Young citizens of the network society: Opposing approaches to the use of the digital social environments on the political basis<p>Ağ toplumunun genç yurttaşları: Dijital sosyal ortamların siyasal temelde kullanımına yönelik karşıt yaklaşımlar

Authors

  • Serdar Ünal Adnan Menderes University

Keywords:

Network society, young citizens, digital social environments, sharing of political content, motivating and impeding factors, Ağ toplumu, genç yurttaşlar, dijital sosyal ortamlar, siyasal içerikli paylaşımlar, motive edici ve engelleyici faktörler

Abstract

In today's network society structure the new web technologies, especially digital social environments or social networking sites, have created unique areas for online communication. The main sources of motivation for the political use of social networks; the factors that impede the use of these environments politically; as well as the social consequences of the political use of social networks in democratic regimes are important issues. In this way, the desire of young citizens, defined as net generation, to share their social and political opinions in digital social environments and their attitudes towards using these venues as a platform of political expression have been examined. Young people's values that they attribute to political activities in digital social environments, as well as how they evaluate the political activities in these settings as a part of their daily lives were analyzed empirically through quantitative and qualitative data. For an important part of the youth, these environments are regarded as democratic settings in which they can express themselves politically and share political content, but a remarkable participant, due to a number of impeding factors and concerns, does not have a positive attitude towards the political use of these environments.

Extended English abstract is in the end of PDF (TURKISH) file.

 

Özet

Günümüz ağ toplumu yapısında yeni web teknolojilerinden özellikle dijital sosyal ortamlar veya sosyal paylaşım ağları çevrimiçi iletişim için eşsiz alanlar yaratmıştır. Dijital sosyal ağların siyasal amaçlı kullanılmasındaki temel motivasyon kaynakları, bu mecraların siyasal temelde kullanımını engelleyici faktörler ve ayrıca bunun demokratik rejimlerde bireysel ve toplumsal düzeydeki etkileri veya sonuçları önem arz etmektedir. Bu yönde, çalışmada ağ kuşağı olarak tanımlanan genç yurttaşların dijital sosyal ortamlarda sosyal ve siyasal fikirlerini paylaşma arzuları veya eğilimleri ve bu mecraları bir siyasal tartışma platformu olarak kullanmaya yönelik tutumları veya yaklaşımları incelenmiştir. Başka bir deyişle, makalede genç kuşakların dijital sosyal ağlardaki siyasal içerikli etkinliklere yükledikleri anlamlar ve bu mecralardaki siyasal etkinlikleri gündelik hayatlarında nereye konumlandırdıkları meselesi nicel ve nitel veriler aracılığıyla ampirik düzeyde irdelenmiştir. Gençlerin önemli bir kısmı için bu mecralar siyasal temelde kendini ifade etmeyi içeren paylaşımların yapılabileceği demokratik ortamlar olarak değerlendirilse de dikkate değer bir katılımcı kitlesi bu mecralarda gerçekleşen siyasal etkinliklere yönelik bir dizi engelleyici etken ve kaygı temelinde olumlu bir yaklaşım içinde değildir.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Serdar Ünal, Adnan Menderes University

Serdar Ünal is assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, Adnan Menderes University, Aydın/Turkey

References

Arklan, Ü. (2016) Sosyal medyanın siyasal amaçlı kullanımı: Ağ kuşağının kullanım alışkanlıkları üzerine bir araştırma, Gümüşhane Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Elektronik Dergisi, 4(2), 618-656.

Aydın, S. (2017) Müzakereci demokrasi modelinin kamusal alanı: Nasıl bir iletişim özgürlüğü? The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication – TOJDAC, 7 (1), 139-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.7456/10701100/012

Baek, Y. M. (2015) Political mobilization through social network sites: The mobilizing power of political messages received from SNS friends, Computers in Human Behavior, 44(3), 12-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.021

Baudrillard, J. (2005) Simülaklar ve simülasyon, Çev. O. Adanır, Doğu-Batı Yayınları.

Bennett,W. L.; Wells, C. & Freelon, D. (2011) Communicating civic engagement: Contrasting models of citizenship in the youth web sphere, Journal of Communication, 61(5), 835–856.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01588.x

Bennett, L. (2012) The personalization of politics: Political identity, social media, and changing patterns of participation, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 644(1), 20–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716212451428

Bennett, L. & Segerberg, A. (2013) The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics, Cambridge University Press.

Bimber, B. (2003) Information and American democracy: Technology in the evolution of political power, Cambridge University Press.

Bode, L. (2016) Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media, Mass Communication and Society, 19(1), 24-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2015.1045149

Bode, L.; Vraga, E. K.; Borah, P. & Shah, D. V. (2014) A new space for political behavior: Political social networking and its democratic consequences, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, (19), 414–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12048

Bode, L.; Edgerly, S.; Sayre, B.; Vraga, E. K. & Shah, D. V. (2013) Digital democracy, in E. Scharrer (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, (pp. 505–524), Blackwell.

Boulianne, S. (2015) Social media use and participation: A metaanalysis of current research, Information, Communication & Society, 18(5), 524-538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1008542

Bronstein, J. & Aharony, N. (2015) Personal and political elements of the use of social networking sites, in Proceedings of ISIC, The Information Behaviour Conference, Leeds,25,September2014:Part2,(paperisic23).

Brundidge, J. (2010) Encountering ‘‘difference’’ in the contemporary public sphere: The contribution of the internet to the heterogeneity of political discussion networks, Journal of Communication, 60(4), 680–700. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01509.x

Brundidge, J. & Rice, R. E. (2009) Political engagement online: do the information rich get richer and the like-minded more similar? in A. Chadwick & P. N. Howard (Eds.), The Handbook of Internet Politics, (pp. 144–156), NY: Routledge.

Catt, H. & Hayward, B. (2005) Now or never: The impact of political education on civic participation, 53rd Australasian Political Studies Conference, New Zealand:Dunedin.

Christensen, H. S. (2011) Political activities on the internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means? First Monday, 16(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i2.3336

Çetinkaya, A.; Şahin, Ö. E. & Kırık, A. M. (2014) A research on social and political use of social media in Turkey, International Journal of Science Culture And Sport, 2(4), 49-60.

Das, S. & Kramer, A. D. (2013) Self-censorship on Facebook, in ICWSM (pp.120-127), https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM13/paper/viewFile/6093/6350

Delli Carpini, M. X.; Cook, F. L. & Jacobs, L. R. (2004) Public deliberation, discursive participation, and citizen engagement: a review of the empirical literature, Annual Reviews of Political Science, (7), 315–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.7.121003.091630

Dimitrova, D. V.; Shehata, A.; Stromback, J. & Nord, L. W. (2014) The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data, Communication Research, 41(1), 95–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650211426004

Dunne, Á.; Lawlor, M. & Rowley, J. (2010) Young people’s use of online social networking sites – a uses and gratifications perspective, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 4(1), 46–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17505931011033551

Eser, H. B. & Güler, Ö. (2015) İnternet ve sosyal ağların siyasal katılım üzerine etkisi -SDÜ örnek olayı-, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üni. SBE Dergisi, 7(12), 196-219.

Festinger, L. (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance, Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.

Geoff, C.; Nicola, G.; Evans, K.; Jackson, D. & Tim, J (2012) Unravelling the threads: Discourses of sustainability and consumption in an online forum, Environmental Communication, 6(1), 101–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2011.642080

Gibson, R. K. & McAllister, I. (2013) Online social ties and political engagement, Journal of Information, Technology & Politics, (10), 21–34, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2012.712461

Gil de Zuniga, H.; Molyneux, L. & Zheng, P. (2014) Social media, political expression, and political participation: Panel analysis of lagged and concurrent relationships, Journal of Communication, 64(4), 612-634. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12103

Gil de Zuniga, H.; Jung, N. & Valenzuela, S. (2012) Social media use for news and individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 319–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01574.x

Gil de Zuniga, H. & Valenzuela, S. (2011) The mediating path to a stronger citizenship: Online and offline networks, weak ties and civic engagement, Communication Research, 38(3), 397–421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650210384984

Gil de Zuniga, H.; Veenstra, A.; Vraga, E. & Shah, D. (2010) Digital democracy: Reimagining pathways to political participation, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(1), 36–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19331680903316742

Göker, G. & Doğan, A. (2011) Ağ toplumunda örgütlenme: Facebook’ta çevrimiçi tekel, Eylemi, Balıkesir Üniversitesi SBE Dergisi, 14(25), 175-203.

Gür, B. S.; Dalmış, İ.; Kırmızıdağ, N.; Çelik, Z. & Boz, N. (2012) Türkiye’nin gençlik profili, Seta Yayınları, Ankara.

Habermas, J. (1989) The structural transformation of the public sphere, Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Johnson, T. J. & Kaye, B. K. (2014) Credibility of social network sites for political information among politically interested internet users, Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 19(4), 957-974. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12084

Johnson, T. J.; Zhang, W.; Bichard, S. L. & Seltzer, T. (2011) United we stand? Online social network sites and civic engagement, in Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A networked self (pp. 185-207). New York, NY: Routledge.

Jung, N.; Kim, Y. & Gil de Zuniga, H. (2011) The mediating role of knowledge and efficacy in the effects of communication on political participation, Mass Communication & Society, 14(4),407–430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2010.496135

Kahne, J.; Middaugh, E.; Lee, N. J. & Feezell, J. T. (2012) Youth online activity and exposure to diverse perspectives, New Media & Society, 14(3), 492–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444811420271

Kaplan, K. & Ertürk E. (2012) Dijital çağ ve bireyin ideolojik aygıtları, The Turkish Online Journal Of Design, Art And Communication- Tojdac, 2(4), 7-12.

Kellner, D. (2004) Yeni teknolojiler/yeni okuryazarlıklar: Yeni binyılda eğitimin yeniden yapılandırılması, s.715-735, Çev. T. Kurtarıcı, Ö. Meral (der.), Kamusal Alan, Hil, İstanbul.

Kim, Y.; Hsu, S. H. & Zuniga, H. G. (2013) Influence of social media use on discussion network heterogeneity and civic engagement: The moderating role of personality traits, Journal of Communication, 63(3), 498-516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12034

Kim, Y. (2011) The contribution of social networking sites to exposure to political difference: The relationship among SNSs, online political messaging, and exposure to cross-cutting perspectives, Computers in Human Behaviors, 27(2), 971–977. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.12.001

Kim, W.; Jeong, O. R. & Lee, S. W. (2010) On social web sites, Information Systems, 35(2), 215–236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2009.08.003

Klofstad, C. A.; Sokhey, A. E. & McClurg, S. D. (2013) Disagreeing about disagreement: How conflict in social networks affects political behavior, American Journal of Political Science, 57(1), 120–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2012.00620.x

Kushin, M. J.; Yamamoto, M. (2010) Did social media really matter? College students’ use of online media and political decision making in the 2008 election, Mass Communication and Society, 13(5), 608–630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2010.516863

Kushin, M. J. & Kitchener, K. (2009) Getting political on social network sites: Exploring online political discourse on Facebook, First Monday, 14(11). http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v14i11.2645

Lee, C.S. & Ma, L. (2012) News sharing in social media: The effect of gratifications and prior experience, Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 331-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.10.002

Lee, Y. H. & Hsieh, G. (2013) Does slacktivism hurt activism?: The affects of moral balancing and consistency in online activism, in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 811-820). ACM.

Macafee, T. (2013) Some of these things are not like the others: Examining motivations and political predispositions among political Facebook activity, Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2766-2775. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.019

Marwick, A. E. & boyd, D. (2011) I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience, New Media & Society, 13(1), 114–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444810365313

Metzger, M. J. (2007) Making sense of credibility on the web: Models for evaluating online information and recommendations for future research, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(13), 2078–2091. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.20672

Middaugh, E.; Bowyer, B. & Kahne, J. (2016) U suk! participatory media and youth experiences with political discourse, Youth & Society, p.1-21, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0044118X16655246

Moy, P.; Xenos, M. A. & Hussain, M. M. (2013) News and political entertainment effects on democratic citizenship, in E. Scharrer (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. (pp. 463–483) Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Morozov, E. (2009) The brave new world of slacktivism, Foreign Policy, http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/05/19/the-brave-new-world-of-slacktivism/

Mutz, D. C. (2002) Cross-cutting social networks: Testing democratic theory in practice, American Political Science Review, 96(1), 111–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003055402004264

Mutz, D. C. (2006) Hearing the other side: Deliberative versus participatory democracy, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Nir, L. (2011) Disagreement and opposition in social networks: Does disagreement discourage turnout?, Political Studies, 59(3), 674–692. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2010.00873.x.

Obar, J. A.; Zube, P. & Lampe, C. (2012) Advocacy 2.0: An analysis of how advocacy groups in the United States perceive and use social media as tools for facilitating civic engagement and collective action, Journal of Information Policy, 2(1), 1–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/jinfopoli.2.2012.0001

Ekström, M. & Östman, J. (2015) Information, Interaction and Creative Production: The Effects of Three Forms Of Internet Use On Youth Democratic Engagement. Advance online publication, Communication Research, 42(6), 796-818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650213476295

Papacharissi, Z. (2011) A networked self: Identity, community and culture on social network sites, New York: Routledge.

Park, N.; Kee, K. F. & Valenzuela, S. (2009) Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes, CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(6), 729–733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2009.0003

Putnam, R. D. (2000) Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Rainie, L.; Smith, A.; Schlozman, K.; Brady, H. & Verba, S. (2012) Social media and political engagement, Pew Internet & American Life Project, 19. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Political-Engagement.aspx

Rainie, L. & Smith, A. (2012) Social networking sites and politics, Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center.

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Social-networking-and-politics.aspx

Stroud, N. J. (2010) Polarization and partisan selective exposure, Journal of Communication, 60, 556–576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.14602466.2010.01497.x

Sunstein, C. R. (2001) Republic.com. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.

Şener, G.; Emre, P. Ö. & Akyıldız, F. (2015) Türkiye’de sosyal medyanın siyasi katılıma etkileri, Folklor/Edebiyat Dergisi, Yeni Medya Çalışmaları, 21(83), 75-98.

Tang, G. & Lee, F. L. F. (2013) Facebook use and political participation: the impact of exposure to shared political information, connections with public political actors, and network structural heterogeneity, Social Science Computer Review, 31(6), 763–773. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894439313490625

Tsang, S. J. (2012) Online engagement and political participation: Reception, expression and sharing in Facebook groups and discussion forums, World Association for Public Opinion Research’s (WAPOR) 65th Annual Conference. Hong Kong.

Theocharis, Y. & Lowe, W. (2016) Does Facebook increase political participation? Evidence from a field experiment, Information, Communication & Society, 19(10), 1465-1486. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1119871

Theocharis, Y. (2014) 11 Is digitally networked participation a form of political participation?, Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis: Essays in Honour of Jan W. Van Deth, 189.

Topbaş, H. & Işık, U. (2014) Kurgu ile gerçeklik arasında gezi parkı eylemleri ve soysal medya, Birey ve Toplum Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 4(1), 197-230.

Toprak, A.; Yıldırım, A.; Aygül, E.; Binark, M.; Börekçi, S. & Çomu, T. (2009) Toplumsal paylaşım ağı Facebook “görülüyorsam öyleyse varım”, 1.Baskı, Kalkedon Yayınları.

Tunç, A. (2005) Yurttaşlık hareketi bir klik ötede mi? Küresel direnç platformu olarak internet, İnternet, Toplum, Kültür, der. M. Binark ve B. Kılıçbay, epos, ss.139-152.

Valenzuela, S. (2013) Unpacking the use of social media for protest behavior: The roles of information, opinion expression, and activism, American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), 920–942. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764213479375.

Valenzuela, S.; Arriagada, A. & Scherman, A. (2012) The social media basis of youth protest behavior: The case of Chile, Journal of Communication, 62(2), 299–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.14602466.2012.01635.x

Valenzuela, S.; Park, N. & Kee, K. F. (2009) Is there social capital in a social networking site?: Facebook use and college students’ life satisfaction, trust, and participation, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(4), 875–901. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.10836101.2009.01474.x

Vitak, J., Zube, P., Smock, A., Carr, C. T., Ellison, N. & Lampe, C. (2011) It's complicated: Facebook users' political participation in the 2008 election, CyberPsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(3), 107-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0226

Vraga, E.K.; Thorson, K.; Kligler-Vilenchik, N. & Gee, E. (2015) How individual sensitivities to disagreement shape youth political expression on Facebook, Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 281-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.025

Vromen, A. (2008) Building virtual spaces: Young people, participation and the internet, Australian Political Studies Association, 43(1), 79-97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10361140701842581

Westerman, D.; Spence, P. R. & Van Der Heide, B. (2014) Social media as information source: Recency of updates and credibility of information, Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 19(2), 171-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12041

Westerman, D.; Spence, P. R. & Van Der Heide, B. (2012) A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on Twitter, Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 199–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.09.001

Wojcieszak, M. E. & Mutz, D. C. (2009) Online groups and political discourse: Do online discussion spaces facilitate exposure to political disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01403.x

Xenos, M.; Vromen, A. & Loader, B. D. (2014) The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies, Information, Communication & Society, 17(2), 151–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.871318

Yang, H. C. & DeHart, J. L. (2016) Social media use and online political participation among college students during the us election 2012, Social Media+ Society, 2(1), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305115623802

Yardi, S. & Boyd, D. (2010) Dynamic debates: An analysis of group polarization over time on Twitter, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5), 316-327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0270467610380011

Yılmaz, M. (2012) Türk blog ve forum ortamlarında 'one minute' çıkışı, Journal of International Social Research, 5(20), 315-332.

Yüksel, H. (2014) İnternet gazeteciliğinde bilgi kirliliği sorunu, Atatürk İletişim Dergisi, (6),125-138.

Zhang, Y.; Tang, L. & Leung, L. (2011) Gratifications, collective self-esteem, online emotional openness, and traitlike communication apprehension as predictors of Facebook uses, Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 14(12), 733-739. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2010.0042

Downloads

Published

2017-08-18

How to Cite

Ünal, S. (2017). Young citizens of the network society: Opposing approaches to the use of the digital social environments on the political basis&lt;p&gt;Ağ toplumunun genç yurttaşları: Dijital sosyal ortamların siyasal temelde kullanımına yönelik karşıt yaklaşımlar. Journal of Human Sciences, 14(3), 2510–2540. Retrieved from https://www.j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/IJHS/article/view/4672

Issue

Section

Sociology