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Democratic Potentials of Online Communication for Political Debate

Presentation at the International Summer School for Political Communication and Electoral Behavior, Milano, July 16-18, 2012

Barbara Pfetsch

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Political Communication and Media Change

- explosion of channels and avenues for (political, commerical, social …..) communication

- speed and new issue dynamics

- feedback loops and interactive communication- convergence of mass media and digital communication

venues

media effects research must be reconsiderednew potentials for political communication

(campaign, democratiziation, political debate …)

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Starting Point of Reflection

Democratic Potentials of Online Communication for Political Debate

criteria = inclusiveness and access for broad range of actors

Mass mediated public sphere:

„cumulative inequality“ (Wolfsfeld 1997)

low representation and difficult access for civil society actors („challengers“)

„

Is the internet a better public sphere?“

Under what conditions can online communication • make up for the deficits of traditional media?• contribute to the enhancement of democratic political debate?

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Outline

I Inclusiveness and democratic potential of online communication:Expectations and doubts

II Interactions between old and new media as critical link The Chadwick approach of a Hybrid Media System

III Consequences for researchInteraction between online and offline media as field of inquiry

IV Pathways of empirical research to assess the interaction of new and old media and its impact on democracy

V Conclusion

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Democratic Public Sphere

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What creates the democratic potentials of the internet?

- open access for everybody - unlimited carrier capacity- availability of information- interactivity- co-presence of horizontal and vertical communication

Indefinite reservoir of actors and issues Threat to the gate-keeping role of traditional mass

media

Access for challengersIncusiveness: Capacity and space for networks of new communicators, coalitions and issue networks

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Empirical Findings

Comparisons between online and print media debates

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The Hybrid Media System

This interplay between online and offline media leads to a hybrid media system which is “build upon interactions among old and new media” in contemporary politics and society.

It is the “outcome of power struggles and competition for preeminence during periods of unusual transition, contingency, and negotiability” (Chadwick, 2011).

Political Media Effects through the Hybrid Media System?

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The Hybrid Media System

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Desiderates of Political Communication Research

- Conditions of Political Media Effects in the Hybrid Media System

Dynamics of Agenda BuildingNature and Mechanisms of Spill-Over between Online and Offline Media

- (a) direct Spill-Overs (Baringhorst 2008) (b) Online Media Spill over (Huffington Post, etc.) (c) Double-campaign focused spill-over Context Conditions

that make a particular type of spill-over more or less likely Research Designs and Methodology?

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Possible Context Conditions of Spill Over Effects

Nature of online and offline communication

– Specific types of issue coalitions and online networks (strongly connected actors, high frame strengths, frame sponsors);

– Particular (left or right) media at the receiving end;

Macro Level factors which shape the online-offline dynamic

issue characteristics (e.i. connection to larger conflics, established vs. latent issues;– country characteristics (pluralist countries vs. corporatist countries;

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Challenges of the Research Design

1. Analysis of issue specific communiction networks challengers build and act in coalitions

(≠ single blog/webpage)

online-communication of challengers

media/political debate

2. When and under what circumstances do we find spill-overs?

nature of the issue media and political context of countries

type of communication network

3. Evaluation of online-communication

democratic potential (accessability, inclusion)

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Methodological Challenges

webpage selection:•Google•experteninterviews•literature

webpage selection:•Google•experteninterviews•literature

text selection: print mediatext selection: print media

network-analysisnetwork-analysis

content analysiscontent analysis content-

analysiscontent-analysis

network selectionissue crawler, web crawler, spider software

network selectionissue crawler, web crawler, spider software

Online Offline

internet: challengers’ issue networks

frames & issues on the agenda

Spill-over

regression & time series analysisregression & time series analysis

causality?level of data analysis?

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Conclusion

The internet as such does not automatically bring about a more inclusive, a more accessible and therefore more democraticpublic debate;

The democratic potentials of the internet seem to depend on the interaction of old and new media and spill overs between them;

The hybrid media system opens up new opportunities for challengers and may be more inclusive;

The mechanisms and varieties of interaction between old and new media are a desiderate in political communication research whichrequires innovative studies and new methodologies.