Managing Democracy in the Digital Age: Internet Regulation, Social Media Use, and Online Civic Engagement

268 Pages·2018·4.52 MB·English

by  Julia Schwanholz

Julia Schwanholz · Todd Graham
Peter-Tobias Stoll E ditors
Managing
Democracy in
the Digital Age
Internet Regulation, Social Media Use,
and Online Civic Engagement
Managing Democracy in the Digital Age
Julia Schwanholz (cid:129) Todd Graham
Peter-Tobias Stoll
Editors
Managing Democracy in the
Digital Age
Internet Regulation, Social Media Use,
and Online Civic Engagement
Editors
JuliaSchwanholz ToddGraham
Dept.forPoliticalScience SchoolofMediaandCommunication
UniversityofG€ottingen UniversityofLeeds
G€ottingen,Germany Leeds,Yorkshire,UK
Peter-TobiasStoll
InternationalandEuropeanLaw
UniversityofG€ottingen
Groningen,Germany
ISBN978-3-319-61707-7 ISBN978-3-319-61708-4 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017949710
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2018
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Book Abstract
Over the past decades, the Internet has become omnipresent. With the rise of
smartphones and “Internet of things” (Internet-enabled devices), the use of the
Internet will become more and more embedded in our everyday life. This digital
transformation has created new challenges and opportunities for politicians, jour-
nalists,politicalinstitutions,andthemediatoreconnectandengagewithcitizens.
WithinthecontextofWesterndemocraciesandChina,thechaptersinthisvolume
investigatethesechallenges/opportunitiesfromoneofthreeangles:theregulatory
state, the political use of social media, or through the lens of the public sphere.
Drawing from different academic fields—political science, communication
science,andjournalismstudies—thechaptersraiseanumberofinnovativeresearch
questions and provide some fascinating theoretical and empirical insight into the
topicofdigitaltransformation.
v
Acknowledgement
Yet another book collection on digitalization? Yes, and how! We—the editors of
theSpringerbook—aredelightedandgratefultobepartoftheU4Networkformed
bythefourtraditionalUniversitiesofGhent,Goettingen,Groningen,andUppsala.
ThroughthesupportoftheU4SocialScience,EconomicsandLawcluster,wehave
been (and still are) able to share our common interests on digital transformations
andtheirimpactonpolitics,policy,anddemocracymorebroadly.TheU4Network
has helpedusestablish ongoing cooperationintheseareas of research. We would
like to thank our U4 international coordinators, Marco Lange (Goettingen) and
Jodien Howers (Groningen), for all their support from day one. Thanks to a few
visiting research exchanges between Groningen and Goettingen by the editors, a
conferenceinGroningen,andalotofhardwork,weproudlypresentacollectionof
chapters that reflect our joint efforts and are based on papers presented at the U4
GeneralConferenceinGroningeninNovember2015.Ithasbeenarealpleasure.
Thecollectioncontains14enrichingandinsightfulchaptersthattouchuponkey
(theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical) issues in light of the recent rise of
digitalmediainWesterndemocracies.Thebookisdividedintothreeparts,which
focusonkeytrendsinpolicyandregulation,politicalcommunication,and(forms
of) civic engagement—all within the context of digitization. The volume brings
togetheranumberofscholarsandperspectivesfromthefieldsofpoliticalscience,
political communication, and journalism studies. We like to thank the authors for
their contributions and all their hard work. It has been a real pleasure working/
collaborating with all of you. Finally, we like to thank Johannes Glaeser from
Springer International for his encouragement and assistance in publishing this
volume and also Luisa Zabel from the University of Goettingen for her valuable
assistanceinformattingthemanuscripts.
May2017 JuliaSchwanholz
ToddGraham
Peter-TobiasStoll
vii
Contents
1 DigitalTransformation:NewOpportunitiesandChallengesfor
Democracy?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
JuliaSchwanholzandToddGraham
PartI ChallengesforInternetRegulationontheGlobal,EU,and
NationalLevel
2 InternetCensorshipinLiberalDemocracies:Learningfrom
Autocracies?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
AndreasBusch,PatrickTheiner,andYanaBreindl
3 TheEmergenceandAnalysisofEuropeanDataProtection
Regulation. . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. 29
MuratKaraboga
4 InternetPolicyandGermanCopyrightRegulation.ASubsystem
PerspectivetoAssessChangesinInterestGroupDynamics
andPolicy-Making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
StefanLindow
PartII PoliticalCommunicationandSocialMedia:FromPoliticsto
Citizens
5 Parliaments2.0?DigitalMediaUsebyNationalParliaments
intheEU. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . 77
PatrickTheiner,JuliaSchwanholz,andAndreasBusch
6 MuchAdoAboutNothing?TheUseofSocialMediaintheNew
DigitalAgendaCommitteeoftheGermanBundestag. . . . . . . . . . . 97
JuliaSchwanholz,BrendaMoon,AxelBruns,andFelixMünch
7 SocialMediaLogicandItsImpactonPoliticalCommunication
DuringElectionTimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
PieterVerdegemandEvelienD’heer
ix
x Contents
8 ThePersonalinthePoliticalonTwitter:TowardsaTypologyof
Politicians’PersonalizedTweetingBehaviours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
ToddGraham,DanielJackson,andMarcelBroersma
9 SocialMediaSourcingPractices:HowDutchNewspapersUse
TweetsinPoliticalNewsCoverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
BertJanBrands,ToddGraham,andMarcelBroersma
PartIII OnlineCivicEngagementandthePublicSphere
10 NewRitualsforPublicConnection:Audiences’Everyday
ExperiencesofDigitalJournalism,CivicEngagement,
andSocialLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Joe¨lleSwart,ChrisPeters,andMarcelBroersma
11 SocialMediaasCivicSpaceforMediaCriticismandJournalism
Hate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
G€oranSvensson
12 LurkersandtheFantasyofPersuasioninanOnlineCulturalPublic
Sphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 223
JakobSvensson
13 EnvironmentalTalkintheChineseGreenPublicSphere:
AComparativeAnalysisofDailyGreen-SpeakAcrossThree
ChineseOnlineForums.. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. 243
YuSun,ToddGraham,andMarcelBroersma
14 Afterword:Clinton,Trump,andArtificialIntelligence. . . . . . . . . 265
EinarThorsen
About the Editors
Julia Schwanholz is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political
Science, Georg-August University, Goettingen. She completed her Ph.D. on Par-
liamentaryPowerswithinthefinancialmarketandeconomiccrisisincomparative
perspective in 2014. Her research focus includes political systems, parliaments,
digitaltransformation,andsocialmedia.
ToddGraham isaUniversityAcademicFellowinMediaandCommunicationat
theSchoolofMediaandCommunication, UniversityofLeeds.Hismainresearch
interestsaretheuseofnewmediainrepresentativedemocracies,theintersections
between popular culture and formal politics, online election campaigns, online
deliberationandpoliticaltalk,andonlinecivicengagement.
Peter-Tobias Stoll holds a chair for public land and international law at the
Faculty of Law of the Georg-August-Universita¨t G€ottingen and is one of the
directorsoftheInstituteforInternationalLawandEuropeanLaw.
xi
Chapter 1
Digital Transformation: New Opportunities
and Challenges for Democracy?
JuliaSchwanholzandToddGraham
Over the past couple of decades, the Internet has become an essential part of
everyday life for the majority of citizens in Western democracies. With the rise
of smartphones and “Internet of things” (Internet-enabled devices), the use of the
Internetwillbecomeevenmoreembeddedinthewayweliveourlivesascitizens,
families, communities, and societies as we move forward in the twenty-first cen-
tury. Today, the Internet (along with the rise of digital media) is impacting
everything from the way we shop, read the news, and live our everyday lives to
thewaysinwhichbusinesses,parliaments,andgovernmentswork,thusalteringthe
fabricofsocial,political,andeconomicinstitutions.Thesedigitaltransformations
havecreatednewchallengesandopportunitiesforpoliticians,journalists,political
institutions, and the (legacy) media from Internet regulation to reconnecting and
engagingwithcitizensandaudiences.
Thecontributionsinthisvolumeinvestigatethese(new)challengesandoppor-
tunities facing Western democracies (and China) from one of three angles: the
regulatorystate,thepoliticaluseofsocialmedia,oronlinecivicengagementinthe
public sphere. Drawing from different academic fields (political science, commu-
nicationscience,andjournalismstudies),thechaptersraiseanumberofinnovative
researchquestionsandprovidesomefascinatingtheoreticalandempiricalinsight.
Yet, individual contributions can only contribute limited answers to the complex
phenomenon of digitization. In this respect, the edited volume is greater than the
sum of its parts. Rather, they collectively address three overarching research
questions:
J.Schwanholz
DepartmentofPoliticalScience,UniversityofG€ottingen,G€ottingen,Germany
e-mail:[email protected]
T.Graham(*)
SchoolofMediaandCommunication,UniversityofLeeds,Leeds,Yorkshire,UK
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2018 1
J.Schwanholzetal.(eds.),ManagingDemocracyintheDigitalAge,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-61708-4_1