and establish a dialogue among the stakeholders involved in or affected by a specific risk. However, whereas the benefits of multilateral risk governance are clear in theory, in practice – and specifically for the environmental health domain – there seems to be a shortage of successful cases where this multilateral approach has been actually applied. In particular, this article targets the necessity to understand ‘multilateral’ in a broad sense, thus also including the international community and civil society actors, both organized in collectives (e.g. NGOs) and wider civil society (e.g. on-the-ground citizens). The case of the Equatorial Asian haze is investigated to respond to a theoretical question, namely whether and how processes of deviating dynamics can trigger an improvement in risk governance, especially stimulating alternative information production and pushing for the release of key information held by the government. Access to information results in being a necessary step to achieve multilateral risk governance.
The chapter explores the policy context that has shaped the life chances of the socio-demographic group called Millennials. The focus of the chapter is on the growing numbers of young people who have found their voice through online platforms where they address the many problems that will affect their lives far more than those of the people making the decisions.
In recent years and with the growth of the Internet and online social technologies, many questions have been raised regarding the type, quality and extent of social activities in the world based on social networks. Considering the influence of online social networks on recent elections from the year 2009 until now and its following incidents, the present study aims to evaluate the effect of the social capital present in online networks on the citizenship culture of the citizens of Sanandaj. The method of the study was that of a correlational descriptive research and it employed a survey method. The questionnaire was comprised of Dmitri Williams’ standard questions and a researcher-made questionnaire for citizenship culture which had appropriate validity and reliability and was distributed to 400 respondents with the method of multistage cluster sampling. Findings show a medium of the citizenship culture average, and the focus has more been on civic engagement. From the components of civic engagement, the dimensions of attitude and belief were more regarded by the citizens rather than the components of behavior or action. The inferential results also show that the most important dimension of social capital influencing the citizenship culture is the bridging social capital present in the online space.
Cet article aborde les stratégies de personnalisation politique utilisées par les partis et leurs candidats sur le web lors de la campagne électorale législative québécoise de 2012. La personnalisation est souvent étudiée du point de vue des pratiques médiatiques et critiquée pour ses possibles effets pervers. Elle a cependant peu été étudiée du point de vue de la communication de campagne jusqu’à maintenant. Cette étude vise donc à faire ressortir les caractéristiques propres à la construction de l’éthos des politiciens en contexte électoral, à l’ère d’Internet. L’objectif poursuivi est de mieux comprendre comment les partis font la promotion de leurs candidats et de leur chef et comment ils mettent en récit leur parcours, leur personnalité et leurs compétences. L’accent sera-t-il mis sur les réalisations du candidat, sur sa vie privée ? Qu’est-ce que les partis choisiront de révéler à travers leurs discours ? Pour répondre à ces questions, une analyse de contenu quantitative et qualitative des pages biographiques disponibles sur les sites web officiels des principaux partis dans la course lors de l’élection législative québécoise de 2012 a été réalisée afin de mettre en valeur les différentes stratégies utilisées par les partis politiques. Nos analyses révèlent notamment que la manière de se mettre en scène sur le web pour se faire valoir varie selon les partis et leur idéologie. Nous illustrerons l’influence de la personnalisation sur la mise en récit du parcours politique et de la vie privée. Au final, les résultats liés à cette recherche sur les stratégies de personnalisation rejoignent les études sur le web politique et d’autres sur la personnalisation en ligne, qui illustrent le peu d’innovation ainsi que l’accent sur l’information unidirectionnelle diffusée par les partis sur leur site web, révélant plus d’information sur la carrière professionnelle que sur la vie privée.
To contribute to the development of policy informatics, we discuss the benefits of analyzing electronic petitions (e-petitions), a form of citizen-government discourse with deep historic roots that has recently transitioned into a technologically-enabled and novel form of political communication. We begin by presenting a rationale for the analysis of e-petitions as a type of e-participation that can contribute to the development of public policy, provided that it is possible to analyze the large volumes of data produced in petitioning processes. From there we consider two data analytic strategies that offer promising approaches to the analysis of e-petitions and that lend themselves to the future creation of policy informatics tools. We discuss the application of topic modeling to the analysis of e-petition textual data to identify emergent topics of substantial concern to the public. We further propose the application of social network analysis to data related to the dynamics of petitioning processes, such as the social connections between petition initiators and signers, and tweets that solicit petition signatures in petitioning campaigns; both may be useful in revealing patterns of collective action. The paper concludes by reflecting on issues that should be brought to bear on the construction of policy informatics tools that make use of e-petitioning data.
The ongoing embrace of interest groups as agents capable of addressing democratic deficits in governing institutions is in large part because they are assumed to contribute democratic legitimacy to policy processes. Nonetheless, they face the challenge of legitimating their policy advocacy in democratic terms, clarifying what makes them legitimate partners in governance. In this article we suggest that digital innovations have disrupted the established mechanisms of legitimation. While the impact of this disruption is most easily demonstrated in the rise of a small number of ‘digital natives’, we argue that the most substantive impact has been on more conventional groups, which typically follow legitimation logics of either representation or solidarity. While several legacy groups are experimenting with new legitimation approaches, the opportunities provided by technology seem to offer more organizational benefits to groups employing the logic of solidarity, and appear less compatible with the more traditional logic of representation.
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