Flow Of Political Information Research Articles

Interactive Election Campaigns on Social Media? Flow of Political Information Among Journalists and Politicians as an Element of the Communication Strategy of Political Actors

ABSTRACT This study examined politicians’ communication strategies with journalists in Poland within the context of the flow of information on social media (Facebook and Twitter). The main questions posed in the article concerned which entities used which patterns of information flow, and whether during election campaigns, politicians communicated with journalists on social media by reacting to the latter’s published posts. The study focused on pre-electoral periods of two consecutive parliamentary elections in Poland conducted in 2015 and 2019. The results showed that politicians rarely reacted to journalists’ Twitter posts. If they did, they most often used reactive communication. Additionally, political actors from opposition parties more intensely used information flow patterns with a higher level of interactivity in 2019 than in 2015.

Mass media from gagauzia in the modern socio-political context

The article is dedicated to highlighting the role of the media in contemporary society. The subject is revealed based on the example of the development of the local media system of ATU Gagauzia. Assuming that the media is an integral element of society, playing a special role in all spheres of state, political and social life, the article reveals the factors that ensure the importance of the media in modern life, elucidates the development of the media not only from in terms of content, but also in all the manifestations and effects produced. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of some features of the Gagauz media space and its influence on the development of socio-political processes in the region. The socio-political structure is conceptualized as the basis for shaping the configuration of the regional media. The activities of the media reflect the state of the socio-political systems and processes in the society. The role of the media is particularly significant in certain periods of social development and political processes. Under the influence of social, economic, political and other issues, the flow of political information is accelerating, the competitiveness of social groups, political parties and individual politicians for effective control over the press is intensifying. All this leads to an increase in the role of the media in the dialogue between the various social and political communities, between the government and society as a whole.

The Social, Civic, and Political Uses of Instagram in Four Countries

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly users. Yet, little is known about how citizens engage with this platform. In this paper, we use representative survey data to examine social, civic, and political uses of Instagram by citizens in four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France (n=6,291). The survey was administered to an online panel matched to the age and gender profile of each country (September to November 2019). About 40% of respondents used Instagram. This platform is especially popular among young adults (73%). Users’ network sizes are typically small, as a third of users have less than 15 followers and follow less than 15 other accounts. About 15% of users followed news organizations, a nonprofit organization or charity, or a political candidate or party. While users rarely cultivate networks with ties to these formal organizations and groups, civic and political information flows on this platform. Approximately 57% of users report seeing political information on Instagram during the previous 12 months. These findings suggest political information on Instagram flows through informal rather than formal networks. This paper establishes the importance of social, civic, and political uses of Instagram among citizens in four Western countries. Furthermore, we offer insights into the segments of the population that are intense users of Instagram, which helps to understand the role of this platform in civic and political life.

Deciding what’s (sharable) news: Social movement organizations as curating actors in the political information system

ABSTRACT News is often sourced not directly from journalistic outlets, but from various actors that “curate” content into individuals' information networks. Although these curating actors impact the news individuals receive, little is known about their behind-the-scenes curatorial decision-making. Addressing this gap, I isolated one kind of curating actor in the flow of political information: social movement organizations. Drawing on an ethnographic case study from the U.S. transgender movement, I analyzed the “logics of curation” at play in organizations' social media practices. These logics included the internal criteria by which they decided what news stories to share, how they decided when and by which media each story should be shared, and what they hoped to achieve as the end result of curation.

The Selective Communication of Political Information

People seek out and interpret political information in self-serving ways. In four experiments, we show that people are similarly self-serving in the political information they share with others. Participants learned about positive and negative effects of increasing the minimum wage (in Studies 1–3) or of banning assault weapons (Study 4). They then indicated how likely they would be to mention each effect to close others. Participants were more inclined to share information that was consistent with their political orientation than information that was not. This effect persisted even when participants believed the information, suggesting that selective communication is not just a reflection of motivated skepticism. We also observed ideological differences. Liberals were most biased with their political opponents, whereas conservatives were most biased with their political allies. This biased information sharing could distort the flow of political information through social networks in ways that exacerbate political polarization.

Of 'Rage of Party' and the Coming of Civility

Of 'Rage of Party' and the Coming of Civility

Followers Retweet! The Influence of Middle‐Level Gatekeepers on the Spread of Political Information on Twitter

Twitter allows political candidates to broadcast messages directly to the public, some of which spread virally, potentially reaching new supportive audiences. During the 2014 U.S. gubernatorial election, 74 candidates for State Governor posted 20,580 tweets, of which 10,946 were retweeted almost 140,000 times. By analyzing a collection of tweets posted by gubernatorial candidates that were classified by machine learning into categories of message types, we find that while candidates tend to post tweets that advocate for themselves the most, the public is more likely to retweet attack messages and messages labeled as call‐to‐action. As measured by number of retweets, call‐to‐action tweets tend to reach the broadest audience. We also find that middle‐level gatekeepers, those with between 1,800 and 26,000 followers, tend to have the most influence over the flow of political information. Since retweets tend to bring new followers, these findings suggest that politicians wishing to grow their audience may benefit from posting more call‐to‐action and attack messages, and that candidates may wish to find ways to actively enlist the support of middle‐level gatekeepers.

“Appearances Do Matter”: Congressional District Compactness and Electoral Turnout

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor famously declared in Shaw v. Reno that “appearances do matter” when it comes to the shape of congressional districts. Although there are no definitive legal requirements for districts' geographical appearances, the argument is widely posited that more compact districts are better. The reasoning often asserts, and empirical studies have shown, that compactness improves communication between representatives and constituents, increases political information flows, produces fairer results, as well as restricts excessive gerrymandering. These, in turn, can all increase political participation and improve the legitimacy of our representative institutions. Despite this conventional wisdom, there is little empirical evidence on the electoral effects of compactness. Using a dataset on the compactness of U.S. House districts—with multiple measures generated by geographic information system (GIS) analyses over two redistricting cycles, I estimate the effects of congressional district compactness on electoral turnout and argue that Sandra Day O'Connor is correct: “appearances do matter.”

Skipping politics: Measuring avoidance of political content in social media

Selective exposure is a growing concern as people become more reliant on social media for political information. While self-reports often ask about exposure to political content on social media, existing research does not account for the fact that even those exposed to political content may still choose to ignore it. To effectively account for this, we employ corneal eye tracking software, such that we can observe users’ gaze and the amount of time they actually spend with political content. Consistent with expectations, the earlier a cue that a post is political, the faster a user skips over it. This trend is concentrated among those least interested in politics. Implications for how we think about social media and political information flows in the modern media environment are discussed.

A New Sphere for Political Discourse-Understanding Twitter as a Sphere for Political Discussion

While previous research efforts have revealed the significant civic and political potential of interpersonal interactions in social media, the dynamics of political discourse in online social networks remains to be explicated. With an interest on understanding the potential to function as an egalitarian public sphere for political discourse, this study investigates the flow of political information and the concentration of discussion in the social media context. More specifically, this study examines Twitter data and reveals that patterns of information flow can be linked to the different levels of influence exerted by its users on Twitter. In addition, the results of this study suggest that political conversations in Twitter tend to be concentrated, rather than creating an equal playing field. Future implications of social media as a democratic public sphere for are discussed.

BOATOS, CRISES E OPORTUNIDADES POLÍTICAS NA ANTIGUIDADE TARDIA

RESUMO Comparado à organização política do Principado, o regime imperial da Antiguidade Tardia obteve um controle muito maior sobre a circulação da informação política em decorrência da centralização do poder e do número ainda maior de funcionários qualificados dedicados a coligir, cotejar e recuperar informações em todo o Império. Ainda assim, a vastidão do Império Romano e a lentidão das comunicações continuavam a representar as principais ameaças ao poder absolutista, especialmente nos momentos de crises políticas, quando a própria ausência de informações oficiais alimentava os canais subterrâneos e incontrolados de notícias. Do ponto de vista da plebe urbana e dos atores políticos locais, o recurso a essas notícias clandestinas que nós chamamos de "boatos" podia representar uma tentativa de avaliar a abertura de oportunidades para a ação em um ambiente político marcado por uma profunda incerteza. O objetivo deste artigo é explorar como a plebe urbana, as facções religiosas ou seus líderes percebiam (e encorajavam) a difusão de notícias sobre as mudanças no poder imperial como uma "janela de oportunidades" e como uma forma de organizar uma ação coletiva.

Strategi Pemulihan Citra Partai Politik: Kasus Partai Demokrat

Academic studies and practical application of political communication strategy gained a right momentum in the current political landscape of contemporary Indonesian since the political reform in 1998. The need to build a reputation for political parties and politicians in the electoral political system requires relevant scientific devices, in the form of a communication strategy that is capable of forming and taking care of the individual and organizational image in the midst of instant culture in political practice. The strong influence of mass media is used to manipulate flow of political information in the midst of political literacy crisis among Indonesian communicity at large. This paper outlines the phenomenon of confidence crisis in the political parties, especially the Democratic Party --the party that was born in the post New Order regime. After striken by corruption cases, Democrat’s position dropped and need to restore its image and reputation. In this paper, Democrat is chosen as an example because it represents the political party profiles that experienced a leap and led by Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the successful president in defend his position for two periods. Borrowing image restoration theory developed by William Benoit (1995), this paper presents and analyzes the publication activities of the Democratic Party in the 2014 election that can be involved as image restoration as anti-corruption political party. This paper will also be enriched recommendations for similar action in the future.

Media Systems and the Political Information Environment: A Cross-National Comparison

To express attitudes and act according to their self-interest, citizens need relevant, up-to-date information about current affairs. But has the increased commercialization in the media market increased or decreased the flow of political information? Hallin and Mancini stress that the existing empirical evidence is fragmented and that this question therefore has been difficult to answer. In this article the authors present new data that allow them to systematically examine how the flow of political information on TV occurs across six Western countries during a thirty-year period. The authors find that the flow of political information through TV varies according to the degree of commercialization. The flow of news and current affairs is lowest in the most commercially oriented television system and among the commercial TV channels. There is however important cross-national variation even within similar media systems. The authors’ data do not suggest a convergence toward the liberal system when it comes to the political information environment on TV. Rather, what strikes them is how strongly resistant some European countries have been to subordinating the needs of democracy to profit making.

The Dual Roots of Opinion Leadership

Political scientists often focus on the link between personal attributes and the flow of political information. In this article, I argue that opinion leadership may not be as singularly rooted in the presence of a certain predisposition or set of personal characteristics as suggested in previous political opinion leadership studies. I develop two sets of hypotheses: the first derived from the perspective that opinion leadership is a function of a recipe of attributes and the second derived from the perspective that opinion leadership is tied to the characteristics of the social milieu in which the citizen is embedded. I test these hypotheses empirically using a data set constructed from two surveys of individuals in the New York metropolitan area. The results suggest that while opinion leaders possess attributes that distinguish them from nonleaders, they appear to gain influence through their informational advantages relative to others in the same environment.

Disagreement, Ambivalence, and Engagement: The Political Consequences of Heterogeneous Networks

Individuals with similar political orientations may find themselves in dissimilar social and political surroundings, with important consequences for the flow of political information among citizens. Analyses of data from the post‐election survey of the 1900 National Election Study show that some individuals reside within extensive networks of political discussion and communication, whereas others are politically isolated. With respect to presidential candidate preference in 1900, some citizens in networks were surrounded by discussants who agreed with their preference, others by discussants who held ambiguous and undetermined preferences, and still others by discussants who held politically divergent preferences. These preference distributions have various implications for the formation of political opinion and for levels of political engagement and turnout.

The Family in a Sequence of Political Activation: Why Civic Interventions Can Succeed

We invite theorists and architects of interventions to consider the stimulation of family political communication as a powerful strategy for the mobilization of civic involvement. Family-based interaction constitutes a valuable resource for activation efforts, but to appreciate this potential requires a conceptualization of political involvement as a micro-social process. The family constitutes a social system that tends to maintain homeostatic balance in various domains of social interaction, including civic competence. An intervention such as a school curriculum or a media campaign can heighten the political interest of the family member initially reached by the intervention, which creates tension if other family members perceive a need to increase their own civic competence. Strides toward citizenship occur when the family system adjusts to re-establish equilibrium in response to exogenous influences that create tension. This framework situates the family as a mediating institution in relationship to societal agents that periodically heighten the flow of political information. The family is responsive to increased political stimulation and generative of motivation that leads to voting and other forms of participation outside the home. Our functional model of family political communication contrasts with a tendency toward reductionist thinking in which campaign effects are evaluated in isolation to each other, and in the absence of social context. We conclude with an intervention strategy that incorporates family interaction to amplify the impact of political stimulation originating from media, schools, and elections.

Citizens, politics, and social communication: information and influence in an election campaign

Acknowledgments Part I. Democratic Politics and Social Communication: 1. The multiple levels of democratic politics 2. A research strategy for studying electoral politics Part II. Electoral Dynamics and Social Communication: 3. The social dynamics of political preference 4. Durability, volatility and social influence 5. Social dynamics in an election campaign Part III. Networks, Political Discussants, and Social Communication: 6. Political discussion in an election campaign 7. Networks in context: The social flow of political information 8. Choice, social structure, and the informational coercion of minorities 9. Discussant effects on vote choice: Intimacy, structure, and interdependence 10. Gender effects on political discussion: The political networks of men and women Part IV. The Organizational Locus of Social Communication: 11. One-party politics and the voter revisited: strategic and behavioral bases of partisanship 12. Political parties and electoral mobilization: political structure, social structure, and the party canvass 13. Alternative contexts of political preference 14. Political consequences of interdependent citizens Bibliography Index.

Political Environments, Cohesive Social Groups, and the Communication of Public Opinion

Theory: A theory of political communication is employed which stresses the importance of citizen discussion beyond the boundaries of cohesive groups for the dissemination of public opinion. Hypotheses: If the social communication of political information is bounded by cohesive social groups and strong social ties, we should expect the social flow of political information to be independent from opinion distributions in the larger environment. In contrast, when social communication extends beyond socially cohesive groups, the flow of information should reflect these opinion distributions. Methods: We analyze a 1992 election survey which includes a battery of questions regarding the construction of respondents' social networks. The analysis is undertaken with respect to opinion distributions in the larger environments (counties) where the respondents reside. Results: Individuals are differentially exposed to larger environments of opinion depending on micro environmental patterns of social interaction and political communication. Hence, the construction of a citizen's social network serves as a filter on the macro environmental flow of political information. In this way, the consequences of the larger environment of opinion depend on the existence of micro environments which expose citizens to surrounding opinion distributions.

Computer networks and political participation: Santa Monica's teledemocracy project

Abstract New communication technologies have been touted as a way to improve political participation by facilitating the flow of political information and opinion between citizens and their leaders. A project in Santa Monica, California, broke new ground for teledemocracy experiments with Public Electronic Network (PEN), the first government‐sponsored computer network intended as a supplemental channel of communication between a city government and citizens. This paper examines how computer networks in general, and PEN in particular, match the ideals of teledemocracy through a descriptive and historical analysis of Santa Monica's Public Electronic Network. “Populist”; uses of communication technology, such as electronic town halls in which information control remains centralized for the politically powerful and citizen feedback is restricted, are seen as less true to teledemocratic ideals than “pluralist”; uses, in which information control is diffused and citizen involvement is facilitated. This analysis concludes that interactive computer networks are well‐suited for facilitating pluralistic political participation. In addition, PEN's hardware and software design is well‐suited to accomplish teledemocratic goals of early and continuous participation in policy formation and decision‐making processes of local government. Possible extensions of this analysis of PEN are discussed.

Un réexamen de la loi de Converse sur le lien entre le degré d'information politique et la mobilité de court terme de l'opinion

AbstractThis study proposes an empirical test of a classical hypothesis formulated by Philip Converse about the link between political information and opinion change. The study departs from previous ones on three aspects: (1) it is conducted outside the electoral field; (2) political information—the key variable of the analysis—is directly measured and is issue specific, and (3) the test of Converse hypothesis is carried through the utilization of a quasi-experimental design. The results—based on a sample of students expressing opinions about the Canada-USA free trade agreement—exhibit the expected non-linear relation between the individual's level of political information and his propensity to change opinion. This conclusion suggests that particular groups could be more sensitive to political information flows.