Politicians, Social Media, and Digital Publics

Old Rights, New Terrain

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3759560
AutoresSarah Sobieraj (0000-0002-1133-2962, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA, autor correspondente), Gina M Masullo (0000-0002-4909-2116, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA), Philip N Cohen (0000-0003-2839-3144, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA), Tarleton Gillespie (0000-0002-2601-6073, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, MA, USA), Sarah J Jackson (0000-0001-5996-0346, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Ano2020
Volume64
Fascículo11
Páginas1646-1669
Data de publicação2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764220945357
OpenAlexW3048123803
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas50

In this interdisciplinary roundtable discussion, five scholars interested in political communication work through the democratic dilemmas created when privately owned social media platforms are used as digital public squares by elected officials in the United States. This conversation unfolds in the context of ongoing legal cases that challenge politicians' efforts to block select interlocutors and bar them from participation. We grapple with the tension between politicians' use of social media to broadcast their own messages as a form of publicity with the desire by some members of the public that politicians be transparent online by allowing the electorate to question or even criticize them. Through this discussion, we weigh the importance of the right to criticize the government and its leaders alongside the realities of contentious content on social media platforms that are rife with abusive content, in a cultural context marked by social inequalities

Context (archaeology) · Conversation · Democracy · Digital media · Government (linguistics) · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Publicity · Social media · Sociology · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics