LP3018 Political Communication: New media and political communication

How has new media impacted political communication?

Considering the various dimensions of political communication which we have analysed Has the change been substantive? Or only superficial? Media systems Media effects Public opinion and its formulation The contours of the public sphere The practice of democracy Social media and democracy

Media systems
Culture and practice of media consumption? Culture and practice of media ownership? Culture and practice of media regulation?

Media systems and the internet the UK

The internet does not claim to operate by any particular ethical standards, still less high ones. Some have called it a 'wild west' but I would prefer to use the term 'ethical vacuum'. This is not to say for one moment that everything on the internet is therefore unethical. That would be a gross mischaracterisation of the work of very many bloggers and websites, which should rightly and fairly be characterised as valuable and professional. "People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy; it need be no more than one person's view. (Leveson report) BUT - People will go (are going) to sites they trust. Gradually, just as newspapers did originally, the most trustworthy will edge aside the less trustworthy.

Was this the right approach?

Newspaper websites make up 7 of the top 10 websites for political communication in the UK (Enders research) Internet publications can set up shop in another country, and thus be immune from national controls Leveson makes a distinction between organisations that have a lot of power and conversations which just happen If you try and regulate those then youre getting into problems with free speech and freedom of expression The regulation of newspapers is different to the regulation of citizen media like blogs or social media Regulated differently (Communications Act, Data Protection Act, libel laws etc.)

New media and media effects

Framing Priming Agenda setting Persuasion

Do we see substantive (fundamental) or superficial change?

(How) has the internet reshaped the public sphere?

The rise of the internet and in particular, of citizen has been hailed as the emergence of a networked public sphere (Benkler) Digital networks enable citizens to broadcast themselves Costs have decreased Viewed as a potential for a revival of bottom up, participatory democracy in the West.

Public sphere
Originally conceptualised by Habermas, the public sphere is a discursive arena where private people come together as a public to discuss freely matters of mutual interest The rational-critical debate ideally results in consensus, or public opinion, which then serves as a mediator between private citizens and the State And thus constitutes democratic control of state activity In practice, the public sphere is highly dependent on information and communication tools New media technologies allow for more information and voices to reach a larger audiences Like-minded individuals are better able to organize Enabling people to be active participants in the public sphere as opposed to passive readers, listeners or viewers

New media and the public sphere

However, in order for a public sphere to function properly it must satisfy several conditions Including environmental factors Behavioural norms Environmental factors 1. Individuals must be autonomous from state and economic power 2. Individuals rights to free speech must be protected 3. Equal access to the public sphere amongst different members of society

A strong public sphere

Should foster rational-critical debate that leads to a common judgement and action. How? 1. Interactivity of participants Online debate should not be dominated by advertisements, PR Where politicians are sold as commodities, citizens are viewed as consumers and issues are decided with staged events and quotes pre-worded by publicity specialists (Hilbert, 2011) Instead, a strong public sphere should consist of active participants that continuously react to one another 2. The discussion should be led by the strength of the argument 3. The discussion should lead to consensus. Online deliberation can simply be circular with no consensus reached

Can new media counteract the democratic deficit?

Condition of Western democracy in decline Arena of official politics does not command the degree of support and participation as in the past Voter turnouts are declining Party loyalty is declining, particularly amongst the young The formal political system of most Western nations appears stagnant: reactive rather than proactive (compared to for instance capitalism/ technological innovation) Anti-politics mood: due to the inability of the political system to meet social expectations

The internet and democracy

How is the internet used for political purposes? Viewed originally as a core means by which to combat the democratic deficit Use of the net for political purposes is small compared to other purposes to which it is put Democratic deliberation (key function of public sphere) is overshadowed by Consumerism Entertainment Non-political networking etc So the internet is really about consumers not citizens... The communicative character of the political discussions online do not always promote the civic ideal unpleasant, extreme, isolated

Has the internet been a disappointment for democracy?

Most popular websites visited by the UK population
1.Google UK 2.Facebook 3.YouTube 4.Amazon.co.uk 5.Google 6.eBay UK 7.Yahoo! 8.BBC Online 9.Windows Live 10.Wikipedia 11.Twitter 12.delta-search.com 13.Ask 14.LinkedIn 15.Bing 16.blogspot.co.uk 17.The Daily Mail 18.Gumtree 19.PayPal 20.xHamster's Free Porn Videos

Source: http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB

The cyber transformation of the public sphere

A disappointment to champions of civic renewal Internets political economy: Starting to take the shape of the intense commercialisation that characterises the traditional media model Market logic and emerging legal frameworks have constrained the extent and forms of representation for civic purposes So that it has aligned with the mass media Diminishes the internets potential as a properly civic communicative space

Internet communication and democracy

Is the internet re-shaping democracy in practice? The internet clearly feeds into new social / political processes And allows for the rapid co-ordination of extra-parliamentary action BUT ALSO the significance of the internet for democracy lies not just in the fact that it is a new communicative tool It also came into being at a moment in history characterised by some profound uncertainties about political life and democracy Perhaps then the internet holds a new democratic potential Will the internet help deliver a better democracy? The internet does have a capacity to enhance the public sphere, though this seems not to transform political life dramatically It allows new communicative spaces to develop alternative public spheres Even if these do not have the clear links to the centres of political decision making as other spheres Structural features of internet make any claim to universalism unrealistic

The internet and democracy

So overall the internet does promise and deliver a lot It can empower individuals, widen our world and provide endless information But it can also absorb and engulf us, giving us more information than we can ever process It can promote our identities as consumers, but also, with some effort on our part, it can allow us to cultivate our identities as citizens

Social Media and the New Public Sphere

Re-thinking the roles of political communication and public opinion in the age of participatory media

Copyright

The Rise of Political Social Media in the United States

Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project

1994: Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, put up the first campaign web site. 1998: The Minnesota campaign of independent Jesse Ventura featured email. 2000: presidential candidate John McCain began raising money online and used the Internet to disseminate political news and information. 2004: Howard Dean's presidential campaign used blogs to generate voter interest, recruit, motivate volunteers and change the interplay between citizens and campaigns. 2008: Social media tools were used including candidate Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, texting services and others. The New York Times said Barack Obama was the first presidential candidature to truly understand social media. 2010: Most Congressional campaigns and over 53% of voters used social media to connect to election information and news. 2012: Mobile apps are rise significantly during election cycle.

News content in social media

New communication technologies gives citizens varied opportunities to engage with political news content Social media is a rapidly emerging news media outlet Allows end users not only to receive news from friends, family and news organisation But then can also easily disseminate this media content to their social network Although the majority of news online is still access directly through news websites or major search engines, social media are becoming important and prominent sites for political news engagement News use within social media has grown by over 50% since 2009 9% of all traffic to news websites is now driven by social media

Social Media Snapshot.

Data source: Knight Foundation, 2012

Over 50,000 people list themselves as a social media consultant on Linkedin 200 million Tweets are sent per day with over 10 million users Over 50 million users on Facebook YouTube is the second largest search engine and largest video-sharing site on the Internet Tumblr is a blogging platform that has over 1.5 billion views per month and is one of the top 50 sites on the Internet Flickr is the top online photo sharing site with the most stock images available under common creative licensing (you can use them without paying a fee)

The New Public Sphere..in the Middle East

The structural changes changing our world today are in fact empowering individuals as never before. (Prepared by: ISN Staff;
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/)

Social media global attitudes project

In 15 of 21 countries, at least 25% of those polled use social networking sites. Israel (53%) and the U.S. (50%) top the list with the highest percentage of adults who say they use online social networking sites such as Facebook. (PEW global attitudes survey, 2011).

Social media and politics

Scholars are growing interested in understanding the social media ecosystem..it is proving to be a complex, dynamic system that is rapidly changing and difficult to empirically examine

Social Media Matters in US Politics

During the 2010 elections, more Republicans used Twitter than did Democrats running for the House of Representativesand empirical evidence suggests a that there was a significant relationship between Twitter Use and increased odds of winning the election. (LaMarre,
2012)

Political parties and social media

Barack Obama famously used social media to court the youth vote in the US presidential elections But how effective is the social media platform for political parties? Allows politicians to connect with people on a large scale How interactive is this? All UK parties maintain a social media presence Facebook pages, Twitter and YouTube accounts prominently linked from their respective websites

Explaining the data...

Facebook page friends Twitter followers Twitter tweets Twitter reach Klout score a measure of Twitter influence Compete score a measure of website traffic

Explaining the data

Conservatives way ahead of their competition when it comes to the numbers of raw followers and reach of their campaign Green party has highest Klout score a measure of their influence and interaction on Twitter BNP has by far highest level of traffic to its site
But one of the lowest scores for followers and interaction levels? How can we account for this?

But overall the UK parties are not doing well at leveraging social media

Formal party members

Facebook likes of official party account 159 044 143 244 92 078

Unique Facebook likes of official party or leader pages 217 900 132 840 129 340

Conservative Labour

170 000 193 000

Liberal Democrats 49 000

Source: Demos, April 2013

Formal party members

Twitter followers of official party account

Unique Twitter followers of all MPs (minus leader) 614 719 (401 882) 503 881 (413 691) 173 184 (88 604)

Unique Twitter followers of all MPs unique to party (minus leader) 430 893 (272 356) 316 237 (280 834) 68 335 (35 255)

Conservative Labour Lib Dem

170 000 193 000 49 000

82 311 80 752 41 073

Activity
Analyse and critique the social media presence of the main political parties How effectively are they engaging with social media platforms? Are they structured to facilitate top down or bottom-up communications practices?

5 minutes then discussion

Impacts
The internet and social media are having a profound effect on British politics It will re-shape the way elections are won and lost, how policy is made, and how people get involved in formal and informal politics Facebook and Twitter are extremely important new arenas for political activism If you measure the unique number of users that follow MPs from any given party (excluding users that follow MPs from more than one party):
Significantly more Twitter followers for both the Conservatives (430 893) and Labour (316 237) than formal party members (under 200 000 for each) That said, these virtual members are a younger demographic One in 3 are disloyal (follow MPs from multiple parties)

 This virtual support is part of a wider transformation of what it means to belong to a party from formal hierarchical model to a more networked, ephemeral, conditional support

How is the internet transforming politics?

Clicktivism remains far less transformative than feet on the ground politics (Malcolm Gladwell) However, evidence is beginning to suggest the internet might not be transformative on its own, but is better viewed as a way to allow movements to form, organise, fundraise, and mobilise. Examples? Recent research into Facebook groups of radical right-wing parties found their online supporters to be particularly active: Around two in three Facebook fans had voted for the party they liked at the last general election Around one in four had been involved in a demonstration or strike in the previous 12 months, markedly higher than the national average

A common pattern
Similarly, recent work on Beppe Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle found his Facebook supporters were highly mobilised his one million Facebook friends included 200,000 volunteers who were active campaigners during the recent Italian election and vital in the effort to get the vote out. Grillo refused to speak with any of the Italian news or broadcast media, preferring instead to communicate directly with Virtually Members - his supporters via social media. As Douglas Carswell has argued in The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy, the ability to communicate directly to constituents rather than indirectly through established media is likely to have a dramatic effect on the ability of parties to maintain message discipline, making elections more about candidates than parties; and making MPs more responsive to their constituents once elected.

Social Media Matters in World Social Change

After analyzing more than 3 million tweets, gigabytes of YouTube content and thousands of blog posts, a new study finds that social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring (ODonnell, 2011) http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/new-study-quantifies-use-of-socialmedia-in-arab-spring)

But Can Social Media Hurt Democracy?

There has been much coverage of the role of social media in spreading democracy. But what dangers can social media pose when in the wrong hands? Can it be more effective against freedom than working for it? (NATO, http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2011/Social_Medias/Dark-Side-SocialMedia/EN) Examples: Facebook and Twitter are illegal in China Authoritarian regimes such as Iran are using using social media to identify and track protestors Wikileaks puts classified information at risk

Concluding comments

Research on new media and political communications is still in its infancy BUT some new media effects are already discernable The internet is not providing the brave new world of an unfettered public sphere, BUT has to a degree altered citizen interaction with public issues Whatever the impact, politics needs to be marketed and communicated as much online today as in traditional media outlets