Towards a European public sphere? A comparative study of the Facebook activities of Danish and Spanish members of the European Parliament

  1. Lidia Valera-Ordaz 1
  2. Mads P. Sørensen 2
  1. 1 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

  2. 2 Aarhus University
    info

    Aarhus University

    Århus, Dinamarca

    ROR https://ror.org/01aj84f44

Revista:
El profesional de la información

ISSN: 1386-6710,  1699-2407

Año de publicación: 2019

Título del ejemplar: Estructuras de poder en Comunicación / Power structures in Communication

Volumen: 28

Número: 6

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.3145/EPI.2019.NOV.11 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: El profesional de la información

Resumen

This comparative study examines the everyday Facebook activities of all Danish and Spanish members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and the extent to which there is a real political conversation between citizens and European representatives. Through content analysis, it analyzes the Facebook practices of a significantly under-studied population (MEPs) during a non-campaign period (January 15 to February 15, 2017) while most of recent research has overwhelmingly focused on campaign periods. The results show that both Danish and Spanish MEPs are generously present and active on Facebook, but that they are less popular than their national counterparts. The study shows that Danish MEPs use Facebook in a clearly more dialogue-oriented way than their Spanish colleagues. Their updates often lead to conversations between followers, and they frequently take part in these political discussions, while Spanish MEPs tend to limit their Facebook practices to content publication, avoiding citizen conversation.

€ Ver financiación

Información de financiación

This research has benefited from postdoctoral grant Apost2016, awarded by Generalitat Valenciana to Lidia Valera-Ordaz.

Financiadores

Referencias bibliográficas

  • AIMC (2017). Navegantes en la Red. Infografía 20ª. Madrid: Asociación para la Investigación de Medios de Comunicación. https://www.aimc.es/otros-estudios-trabajos/navegantes-la-red/infografia-resumen-20o-navegantes-la-red
  • Alonso-Muñoz, Laura; Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2018). “Communication of European populist leaders on Twitter: Agenda setting and the ‘more is less’ effect”. El profesional de la información, v. 27, n. 6, pp. 1193-1202. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.03
  • Bossetta, Michael (2018). “The digital architectures of social media: Comparing political campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. election”. Journalism & mass communication quarterly, v. 95, n. 2, pp. 471-496. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018763307
  • Bouza-García, Luis; Tuñón-Navarro, Jorge (2018). “Personalización, distribución, impacto y recepción en Twitter del discurso de Macron ante el Parlamento Europeo el 17/04/18”. El profesional de la información, v. 27, n. 6, pp. 1239-1247. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.07
  • Camaj, Lindita; Santana, Arthur D. (2015). “Political deliberation on Facebook: Exploring the relevance of moderator’s technical role and political ideology”. Journal of information, technology & politics, v. 12, n. 4, pp. 325-341. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2015.1100224
  • Cardenal, Ana S. (2013). “Why mobilize support online? The paradox of party behaviour online”. Party politics, v. 19, n. 1, pp. 83-103. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068810395059
  • Casero-Ripollés, Andreu; Feenstra, Ramón A.; Tormey, Simon (2016). “Old and new media logics in an electoral campaign: The case of Podemos and the two-way street mediatization of politics”. The international journal of press/politics, v. 21, n. 3, pp. 378-397. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161216645340
  • CIS (2016). Estudio CIS n. 3126: Postelectoral elecciones generales 2015. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. http://www.cis.es/cis/export/sites/default/-Archivos/Marginales/3120_3139/3126/Ft3126.pdf
  • CIS (2017). Estudio CIS n. 3168: Barómetro de febrero 2017. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. http://www.cis.es/cis/export/sites/default/-Archivos/Marginales/3160_3179/3168/esmar3168mar.html
  • Dader, José-Luis (2009). “Ciberpolítica en los websites de partidos políticos: la experiencia de las elecciones de 2008 en España ante las tendencias transnacionales”. Revista de sociologia e politica, v. 17, n. 34, pp. 45-62. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-44782009000300005
  • Delgado-Sotillos, Irene; López-Nieto, Lourdes (2008). Comportamiento político y sociología electoral. Madrid: UNED. ISBN: 978 84 362 5581 2
  • Dewey, John (1991 [1927]). The public and its problems. Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press. ISBN: 978 0 8040 0254 7
  • Di-Bonito, Ilaria (2014). “El uso de Facebook durante las campañas electorales. Reflexiones sobre las elecciones catalanas de 2010 y 2012”. Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, v. 1, n. 1, pp. 26-34. http://www.revistaeic.eu/index.php/raeic/article/view/17
  • Ekman, Mattias; Widholm, Andreas (2017). “Political communication in an age of visual connectivity: Exploring Instagram practices among Swedish politicians”. Northern lights, v. 15, n. 1, pp. 15-32. https://doi.org/10.1386/nl.15.1.15_1
  • Fenoll, Vicente; Cano-Orón, Lorena (2017). “Citizen engagement on Spanish political parties’ Facebook pages: Analysis of the 2015 electoral campaign comments”. Communication & society, v. 30, n. 4, pp. 131-145. https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/35763 https://doi.org/10.15581/003.30.3.131-147
  • Fernandes, Juliana; Giurcanu, Magda; Bowers, Kevin W.; Neely, Jeffrey C. (2010). “The writing on the wall: A content analysis of college students’ Facebook groups for the 2008 presidential election”. Mass communication and society, v. 13, n. 5, pp. 653-675. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2010.516865
  • Filiminov, Kirill; Russmann, Uta; Svensson, Jakob (2016). “Picturing the party: Instagram and party campaigning in the 2014 Swedish elections”. Social media + society, v. 2, n. 3, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116662179
  • Flyvbjerg, Bent (2006). “Five misunderstandings about case-study research”. Qualitative inquiry, v. 12, n. 2, pp. 219-245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363
  • Føllesdal, Andreas; Hix, Simon (2006). “Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik”. Journal of common market studies, v. 44, n. 3, pp. 533-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2006.00650.x
  • Gámir-Ríos, José (2016). “Blogs, Facebook y Twitter en las elecciones generales de 2011. Estudio cuantitativo del uso de la web 2.0 por parte de los cabezas de lista del PP y del PSOE”. Dígitos. Revista de comunicación digital, n. 2, pp. 101-120. https://revistadigitos.com/index.php/digitos/article/view/53
  • Habermas, Jürgen (1989 [1962]). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN: 978 0 7456 0274 5
  • Habermas, Jürgen (1974). “The public sphere: An encyclopedia article (1964)”. New German critique, v. 3, pp. 49-55. https://unige.ch/sciences-societe/socio/files/2914/0533/6073/Habermas_1974.pdf
  • Hallin, Daniel C.; Mancini, Paolo (2004). Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978 0521543088
  • Internet World Stats (2017). Internet in Europe stats: Internet user statistics & 2017 population for the 53 European countries and regions. http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm
  • Janssen, Davy; Kies, Raphaël (2005). “Online forums and deliberative democracy”. Acta politica, v. 40, n. 3, pp. 317-335. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ap.5500115
  • Koch, Hal (1991 [1945]). Hvad er demokrati? [What is democracy?]. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. ISBN: 978 8700058033
  • Koc-Michalska, Karolina; Lilleker, Darren G.; Smith, Alison; Weissmann, Daniel (2016). “The normalization of online campaigning in the web 2.0 era”. European journal of communication, v. 31, n. 3, pp. 331-350. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323116647236
  • Larsson, Anders O.; Kalsnes, Bente (2014). “Of course we are on Facebook: Use and non-use of social media among Swedish and Norwegian politicians”. European journal of communication, v. 29, n. 6, pp. 653-667. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323114531383
  • Lilleker, Darren G.; Jackson, Nigel A. (2010). “Towards a more participatory style of election campaigning? The impact of web 2.0 on the UK 2010 general election”. Policy & internet, v. 2, n. 3, pp. 69-98. https://doi.org/10.2202/1944-2866.1064
  • Lilleker, Darren G.; Koc-Michalska, Karolina (2014). “Online election campaigning: Exploring supply and demand during the France 2012 presidential election”. In: Solo, Ashu. Political campaigning in the information age, pp. 287-304. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. ISBN: 978 1 466660625
  • López-García, Guillermo (2016). “‘New’ vs ‘old’ leaderships: The campaign of Spanish general elections 2015 on Twitter”. Communication & society, v. 29, n. 3, pp. 149-168. https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/35829 https://doi.org/10.15581/003.29.3.149-168
  • López-García, Guillermo; Gámir-Ríos, José V.; García-Ull, Francisco J.; Llorca-Abad, Germán; Cano-Orón, Lorena; González-Esteban, José-Luis (2015). “El debate sobre Europa en Twitter. Discursos y estrategias de los candidatos de las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo de 2014 en España”. Revista de estudios políticos, n. 170, pp. 213-246. https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.170.07
  • López-Meri, Amparo; Marcos-García, Silvia; Casero-Ripollés, Andreu (2017). “What do politicians do on Twitter? Functions and communication strategies in the Spanish electoral campaign of 2016”. El profesional de la información, v. 26, n. 5, pp. 795-804. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.sep.02
  • Muñiz, Carlos; Campos-Domínguez; Eva; Saldierna, Ana-Rosa; Dader, José-Luis (2019). “Engagement of politicians and citizens in the cyber campaign on Facebook: A comparative analysis between Mexico and Spain”. Contemporary social science, v. 14, n. 1, pp. 102-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2017.1367832
  • Muñiz, Carlos; Dader, José-Luis; Téllez, Nilsa M.; Salazar, Alondra (2016). “¿Están los políticos políticamente comprometidos? Análisis del compromiso político 2.0 desarrollado por los candidatos a través de Facebook”. Cuadernos.info, v. 39, pp. 135-150. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.39.970
  • Robertson, Scott P.; Vatrapu, Ravi K.; Medina, Richard (2010). “Off the wall political discourse: Facebook use in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections”. Information polity, v. 15, n. 1-2, pp. 11-31. https://doi.org/10.3233/IP-2010-0196
  • Ross, Karen; Fountaine, Susan; Comrie, Margie (2015). “Facing up to Facebook: Politicians, publics and the social media(ted) turn in New Zealand”. Media, culture & society, v. 37, n. 2, pp. 251-269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443714557983
  • Sampietro, Agnese; Valera-Ordaz, Lidia (2015). “Emotional politics on Facebook: An exploratory study of Podemos’ discourse during the European election campaign 2014”. Recerca. Revista de pensament i anàlisi, n. 17, pp. 61-83. https://doi.org/10.6035/Recerca.2015.17.4
  • Schudson, Michael (1997). “Why conversation is not the soul of democracy”. Critical studies in mass communication, v. 14, n. 4, pp. 297-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039709367020
  • Seoane-Pérez, Francisco (2013). Political communication in Europe. The cultural and structural limits of the European public sphere. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978 1 137 30513 8
  • Shah, Dhavan V. (2016). “Conversation is the soul of democracy: Expression effects, communication mediation, and digital media”. Communication and the public, v. 1, n. 1, pp. 12-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047316628310
  • Sørensen, Mads P. (2016a). “Members of parliament on Facebook: Towards an understanding of the pros and cons of online political conversations”. In: Nielsen, Henrik-Kaare; Fiig, Christina; Loftager, Jørn; Olesen, Thomas; Løhman-Stephensen, Jan; Sørensen, Mads P. (eds.). The democratic public sphere: Current challenges and prospects, pp. 197-226. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press. ISBN: 8771841040
  • Sørensen, Mads P. (2016b). “Political conversations on Facebook: The participation of politicians and citizens”. Media, culture and society”, v. 38, n. 5, pp. 664-685. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443715620924
  • Sudulich, Maria-Laura (2013). “Do ethos, ideology, country and electoral strength make a difference in cyberspace? Testing an explanatory model of parties’ websites”. In: Nixon, Paul; Rawal, Rajash; Mercea, Dan (eds.) Politics and the Internet in comparative context: Views from the cloud. London & New York: Routledge, pp. 75-94. ISBN: 978 1 135104023 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203798331
  • Sweetser, Kaye D.; Lariscy, Ruthann-Weaver (2008). “Candidates make good friends: An analysis of candidates’ uses of Facebook”. International journal of strategic communication, v. 2, n. 3, pp. 175-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/15531180802178687
  • Teorell, Jan; Torcal, Mariano; Montero, José-Ramón (2007). “Political participation. Mapping the terrain”. In: Van-Deth, Jan; Montero, José-Ramón; Westholm, Anders. Citizenship and European democracies: A comparative perspective. London & New York: Routledge, pp. 334-357. ISBN: 978 0 203 96575 7
  • The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces (2017). Media development in Denmark 2017: Summary and discourse. https://slks.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/dokumenter/medier/Mediernes_udvikling/2017/Overblik_og_perspektivering/ EN_Overblik_og_perspektivering_2017.pdf
  • The European Parliament (2014). Results of the 2014 European elections. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/turnout.html
  • The European Parliament (2019). Resultados de las elecciones europeas de 2019. https://resultados-elecciones.eu/participacion
  • Torcal, Mariano; Montero, José-Ramón; Teorell, Jan (2006). “La participación política en España: modos y niveles en perspectiva comparada”. Revista de estudios políticos, n. 132, pp. 7-14. https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/RevEsPol/article/view/45507 https://doi.org/10.18042/45507
  • Túñez, Miguel; Sixto, José (2011). “Redes sociales, política y compromiso 2.0: La comunicación de los diputados españoles en Facebook”. Revista latina de comunicación social, v. 66, pp. 212-240. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-66-2011-930-210-246
  • Valera-Ordaz, Lidia (2017). “Comparación del valor democrático de las discusiones de Facebook entre perfiles de candidatos políticos españoles a las elecciones generales de 2011”. Revista internacional de sociología, v. 75, n. 1, e052. https://doi.org/10.3989/ris.2017.75.1.15.119
  • Valera-Ordaz, Lidia (2019). “Liberal individualist, communitarian, or deliberative? Analyzing political discussion on Facebook based on three notions of democracy”. International journal of communication, v. 13, pp. 1056-1076. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8309/2584
  • Vesnic-Alujevic, Lucia (2012). “Political participation and web 2.0 in Europe: A case study of Facebook”. Public relations review, v. 38, n. 3, pp. 466-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.01.010
  • Vesnic-Alujevic, Lucia (2013). Members of European Parliament online: The use of social media in political marketing. Center for European Studies. https://www.martenscentre.eu/sites/default/files/publication-files/political-marketing-and-social-media.pdf
  • Vesnic-Alujevic, Lucia (2016). “European elections and Facebook: Political advertising and deliberation?”. In: Dezelan, Tomaz; Vobic, Igor. (R)evolutionizing political communication through social media. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference/IGI Global, pp. 191-209. ISBN: 978 1 466698796 https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/chapter/145986
  • Weiler, Joseph H. H.; Haltern, Ulrich R.; Mayer, Franz C. (1995). “European democracy and its critique”. West European politics, v. 18, n. 3, pp. 4-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402389508425089
  • Wright, Scott (2011). “Politics as usual? Revolution, normalization and a new agenda for online deliberation”. New media & society, v. 14, n. 2, pp. 244-261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811410679
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet