Social media and politics: contestation, mediation and civil society
Published:
Nov 25, 2015
Keywords:
cultural politics digital inequality Facebook political participation Twitter
Abstract
In this special issue we consider various perspectives and ideas underlying the current ever-changing political and digital environments. There have been a substantial number of theories, coupled by empirical research over the past few years, on the nature of political behavior with respect to the increased use of the Internet. The main aim of this edition is to explore a few aspects of ‘digital politics’ and what they may mean for contemporary democratic culture. This paper synthesizes and reflects upon concepts presented in the following articles and discusses some recent developments and debates related to the dynamics of the online world.
Article Details
- How to Cite
-
Afouxenidis, A. (2015). Social media and politics: contestation, mediation and civil society. The Greek Review of Social Research, 144, 3–19. https://doi.org/10.12681/grsr.8679
- Section
- Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Abbott, J. (2012). Democracy@internet.org Revisited: analyzing the socio-political impact of
the internet and new social media in East Asia. Third World Quarterly, 33(2), 333-357.
Abdallah, S. and Jaleel, B. (2013). Assessing the Relevance of Culture on Websites: A Study
from a Middle Eastern Country. Journal of Internet Commerce, 12, 106-129.
Adamsa, Α.Μ., Madhavan, S. and Simon, D. (2006). Measuring social networks cross-culturally. Social Networks, 28, 363-376.
Allen, J. (2010). Powerful city networks: More than connections, less than domination and
control. Urban Studies, 47(13), 2895-2911.
Attia, A.M., Aziz, N., Friedman, B. and Elhusseiny, M.F. (2011). Commentary: The impact of
social networking tools on political change in Egypt’s ‘Revolution 2.0’. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 10, 369-374.
Atton, C. (2003). Reshaping social movement media for a new millennium. Social Movement
Studies, 2(1), 3-15.
Bakardjieva, M., Svensson, J. and Skoric, M.M. (2012). Digital citizenship and activism: Questions of power and participation online. eJournal of eDemocracy, 4(1), 1-4.
Barash, V. and Kelly, J. (2012). Salience vs. Commitment dynamics of political hashtags in Russian Twitter. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Bartlett, J., Birdwell, J. and Littler, M. (2011). The new face of digital populism. London: Demos.
Benkler, Υ. (2006). The wealth of networks. How social production transforms markets and
freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bennett, W.L. (2012). The personalization of politics: Political identity, social media, and
changing patterns of participation. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, 644, 20-39.
Biddle, E.R. (2013). Rationing the digital: The politics and policy of Internet use in Cuba Today. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Boyd, D.M. (2008). Taken out of context American teen sociality in networked publics. Berkeley: University of California.
Boynton, G.B., Cook, J., Daniels, K., Dawkins, M., Kopish, J., Makar, M., McDavid, W., Murphy, M.,Osmundson, J., Steenblock, T., Sudarmawan, A., Wiese, P. and Zora, A. (2013).
The political domain goes to Twitter: Hashtags, retweets and URLs. Open Journal of Political Science, 4(1), 8-15.
Broughton, Α., Higgins, Τ., Hicks, Β. and Cox, Α. (2011). Workplaces and social networking.
The implications for employment relations. Brighton: The Institute for Employment Studies.
Bruszt, B.,Vedres, B. and Stark, D. (2005). Shaping the Web of civic participation: Civil society
websites in Eastern Europe. Journal of Public Policy, 25, 149-163.
Cardoso, G., Cheong, A. and Cole, J. (eds) (2009). World Wide Internet: Changing Societies,
economies and cultures. Macau: University of Macau.
Carlisle, J.E and Patton, R.C. (2013). Is social media changing how we understand political engagement? An analysis of Facebook and the 2008 Presidential Election. Political Research
Quarterly, 66(4), 883-895.
Castells, M. (2010). Globalisation, networking, urbanisation: Reflections on the spatial dynamics of the information age. Urban Studies, 47(13), 2737-2745.
Christensen, H.S. (2012). Simply slacktivism? Internet participation in Finland. eJournal of
eDemocracy, 4(1), 1-23.
Dahlgren, P. (2011). Reinventing participation: Civic agency and the web environment. Lund:
Lund University.
Dragomir, M. and Thompson, M. (eds) (2011). Mapping digital media: United States. Open
Society.
Dragomir, M., Thompson, M. and Jamaï, A.(eds) (2013). Mapping Digital Media: Egypt. Open
Society.
Dragomir, M., Thompson, M. and Watts, G. (eds) (2012). Mapping Digital Media: Japan. Open
Society.
Dutton, W.H. and Blank, G., (2011). Next generation users: The Internet in Britain. Oxford:
University of Oxford.
Etling, B., Alexanyan, K., Kelly, J., Farris, R., Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2010). Public discourse in the Russian blogosphere: Mapping RuNet politics and mobilization. The Berkman
Center for Internet and Society.
Feezell, J.T., Conroy, M. and Guerrero, M. (2009). Facebook is... fostering political engagement: A study of online social networking groups and offline participation, Santa Barbara:
University of California.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: a critical introduction. Los Angeles: Sage.
Gustafsson, N. (2012). The subtle nature of Facebook politics: Swedish social network site users and political participation. New Media Society, 14(7), 1111-1127.
Hamamsy, W.L. (2011). BB = BlackBerry or Big Brother: Digital media and the Egyptian revolution. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 47(4), 454-466.
Harlow, S. (2011). Social media and social movements: Facebook and an online Guatemalan
justice movement that moved offline. New Media Society, 14(2), 225-243.
Hepburn, P. (2012). Is this local e-democracy? How the online sphere of influence shaped local
politics. eJournal of eDemocracy, 4(1), 45-66.
Hoofd, M.H. (2014). The London riots and the simulation of sociality in Social Media Data
Research. Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies,7, 122-142.
Jin, Dal Yong. (2015). Digital platforms, imperialism and political culture. New York: Routledge.
Kaynak, M.S. and Turkoglu, D. (2010). New media and public opinion during hard times: A
case study of Turkey. Washington: Working Paper APSA Annual Conference.
Lim, M. (2013). Many clicks but little sticks: Social media activism in Indonesia. Journal of
Contemporary Asia, 43(4), 636-657.
Lloyd, D. and Thomas, P. (1998). Culture and the state. London: Routledge.
Mallan, K.M., Singh, P. and Giardina, N. (2010). The challenges of participatory research with
‘tech-savvy’ youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 13, (2), 255-272.
Margolis, M. and Moreno-Riano, G. (2009). The prospect of Internet democracy. Surrey: Ashgate.
Mawson, J. (2010). Social enterprise, strategic networks and regional development. The West
Midlands experience. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. 30(1/2), 66-83.
Miller, D. (2010). An extreme reading of Facebook. London: University College.
Murthy, D. (2012). Towards a sociological understanding of social media: Theorizing Twitter.
Sociology, 1-15.
Nixon, P. and Koutrakou, V. (eds) (2007). E-Government in Europe. London: Routledge.
Pew Research Center. (2010). Social media and mobile Internet use among teens and young
adults. Washington.
Powell, Α. (2008). WiFi Publics: Producing Community and Technology. Communication &
Society, 11(8), 1068-1088.
Oh, J., Susarla, A. and Tan, Y. (2008). Examining the diffusion of user-generated content in
online social networks. Seattle: University of Washington.
Vitak, J. (2014). Unpacking social media’s role in resource provision: Variations across relational and communicative properties. Societes, 4, 561-586.
Pflieger, G. and Rozenblat, C. (2010). Multiple networks introduction. Urban networks and
network theory: The city as the connector of multiple networks. Urban Studies, 47(13),
-2735.
Rajput, Η. (2014) Social media and politics in India: A study on Twitter usage among Indian
political leaders. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 2(1), 63-69.
Rodger, J.J., (2013). ‘New capitalism’, colonization and the neo-philanthropic turn in social
policy. Applying Luhmann’s systems theory to the Big Society project. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 33(11/12), 725-741.
Ross, K. and Bürger, T. (2014). Face to Face(book): Social media, political campaigning and the
unbearable. Political Science, 66(1), 46-62.
Schuster, J. (2013). Invisible feminists? Social media and young women’s political participation. Political Science, 65(8), 8-24.
Scott, Α. (2012). From first tweet to final collapse - The dimensions of social media in regime
collapse. San Diego: International Studies Association Annual Convention.
Smith, A., Schlozman, K.L., Verba, S. and Brady, H. (2009). The Internet and civic engagement.
Washington: Pew Research Center.
Steger, W., Williams, C. and Andolina, M. (2010). Political use of social networks in 2008.
Washington: American Political Science Association.
The Berkman Center for Internet and Society. (2013). INTERNET MONITOR 2013: Reflections
on the digital world.
Veenstra, A.S. (2014). The two blogospheres: Political blog use, participation, and sophistication during the 2008 U.S. Election Season. Open Journal of Political Science, 4, 278-290.
Wall, M.A. (2007). Social movements and email: expressions of online identity in the globalization protests. New Media & Society, 9(2), 258-277.
Woolley, J.K., Limperos, A.M. and Oliver, M.B. (2010). The 2008 presidential election, 2.0: A
content analysis of user-generated political Facebook groups. Mass Communication and
Society, 13, 631-652.
Zhuo, X., Wellman, B. and Yu, J. (2011). Egypt: The first Internet revolt?. Peace Magazine,
-10.
