icegov2012 proceedings

person.
Table 5: Public sphere characteristics of social media
Theory Concept Case observations
Public
sphere
Social
Capital
Dahlberg’s
criteria
Network
effects
Discourse is more one-way and
less argument-based than in the old
media, as there are mainly activists
taking part in these groups.
Postings can be re-posted on the
walls of group members, helping to
spread the ideas presented to a
larger audience.
Community There is a sense of shared
objectives and common interest in
the groups, which help create a
sense of community.
Type of PS Political protest. There are very
few posts disagreeing with the
activists.
Bridging There is little evidence of bridging
social capital. Content seems to
stay within the group. However, it
was not possible to measure the
extent to which content was
reposted on individual’s walls.
Bonding Greetings/cheers genre as well as
the general sense of agreement
contributes to bonding social
capital.
Trust &
reciprocity
Maintained
social capital
Participants in the groups trust
each other, which is natural as long
as there is a common goal
Not easy to measure, but there is
certainly contact and discussion
between the members in the group.
While there are differences between the two genre systems, they
each contribute to the public sphere in their own way. The genre
system of traditional media is perhaps better suited to support a
traditional Habermasian public sphere, where people of different
opinions come together to discuss and debate. Letters printed in
the newspaper are more reflective and argumentative than posts in
social media, and reach a bigger audience than just those who
already agree with the author of the letter or post. However, the
editorial column is only as good as the people writing to it, and
over time the activists view is almost the only one present, making
it less a space for debate and more of a one-way communication
channel.
The genres in social media are less in line with Habermas’
traditional public sphere ideals, but works great to support a
political protest public sphere. Activists and their supporters have
55
a place to meet, where they can discuss, support each other, share
information and maybe recruit new members. And there is also
the added value that some journalists do use social media in their
work, to discover new issues and find new sources. Sometimes
social media gives them ideas for stories they would otherwise not
have written. An informal e-mail survey sent to the journalists in
the local newspaper confirms that this happens.
Also, the network and bridging effects of social media are
potentially a lot stronger. We do not see these effects very
strongly in this particular case, perhaps because the case is
localized to a small geographical area, and mainly concerns the
inhabitants of that area. The users of social media already belong
to the same physical community, which means there is less need
for virtual networking.
6. CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS
This paper has examined the genre systems of the letters to the
editor column in traditional print media and in social media, with
the purpose of uncovering differences and similarities between the
two systems, and to measure if social media is beginning to
produce media-specific genres for eParticipation, and what this
means for the public sphere.
The findings indicate that we are beginning to see new genres in
social media, as well as old genres being reinvented to better suit
the functionality of new media. The addition of multimedia
content to existing genres is one example of this. While we cannot
say that social media has matured, we can conclude by saying that
social media is moving ever more towards maturity.
New media has room for a bigger variety of genres than
traditional print media, and their instant feedback allows for a
faster dialogue and more participants. This does however come at
a price. Contributions in social media are often less well thought
through, and not backed up by facts and rational arguments in the
same way as we see in the traditional media. In that sense, the
strength of the new is also its weakness.
In terms of contributing to the public sphere, both genre systems
do that, each in their own way. Traditional media better supports
the Habermasian ideal of rational discourse, while social media is
a good supporter of the political protest public sphere. As the
examined social media groups are so homogenous, there is little
debate going on. Social media does have a place in the wider
“general public sphere”, as a source of information for news
journalists. As tables one through three show, some genres are
better suited than others for those who want to contribute to the
political debate and to gain the attention of politicians. Genres that
accommodate one of the three political objectives could perhaps
be seen to contribute more to the public sphere than genres that do
not address these objectives.
There are some limitations to the findings in this paper. As they
are based on one single case, it is not possible to generalize the
findings outside of the case context. Other cases in different
contexts would perhaps provide very different results. Future
research efforts could include examining how the different genres
should be enacted to support the objectives in table 1, and through
them the public sphere. Also, more research is needed on how the
added functionality of new media can contribute to eParticipation,
if certain media are better suited than others for a given genre, and
what combination of genres and media would be likely to provide