Project Details
Projekt
Political Deliberation on the Internet: Forms and Functions of Digital Discourse Based on the Microblogging System Twitter
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Caja Thimm
Subject Area
Communication Sciences
Term
from 2010 to 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 181722570
The main objectives of the third phase of the project are twofold: (1) the analysis of the interdependencies between the changing media environment and communicative practices on Twitter in the context of political discourse, (2) conceptualizing Twitter as a public stage for political deliberation on the internet. The mediatization of politics, which is the focal point of the research project, is reflected on Twitter through individual discoursive practices which are realized by adopting specific communicative options intrinsically tied to the media logic of Twitter. Based on the model of Twitter as a discoursive network, which was developed during the first two research phases (2010-2014), a further precision of the model by including transmedia extensions is planned. The empirical analysis is based on the extensive dataset of tweets from politicians, citizens and media, which was collected during German state elections in the years 2010-2014, during the German national elections in 2013, and which will be expanded by documenting the upcoming elections of 2014-2016. Aim of the planned analysis is to further elaborate the concept of online-deliberation by focusing on the processes of deliberation during negotiations of selected political issues. More specifically, we will look at the ad-hoc formation of mini-publics and their role for political discourse on the internet, as a particular manifestation of the mediatization of politics.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
