New Hopes for Democracy or a Pirated Elite? Swedish Social Media Users and Political Mobilisation.
Författare
Summary, in English
In this study, a group of Swedish social media users – politically active as well as “unpolitical” users – are interviewed in focus groups as well as individually about their attitudes towards online political participation, providing a deeper, more informed view of how social media participation works. Sweden, with its high levels of voluntary participation and with an avant-garde position in Internet, broadband and social media penetration, could indeed function as a most-likely case for studying whether social media has any positive effects on participation. The participants in the study are well-educated, young and comfortable using the Internet, further increasing the probability of finding individuals engaged in digital activism.
The results are puzzling: on the one hand, there is an almost unanimous contempt for political campaigns in social media among the participants. On the other hand, almost all of the participants are engaging with politics in social media in various ways. The article concludes in arguing that intensive methods must be used in order to gain a richer understanding of the political behaviour of citizens online.
The results are puzzling: on the one hand, there is an almost unanimous contempt for political campaigns in social media among the participants. On the other hand, almost all of the participants are engaging with politics in social media in various ways. The article concludes in arguing that intensive methods must be used in order to gain a richer understanding of the political behaviour of citizens online.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2010
Språk
Engelska
Fulltext
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Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag
Ämne
- Political Science
Nyckelord
- Web 2.0
- political mobilisation
- social network sites
- political participation
- social media
Conference name
Western Political Science Association 2010 Annual Meeting
Conference date
2010-04-01 - 2010-04-03
Conference place
San Francisco, United States
Status
Unpublished
Projekt
- Viral politik. Politisk mobilisering i sociala medier