Political Information Research Articles

STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF MODERN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The article highlights the structural and functional features of political communication as a process of communicative interaction in the political sphere in the conditions of modern social development. It was determined that political communication is a communicative process of mutual exchange of political information and broadcasting of political discourse among political subjects, state administration bodies, civil society, aimed at achieving consensus in making political and managerial decisions, legitimizing power and maintaining the stability of the democratic political system through means mass communication, Internet social networks, informal contacts, etc. The leading functions of political communication in terms of its structural elements are distinguished: 1) subjects of political communication: citizens, state authorities and management, political parties, movements and associations, civil society institutions, associations and groups of users of social networks on the Internet etc; 2) feedback between the subjects of political communication, acting as a communicative interaction that takes on different forms of information exchange; 3) information message as a relevant political discourse; 4) channels and means of information transmission and two-way communication between subjects of political communication.

Motions in Pictures: From Habermas’s Informal Political Sphere to Formal Politics in the Films Footloose, Land and Freedom and The Beguiled

This article analyses three historical fiction films, Footloose, Land and Freedom and The Beguiled, to help illuminate aspects of politics and political theory. We study them to explore the relationship between Habermas’s concepts of the lifeworld and political spheres, which analysts have critiqued as opaque. Drawing on Habermas’s theory of communicative action, we debate prevailing understandings of the implications of his work for deliberative democracy via an exploration of the films. By expanding the definition of the term ‘motion’ (otherwise known as ‘draft resolution’), we relate this concept to these Habermasian themes. Thus, this paper analyses feature film case studies as they incorporate motions into fictionalised accounts. We suggest that focusing on these movies’ motions, embedded in unfolding narratives, can help reconceive Habermas’s work to illustrate fluidity in how people and ideas may move between informal and more formal spheres. Ultimately, by showcasing the importance of motions in political participation, via these movies, we advance the idea that motions may be seen as part of a ladder of involvement, providing further opportunities for encouraging participation.

The Psychological and Social Underpinnings of Political Belief Development

In this study we will, examine the complicated psychological and social forces that produce political attitudes. The paper reveals the twofold nature of the cognitive processes; how emotive and cognitive biases influence reasoning about politics. The findings reveal that one of the common types of directional motivated reasoning is one in which the pre-held belief impacts the treatment of political information, which in turn results in biased assessment of political personalities and issues. Other than that, this research discusses the role of conversation and deliberation in the promotion of reflective political opinions. Discussion with others persuades a person to express an opinion and to listen to others that develop one's thinking of political matters. The paper also discusses the emotions, such as anxiety and anger, associated with political judgment, maintaining that such emotions distort and occlude any lucid judgment about political performance. It also reveals that scientific curiosity acts to offset such one-sidedness: "The more scientifically curious anyone is, the more open they will be to information that runs counter to pre-existing points of view, allowing them to reason more impartially." Findings underpin views that a critical thinking-open discussion environment will be highly instrumental in raising political awareness and understanding. The present study bequeaths an important understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the construction of political opinion and the social processes that can help consolidate or contest these opinions. Controlling these factors sets up a better ability to confront polarization and misinformation in modern political discourses

Social Media As An Online Public Sphere: A Study among the First-Time Malay Voters

In a developing democracy like Malaysia, social media is pervasive in its influence on politics and democratic processes, particularly among the youth. Social media promotes the expression of opinions among groups, thereby opening up the realm of the public sphere in a semi-democratic country like Malaysia. Unlike the original conception of the public sphere, social media consists of spaces where citizens belonging to different groups and cultures, speak in different registers or languages, finding meaningful participation. Based on online interviews with 44 first-time voters among the Malay youth group, this article investigates the aspects of the interaction between young voters and the social media “public sphere.” It examines the platforms they use to communicate about politics, how they make sense of politics, and how they interact with other citizens through social media. The findings reveal four prevalent themes. First, young people have a keen interest in accessing political information on social media, albeit passively. Secondly, Twitter and Facebook were found to be the most influential social media channels for first-time voters seeking political information. Thirdly, out of concern about the surveillance practices on social media, private WhatsApp groups have emerged as the primary platform for first-time voters to engage in political discussions and debates. This leads us to the fourth theme, where the stories that feature on WhatsApp and Instagram are gaining prominence as the dominant platform for sharing political information. This trend highlights the potential for the incidental and ephemeral consumption of political content through these platforms. This trend may have significant implications for how political messages are communicated and received on these social media platforms.

US Higher Education's Civic Responsibility to Educate for Informal Political Representation

AbstractIn this paper, Caitlin Murphy Brust and Hannah Widmaier begin with the assumption that highly selective institutions of higher education in the United States have a duty to promote civic equality. They employ Wendy Salkin's theory of informal political representation to examine how highly selective institutions should go about promoting civic equality. According to Salkin's theory, someone serves as an informal political representative (IPR) when they speak or act on behalf of others, without having been selected to do so via a systematized selection procedure. Brust and Widmaier argue that as part of their civic educational missions, highly selective institutions should educate their students for informal political representation, and this includes equipping students to (1) serve as effective IPRs, (2) be responsible audience members to others' informal political representation, and (3) deliberate carefully and with open‐mindedness about when they should or should not take on the role of IPR. Brust and Widmaier examine two types of injustice that students from marginalized communities face at highly selective institutions, and they explore how education for informal political representation might ameliorate those injustices. The authors conclude by offering some practical suggestions to institutional policymakers and educators.

Political-RAG: using generative AI to extract political information from media content

ABSTRACT In the digital era, media content is crucial for political analysis, providing valuable insights through news articles, social media posts, speeches, and reports. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has transformed Political Information Extraction (IE), automating tasks such as event extraction and sentiment analysis. Traditional NLP methods, while effective, are often task-specific and require specialized expertise. In contrast, Large Language Models (LLMs) powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offer a more integrated solution. However, domain-specific challenges persist, which led to the development of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework. RAG enhances LLMs by incorporating external data retrieval, addressing issues related to data availability. To demonstrate RAG’s capabilities, we introduce the Political-RAG system, designed to extract political event information from media content, including Twitter data and news articles. Initially developed for event extraction, the Political-RAG system lays the foundation for developing various complex Political IE tasks. These include detecting hate speech, analyzing conflicts, assessing political bias, and evaluating social trends, sentiment, and opinions.

What’s in a Cue? Decoding Political Values in Applauded Statements From Ukraine’s Leading Political Talk Shows

Experimental studies show that public opinion cues shape people’s perceptions of public opinion. However, the full extent of political information these cues comprise and, consequently, communicate remains unexplored. This study utilizes standardized content analysis to examine the political values in applauded statements ( n = 1,722) from Ukraine’s major political talk shows. The results suggest that applauded statements embody a complex mix of identity- and governance-oriented values, signaling to the broader audience the preferred type of political debate among those within the studio. The study enhances the literature on public opinion cues by demonstrating the significance of analyzing their underlying content.

What’s on and who’s Watching? Combining People-Meter Data and Subtitle Data to Explore Television Exposure to Political News

ABSTRACT Understanding television viewing behavior is highly relevant, as it remains an important source of political news for many. Nowadays, viewers can choose between a growing diversity of formats covering political news, varying from traditional news broadcasts to late-night talk shows and satire. Yet, we have little to no information about the specific political content provided by television programs; and much less how this can be connected to viewing behavior and audience characteristics (political interest, ideology). Moving forward, using unique Dutch audience-meter data (3,672 viewers from 1,761 different households) from July 2017 to July 2018, we explore who is exposed to which (political) topic in what type of television program. We use automated content analysis to analyze the subtitles of television programs (N = 21,480). Our results indicate that situational factors, such as lead-in and lead-out effects affect news exposure. We also found that political interest does not only shape the volume but also the composition of audiences’ political information diets. Results show that higher political interest was associated with television audiences receiving a greater proportion of their news from public affairs and opinion programs. There does not appear to be any difference in patterns for political ideology; similar proportions of each type of program make up the information diets for both left and right viewers.

Uncertainties of Economic Policy and Government Management Stability Played Important Roles in Increasing Suicides in Japan from 2009 to 2023.

Standardized suicide mortality rates per 100,000 (SMRs) in Japan consistently decreased from 2009 to 2019 but increased from 2020. The causes of these temporal SMR fluctuations remain to be clarified. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the causalities underlying the recently transformed fluctuations of suicide mortality in Japan. Monthly suicide numbers disaggregated by sex and social standing, and political uncertainty indices, such as economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and government management instability (AENROP), were obtained from Japanese government databases. Interrupted time-series analysis was performed to analyze temporal fluctuations of SMRs disaggregated by sex/social standing associated with the three General Principles of Suicide Prevention Policy (GPSPP) periods and the COVID-19 pandemic. Panel data and vector autoregressive analyses were conducted to investigate causalities from political uncertainties to SMRs. During the first and second GPSPPs (2009-2017), all SMRs disaggregated by sex and social standing decreased, whereas those of unemployed females did not change. During the third GPSPP (2017-2022), decreasing trends in all SMRs were attenuated compared to previous periods. All female SMRs, except unemployed females, showed sharp increases synchronized with the pandemic outbreak. No male SMRs showed sharply increasing at the pandemic outbreak. SMRs of unemployed males/females drastically increased in the later periods of the pandemic, while SMRs of employed and multiple-person/single-person household males did not increase during the pandemic. SMR of unemployed males was positively related to AENROP but not EPU. Other male SMRs were positively related to EPU/AENROP. On the contrary, not all female SMRs were related to EPU/AENROP. Increasing AENROP generally contributed to increasing male SMRs throughout the observation period; however, susceptibility to AENROP and/or political information might have unexpectedly contributed to suppressing the sharply increasing male SMRs induced by large-scale social shocks (the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak) in Japan.

College Student Political Participation in the Context of a Polarized Nation and an International Pandemic: Do Campus Civic Engagement Efforts Matter?

U.S. universities devote substantial resources to increasing student political engagement, especially voting; research identifies several factors affecting student political participation, including socialization theories (e.g. family, friends, school), distance from home (Niemi and Hanmer), and choice architecture (Thaler, Sunstein, and Balz). Other research suggests that increased party polarization leads to higher voter turnout (Abramowitz and Stone; Crepaz). Our study sought to understand student political behavior (voting and registration) and political polarization during fall 2020 in the context of a polarized nation and an international pandemic. Based on 326 surveys of undergraduates and in-depth follow-up interviews, where 85% of our student sample reported voting, results suggest support for several factors that contribute to voting: level of political information efficacy, participation in campus organizations and events, friends, and family. On measures of social distance (“polarization”), participants felt more distant from Trump and less distant from Biden, and participants who felt closer to Biden felt significantly more prepared to vote than participants who felt distant to Biden. Surprisingly, minority students were less likely to vote. A second analysis compared a subsample of student fraternity/sorority members (“Greek” members) from 2016 and those from 2020. The 2020 Greek members voted at higher rates and were more active on social media although voter registration rates did not differ. Results suggest that several factors contributed to student voting in our sample: parent/family encouragement, a cultivated campus voting culture, campus outreach efforts to first year students, and increased voting avenues during the pandemic.

So problematic and so tied to the media: analyzing the misinformation concern in six European countries

PurposeThis paper addresses the social issue of misinformation in six European countries by investigating how intangible factors associated with the collective evaluation of political-institutional behaviors and judgments regarding media practices and uses of online communication channels are related to citizens’ concerns about misinformation.Design/methodology/approachBased on a quantitative approach (data analysis), the study relies on data from the Eurobarometer 98.2 (2023), the official public opinion survey of European institutions. The analysis encompasses six European countries representing the pluralist-polarized (Spain, Italy and Greece) and democratic-corporatist models (Germany, Denmark and Sweden). With a multiple linear regression model, the research explores how independent variables help explain citizens' concerns regarding misinformation in each country.FindingsThe paper emphasizes three main findings: (1) for citizens in five out of six countries, the main factor associated with an increased misinformation concern is the distrust of political information on social network sites. (2) for citizens, how they evaluate the performance of traditional media relates to misinformation concerns and (3) this holds for countries categorized in pluralist-polarized and democratic-corporatist media system models.Practical implicationsMedia managers and policymakers can leverage the insights from this research to address the social concern of misinformation.Originality/valueThis article adds value to existing misinformation studies by underscoring the significance of understanding how citizens’ assessments of political-institutional behaviors, journalism practices and the political use of online communication channels interconnect with the misinformation concern in both pluralist-polarized and democratic-corporatist models.

Public Perception of Hate Speech on Social Media (Facebook) during the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria

In the contemporary global landscape, the advent of information and communication technology has interconnected societies, fostering increased civic engagement. Notably, social media platforms, a manifestation of this technological innovation, play a vital role in political discourse, drawing active participation from politicians, political parties, and their supporters. However, the utilization of these platforms in the context of electoral campaigns, particularly in nations like Nigeria, has raised concerns due to the dissemination of political information carrying adverse repercussions. This study delves into the examination of the public's perceptions regarding hate speech on Facebook during Nigeria's 2023 general elections. Employing a survey research strategy and leveraging convenient sampling, data were collected from residents within the geographical scope of Kwali Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria. The research framework drew upon the public sphere theory to elucidate its core objectives. Findings underscored the prevalence of hate speech on Facebook during the 2023 elections, attributing it to factors such as financial inducements, conspiracies, lack of citizen journalist training, religious interests, and sectional, tribal, and political influences. Notably, Facebook emerged as a platform for disseminating speeches that fueled animosity toward politicians, tribes, religions, and sections, instigating widespread antipathy without substantial knowledge of the targeted individuals or candidates. The research also highlighted the use of Facebook for insults, harassment, and the propagation of divisive narratives, contributing to tribal and religious conflicts, heightened tensions, attacks, disparities, and internal discord. This study's implications suggest a potential undermining of Nigeria's democratic progress. As a remedy, the study advocates for the responsible and positive use of social media platforms by users, especially during critical events such as elections.

Information is cheap, but filtering is costly: Congressional investment in reference resources

AbstractLawmakers who can supply themself with information to manage complex problems are at an advantage, but equally important is the filtering and contextualizing of applicable information. Members of Congress manage a deluge of policy and political information, and this short paper examines one strategy members of Congress use to mitigate that burden—by investing in reference material and news media to filter and summarize the policymaking environment. Using congressional disbursement data from the 116th and 117th Congress, I explain how institutional experience is associated with an office's choice to invest in more information filtering. Freshman members of the House are more likely to turn to news media or publications to provide insight into the congressional agenda, offer political context, and prioritize issues of importance. Reference investment is not tied to partisanship, ideology, lawmaking capacity, or previous office, but those junior offices who need to get up to lawmaking speed invest in external information filtering. These results illuminate how central institutional knowledge is to lawmaking in Congress, and how much an office is willing to invest to mitigate that weakness.

Mind Over Misinformation: Investigating the Factors of Cognitive Influences in Information Acceptance

ABSTRACTMany scholars have tried to investigate the identification, characterization, dissemination, and prevention of misinformation in recent years. But a fundamental question that lies behind these investigations is ‘Why do people believe in a piece of information, whether true or false?’. The primary objective of this study is to understand the psychological drivers of belief systems that makes individuals believe any information prior assessing its veracity. The study specifically tries to understand cognitive biases that influence an individual's decision making about information in digital settings. Based on a quantitative survey with 41 participants, we try to induce cognitivity among the participants and try to measure the effect in their decision making. We find a major portion of our participants being cognitively induced which in turn had a significant effect on their decision making while engaging with information. Furthermore, we try to assess whether an individual's political affiliation has any effects in perceived truthfulness while engaging with political information. This study shows us how easily cognitive bias can be induced and how it affects an individual's belief structure in digital platforms.

Digital government: Social media as a mediator in technology acceptance with political knowledge, interest, and participation

Social media is an essential tool for governments to spread political information in the digital era. However, the influence of social media on political participation is significant but not well recognised in developing countries such as Malaysia. The main problem is the lack of clarity surrounding the factors that influence citizen adoption of political social networks and how this influences political interest, knowledge, and participation. The purpose of this study is to explore factors and social media as mediator in political dynamics. The study sampled 338 young people from the University Malaysia Sabah using convenient sampling. The online questionnaire is distributed through Google Form and the hypotheses are analysed using SPSS Process macro and AMOS. The results highlighted that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, political participation, and political interest are significantly related to government-political related social media usage. Social media usage mediated the relationship between all predictors and dependent variables (except for political knowledge). This study offers evidence-based suggestions within a theoretical framework to improve the government’s use of social media for civil engagement.

Технологии медиакоммуникаций в политической сфере в контексте современной геополитической ситуации

The article considers key characteristics of media communication technology in the political sphere in the context of the current geopolitical situation. The author explores the influence of modern media communication for political information. The article analyses the features of application of media communication technologies by various political actors, as well as their influence on public opinion formation and political preference. The article is of interest to specialists in the field of political science, sociology, journalism and other humanities, as well as to a wide range of readers interested in modern trends in the development of media communication technologies and their impact on the political sphere. The author of the article considers political communication as a process of transfer of politically relevant information between different elements of the political system with the aim of its subsequent assimilation. The digital factors of influence of media communications on political environment are analyzed. Modern media communication technologies provide new opportunities for political actors to influence public opinion and shape the political preferences of citizens. However, they can also be used to spread misinformation and manipulate the public consciousness, so the author points out the importance of professionalizing knowledge in this area to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate information. It seems that political actors in the digital environment need to intensify interaction with online platforms, digital services and social networks for effective interaction with the population.

Three theses on informal housing in Europe

This editorial introduction to the Special Issue ‘The rules, institutions and politics of housing informality in Europe’ argues for a more holistic interpretation to housing informality in Europe as a critical heuristic for re-thinking the dynamics of informality in the global North. In so doing, it offers three modest theses. First, housing informality is an endogenous phenomenon in the development of European cities, closely connected to the logics of capitalist modernity and currently located at the intersection of new patterns of forced migration and an ever-intensifying housing crisis. Second, housing informality is (also) a by-product of direct forms of public support, toleration and legitimation, as well as the consequence of deliberate (in)action by the State. This results in a clear public politics of informal space, in the framework of which informal housing is an instrument of governmentality in the hands of ruling elites. Third, housing informality is normatively ambiguous. In fact, informal dwelling practices create an archipelago of institutional micro-geographies at the city scale, that generate, in turn, heterogeneous spheres of urban citizenship rights. This selective spatial autonomy can be inhabited as much by processes of rights expansion, emancipation and solidarity as well as by practices of right-restriction, exploitation and precarization.

Estimating public opinion from surveys: the impact of including a “don't know” response option in policy preference questions

Abstract What are the consequences of including a “don't know” (DK) response option to attitudinal survey questions? Existing research, based on traditional survey modes, argues that it reduces the effective sample size without improving the quality of responses. We contend that it can have important effects not only on estimates of aggregate public opinion, but also on estimates of opinion differences between subgroups of the population who have different levels of political information. Through a pre-registered online survey experiment conducted in the United States, we find that the DK response option has consequences for opinion estimates in the present day, where most organizations rely on online panels, but mainly for respondents with low levels of political information and on low salience issues. These findings imply that the exclusion of a DK option can matter, with implications for assessments of preference differences and our understanding of their impacts on politics and policy.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN INCREASING RURAL GENERATION Z PARTICIPATION IN THE 2024 ELECTIONS : A STUDY IN SUNGAI ANA VILLAGE, SINTANG DISTRICT

This research investigates the role of social media in increasing the political participation of Generation Z in rural areas, especially Sungai Ana Village, Sintang District during the 2024 General Election. Using a mixed methods approach, this research combines a literature review, survey, in-depth interviews, social media content analysis, and observation participatory to collect comprehensive data. These findings reveal that social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp are very important for increasing political awareness among Generation Z users in Sungai Ana Village, Sintang District. About 91% of respondents rely on social media as their main source of political information, and admit that these platforms help them better understand political issues and candidates. These findings highlight the need for increased media literacy and critical thinking skills to combat the spread of fake news. The study concludes with recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of improving internet infrastructure in rural areas, promoting educational campaigns on media literacy, and fostering collaboration between governments, educational institutions, and social media platforms to develop effective political education initiatives. By overcoming these challenges and harnessing the potential of social media, Generation Z's political engagement in rural areas, especially in Sungai Ana Village, can be significantly increased, resulting in more active and informed participation in the democratic process

Political Awareness Among Elected Members Of Village Panchayath- A Case Study Of Gurupura Village At Dakshina Kannada District

In the modern age of development, local government has the greater responsibilities to play. The elected representative are to be the agent of positive change at their level. For this, Elected representatives are to be more sensible towards the socio-economic and other aspects. Although local government in India is subject of the State government, the seventy-third and seventy-fourth amendments to the Constitution of India now make it obligatory for the state government to organise local bodies, to hold regular election to them and to give them appropriate finances. Political awareness means access to political information, political participation, media exposure, interest in politics and education with political information being the best indicator over all. The Political Awareness and Political Participation are the parameters to assess the success of democratic system. There are two forms of political participation such as active and passive. The study of the political awareness and participation among the elected members at the gram panchayat level enabled to derive the efforts done by the external agencies in this regard. The study is restricted to one of the gram panchayat of Gurupur village in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka