Public Political Communication Research Articles

Political Practices of Late Imperial Russia: S.Yu. Witte and His Financial Reform

This article examines S.Yu. Witte’s perception of certain political practices in late Imperial Russia, with a special focus on his memoirs. The financial reform introduced by him and the «struggle» for its implementation, both in the bureaucratic field and public political communication, are considered in detail. The primary sources used in the analysis include S.Yu. Witte’s «Memoirs», accounts from his contemporaries, periodicals, correspondence, and unpublished materials stored in the archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The results obtained reveal that the Russian Empire pursued contradictory political practices during the studied period. Key algorithms of the political behavior of public officials and their characteristics in the «Memoirs» as a valuable source are outlined.

Egyptian Women Controversial Issues and the Digital Public Sphere: Can Social Media Debates Be Used as Indicators of Social Struggle in Society?

Egyptian Women Controversial Issues and the Digital Public Sphere:Can Social Media Debates Be Used as Indicators of Social Struggle in Society? Enas Abou Youssef (bio) 1. Introduction Can social media networks be used as indicators of social class conflict in society? This is the core research question of this study. Social media networks have opened a new digital public sphere era. In Egypt, ever since the uprising on January 25, 2011, social media networks are considered one of the focal communicative tools that encouraged civic participation from many socio-ideological classes to the extent that the uprising was called the "Facebook revolution."1 Since 2011, the country has witnessed many waves of polarization. At the beginning, polarization was political where Islamists were facing secular trends. That polarization shed its light in other [End Page 58] aspects of social and economic life in Egypt later on. Many cultural and socioeconomic issues were displayed on social media and reflected diverse attitudes, approaches, and even values specifically regarding women's issues. In Egypt, among other Arab countries, the assumption that digital public sphere has higher freedom ceiling with socio-cultural issues is true to a substantial extent. Based on this assumption, one can examine socio-cultural struggles in Egyptian society from social issues debated and displayed on social media. Facebook, twitter, Tik-Tok, and reels can be considered reflections of different social classes that have access and are digitally empowered to dominate in the digital public sphere.2 According to Pierre Bourdieu, social status can be analyzed by considering three exchangeable capitals: economic, social, and cultural. In general, economic capital consists of money, assets, and property the individual holds. Social capital includes actual or virtual groups to which the individual belongs, their durable networks, and more or less institutionalized relationships.3 Cultural capital refers to the type of education and socialization that allows individuals to demonstrate their knowledge and cultural consumption and that differentiates them from other social groups.4 This article aims to present an analysis of Egyptian women's controversial issues that are displayed on the social media "Facebook" from one side and their indications to types of socio-cultural conflict existing in society from the other side during June 2021-July 2022. The key question is: What are the recent social conflict characteristics concluded from debates addressing Egyptian women's controversial issues displayed and trended on social networks? [End Page 59] 2. Reviewing the Literature and Theoretical Conceptual Framework 2.1 Digital Public Sphere One of the major points Jürgen Habermas highlighted when presenting the concept of "Public Sphere" is that sphere is "open to all." A public sphere refers to a society that can become engaged in "critical public debate."5 Accordingly, the public sphere would be linked to media for information, communication, and access by all citizens. Media plays the role of promoting the open market of ideas in liberal societies. Habermas thereby stresses that the public sphere is not just a sphere of public political communication, but also one that enables social relations using media.6 However, some scholars have argued that the idea of a public sphere, which is free from state censorship and private ownership, does not exist. Niklas Luhmann, for example, assured that all social systems, including communication systems, are related to the power of money and the paid/unpaid in the economy or the power of who is in office/out of office in politics.7 It should be noted that media systems never function in a vacuum. They are part of the political, socioeconomic system in society. Yet, recent technological factors have loosened the public sphere and opened access to more societal participants. Social media networks created new public sphere horizons of political communication. In 2011, there were revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and beyond. The common aspects of these protests were the use of social media networks as tactics of political, economic, and social protests, creating a new public space that reflected a common crisis of society.8 The digital public sphere is a communicative sphere that is provided or supported by online or social media – from websites to social network sites, weblogs, and micro-blogs. These platforms provide...

Die Vertrauenskrise in der Gesellschaft

Ausgehend von in empirischen Studien erhobenen Daten über ein weitverbreitetes Misstrauen der Bevölkerung gegenüber der derzeit in Deutschland praktizierten Demokratie und deren politischen Repräsentanten und Repräsentantinnen soll mithilfe eines psychoanalytisch-bindungstheoretischen Ansatzes die als überzogen und unangemessen-irrational erscheinende Einstellung reflektiert werden. In den Erklärungen gesellschaftskritischer, in der Tradition der Kritischen Theorie stehender Autoren werden letztlich die Erfordernisse der ökonomischen Verhältnisse für demokratiefeindliche Einstellungen verantwortlich gemacht. Im Gegensatz dazu soll im vorliegenden Beitrag an das Freud’sche Verständnis grundlegender menschlicher Bedingungen in ihrer Wechselwirkung mit den Anforderungen der Außenwelt angeknüpft werden. Neuere Erkenntnisse wie das aus der Entwicklungspsychologie hervorgegangene Konzept des „epistemischen Vertrauens“ von Peter Fonagy werden einbezogen. Es wird eine Analogie zwischen dem Therapeut*in-Patient*in-Verhältnis und dem Verhältnis zwischen Politiker*innen und ihren potenziellen Wähler*innen hergestellt. An einem „Fallbeispiel“ aus der öffentlichen politischen Kommunikation sollen mithilfe dieser Analogie das erweiterte Verständnis veranschaulicht und ein Vorschlag zur „Behandlungstechnik“ gemacht werden.

Practices of Interaction of State and Non-State Actors in the Context of Regulation of the Mass Communication System in the Russian Federation

Introduction. The article represents the author’s interpretation of the actor composition of implementing information policy in modern Russia. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the main conditions of interaction between state and non-state structures of the Russian Federation in the process of determining priorities and strategies for ensuring information security in Russia. The problem of this research is actualized by increasing dependence of the mass communication domestic system on modern global geopolitical threats and foreign policy challenges. Russia and Russian society need a set of effective tools and methods to ensure the security and stability of the mass communication system. Methodology and methods. The main methodology of this study is the principles of the communicative approach (N. Wiener, C. Deutsch). Besides, the ideas about the technological core of political communication find their scientific and practical application (S.V. Volodenkov, M. Castells, S.V. Schwarzenberg). The analysis of the combination of public political communication and the processes of administrative-state management is based on the conclusions, which are contained in the articles of G. Lassuela and O.F. Shabrov. The empirical basis of the research is the public opinion polls of “Levada Center”. Analysis. The modern world is increasingly differentiated by the degree of information richness: the more the country is informationally open, the faster the production of new ideas, their inclusion in political decisions. The modern process of political communication has shifted to greater interactivity. Information policy, political regulation of the mass communication system becomes the leading sphere of management activities of state and non-state structures. Discussion. The indicative model development of politicalcommunicative interaction of information policy actors in the Russian Federation is hampered by a number of problems. Some of them are associated with established practices of political administration by state institutions of information processes. Other problems come from the unwillingness of civil structures to carry out the functions of public political management in the field of information security. The result is a decline in public confidence in political information and the Russian media. Results. The author proposes the main forms of coordinated interaction of state and non-state actors in the field of information regulation, ensuring the information security of the Russian Federation. The researcher substantiates the idea of the relationship of the mass communication system development with the formation of information and communication competencies of the Russian Federation population.

Public and proud: How and why some citizens use their Facebook network as a personal public

This paper is a qualitative study that examines how and why some citizens use their Facebook network as a personal public. The concept of the personal public in this study is defined by a relative sense of privacy in the closed individual Facebook network, together with a sense of publicness based on the mass and diversity of these connections. The paper goes on to argue that the individual may go through a reflection process as they move from personal thinking to public political communication. The process does not guarantee increased reflection, but it serves to show potential individual gains from public political communication that have so far been understudied in research on political debates on Facebook.

Публичная политическая коммуникация и краудсорсинг: от толпы к публике

Публичная политическая коммуникация и краудсорсинг: от толпы к публике

Interactivity and Political Communication: New Media Tools and their Impact on Public Political Communication

Based on the interactivity theory, this study examines relationships between people’s political media commentary online and through traditional methods. Data from Pew Research Center (N= 2,253) shows that those who were actively participated in political discourse using traditional methods were more likely to make statements on newspaper websites and using social media about politics. Higher level of education also predicted participation in political communication in the new media environment.

Interactivity and Branding: Public Political Communication as a Marketing Tool

Online platforms are increasingly used as a means to present brand characteristics to key target groups. Within a political context, websites can act as a shop front from which parties or candidates can advertise their policies and personnel. The increasing use of more interactive forms of communication informs visitors about the overall brand character of the host. This article explores the impact on branding of interactivity by analyzing the online activities undertaken by UK parties and their members elected to the House of Commons during the period 2007 to 2010. Through a process of creating narratives for each of the brands analyzed, based upon a content analysis of the websites and other online presences, this article identifies what characteristics the online shop front is designed to project. This article finds overall that interactivity within online environments is becoming one aspect of the branding of parties, though this is in limited forms and linked more to a marketing communication strategy than seeking to involve or understand site visitors. Members of Parliament who use social networking sites or weblogs, in contrast, have a developed i-branding strategy that enables them to present a strongly interactive brand personality to visitors to their online presences, offering impressions of them as accessible and effective representatives.

Pragmatists, Deliberativists, and Democracy: The Quest for Inclusion

Pragmatists, Deliberativists, and Democracy: The Quest for Inclusion