Social Media & Political Participation

and Civic Engagement

Fratila Eduard
 Topics
• Political communication eras
• The potential of online social networks
• Online social networks effect on political
participation
• How does social networks produces civic
participation?
• The concept of social capital
• ‘’The biggest political challange of our time’’
 Political communication eras

1. Prior to the television age

Such communication was characteristically ideological
at its source, yet tempered by the pragmatic social
exchanges required to forge alliances among
organized groups in order to maximize power in the
political arena.
 Political communication eras
2. After the rise of mass media and national audiences

The defining characteristic of political communication in this period (roughly

bounded by the saturation of broadcast television and the rise of cable),
was the mass marketing of symbols to forge broad identifications and
mobilize large numbers of individuals, often outside of their local social
affiliations.
 Political communication eras

3. In the third era of political communication,

professionalization of politics came of age.
 Political communication in our time
• Mass audiences have become very hard to get
• Politics is no longer a game for low budget
amateurs.
• Pollsters and strategists are now the main builders
of the public opinion
• Journalists are increasingly outnumbered by
public relations professionals who see placing
stories in the news as the means of amplifying
and authenticating their messages.
The potential of online social networks
Effect
internet access and exposure may increase
political knowledge

increase participation among voters

Result
 Online social networks effect on political participation

• Social networks are assimilated with activities,

practices and behaviors of groups and communities in
the online environment, more exactly the
dissemination and creation of information through
Web 2.0

(Safko & Brake: 2009, p. 6)

 Research on political participation through online
social networks can be summarized in two distinct
theoretical axes:

1. identify ways of disseminating information

through social networks

2. analyze the effects that the information transmitted

has on the political options and the social
involvement of the recipients
 Conventional vs Online

• The audience is now content creator

• Content uploaded by regular citizens can become
mainstram news
• People are encouraged to actively participate in the
public agenda making
• The segmentation of mainstram politics in different
specialised groups of interest (ethnicity,sex,
geographical area,etc.) opens a way for new political
doctrins to find support

Internet is creating the public sphere

How does social networks produces civic
participation?
Scott McClurg answer:

Social interaction provokes debate, which in

turn facilitates exchanges of information.
These exchanges have the potential to affect
political preferences and boost civic
participation trends.
 Social sciences say…
people have the tendancy to debate topics with
people with the same interest
Social networks

Groups of inetrest

Open
debates

Civic participation
There are 2 main elements in determining how the
online social networks influents civic participation:
1. network interaction exposes the individual to a different set of political
information than what is available on a personal level (McClurg: 2003, p. 450)

–there is much more information available and debated (comparing to mass-

media)

2. the availability of alternative sources of information and particular political

biases varies across different social environments, so that the same information
preferences produce different consequences in different settings. (Huckfeldt,
Beck, Dalton şi Levine: 1995, p. 1049)

- the same information posted on different group interest can produce different
outcomes
 political behaviour is not influenced by
proximity of online interactions

So, if the environment doesn't matter, what are

the main factors that influents political
participation in social networks?
1. The number of interactions

2. The level of privacy shared by members of a

network/group
 The concept of social capital
By Robert D Putnam:
• - social capital is a key component in building
and maintaining democracy
• - social networking sites are social capital
generators
• - social capital is generated by being a member
and identifying with a group or an organisation
• - social capital has a positive effect on civic
engagement.
not all social capital is political capital (political
capital means people are involved in politics)

1.Social network sites

2.Social capital

3.Political Capital
Online presence is more relevant in political
participation when it is supported by the
exchange of information between members of a
social network (Shah, Kwak, Holbert: 2001,
pp. 141-162).

The most powerful recipy for generating social

capital is to mix online with offline, face to face
communication – ‘’the social capital alloy’’
‘’The biggest political challenge of our
time’’
How can the political actors activate and engage
young voters?

• Premisis: Probably the most significant cause

of the low involvement of young people stems
from the lack of interest of politicians in direct
and relevant contact with them.
• Paradox: candidates do not direct time and
resources to young people due to their low
probability of voting, while young people do
not vote because candidates refuse to interact
with them at an informal level of dialogue
• Opportunity: young citizens are the most numerous
internet users, the demographic group is informed
using predominantly the online environment and the
internet, as a means of communication offers
political actors opportunities to involve young
voters in new, innovative ways

Why is the use of social network a possible answer to

the problem?
 Social networks offers ‘’fluid space and
timeless time’’ - Manuel Castells

• - Social networking sites offer the possibility of

inter-relationships, free of temporal and spatial
constraints.
• - The virtual networking environment is a territory
that young people can control and customize.
• - In terms of political participation, social
networking sites have the potential to familiarize
young people with the right to vote with the political
process and help them form a political choice.
• Future perspective: As young users get older,
they are more likely to continue their political
involvement in these online networks,
proliferating it to future generations

• As they do so, social networking sites will

continue to become increasingly influential in
the "real world" of politics.