Politics and The Media at the era of Social Media

The Era of Social Media: Continuities and Changes in

the Media & Politics

Politics, Media and Communication changes and continuities at the

era of Social Media

Pablo A. Rivero MoralesRīga Stradiņš University, 23rd March 2012

is constructed in society through the process of communicative action. […]Communication happens by activating minds to share meaning.

Castells, 2009

Meaning

Photo: Pablo A. Rivero Morales

Photo: Pablo A. Rivero Morales

‘traditional’ political communication

Political organisations

PartiesPublic organisationsLobbiesTerrorist organisationsGovernments

Media

ReportsEditorialsCommentsAnalysis

Appeals - challengesProgrammes - interviewsAdvertisingPR

Civil Societ

y

Opinion pollsLetters from readers to editors

McNair, 2003

ReportsEditorialsCommentsAnalysis

‘new’ political communication

Political organisations

PartiesPublic organisationsLobbiesTerrorist organisationsGovernments

Media

ReportsEditorialsCommentsAnalysis

Appeals - interpellations ProgrammesAdvertisingPR

Civil Societ

y

Opinion pollsLetters from readers to editors

Based on McNair’s model 2003

ReportsEditorialsCommentsCitizen journalismAnalysisAccountability?

E-mailsSocial MediaWeb platformsApps

Social Media Revolution by Erik Qualman www.socialnomics.net

Internet: some dataWorld Bank 2011

World High income group Euro zone Latvia

2000 2009 2000 2009 2000 2009 2000 2009

urban population 37 45 75 77 72 73 68 68

mobile phone suscriptions (per 100 people) 12.2 69 49.9

111.2 60.3

123.2 16.9 99.5

Personal computers (per 100 people) 8 15.3 36.4 65.4 26 56 14.3 32.7

Internet users (per 100 people) 6.7 27.1 30.5 72.3 22.8 67.3 6.3 66.7

Population covered by mobile cellular network (%) .. 80 98 99 99 99 89 99

Fixed broadband Internet subscribers (% of total subscribers) 19.9 89.2 3.5 80.7 0.8

100.1

E-gov’t Web measure index (0–1, 1=highest presence) .. 0.46 .. 0.48 .. 0.42

Facebook in Latvia, some numbersdata from www.checkfacebook.com

Facebook users in LatviaPenetration of population 15.55%Penetration of online population 22.94%

penetration of total population under 45 51.8%penetration of total population over 45 8%

users 18-34 63.1%users under 45 76.4%users over 45 11.5%

Draugiem in Latvia, some numbersSecondary data from Kazaka, 2011: http://www.eacaeducation.eu/uploads/may2011/olgapaper.pdf

Draugiem users in LatviaPenetration of population 59.4%Penetration of online population 89%

users 16-29 55.4%users 30-45 11.5%

Graeme Turner / University of Queensland

News in Social Media Era:• Transmedia• Multiformat• multiplatform

How can be understood the [complex] relationship between

politics, Media and communication in the era of

Social Media?

A mistake…

• Journalism, PR, campaigning and political performance, must avoid misrepresentation and oversimplification

• Research & consulting: Critical analysis by acknowledging and dealing with complexity, not ignoring it

• Cultural construction of meaning

The ‘network society’ is a culture of protocols of communication between all cultures in the world (Castells, 2009).

“political persuasion is about networks and narratives” because “the political brain is an emotional brain”. This is why “the states that really determine elections are voters’ states of minds” (Westen, 2007).

Westen, Drew (2007). The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.

Narratives based on network effects:

HOPE

enthusiasm

togetherness

Photo: Pablo A. Rivero Morales

A big change, tough…

“There is more technology on these phones than the used by human kind to go to the moon”

A. Gutiérrez-Rubí, 2011

• Mobile and real-time information management• Self-information producers• Mobile surveillance (social accountability)

Conclusions…

• Society can now access to digital technology and produce content like never before

• The Media still has the capability to use resources like agenda-setting or framing. Social Media has the technical alternatives to challenge the Media, yet it tends to reproduce it.

• Social dynamics are going digital and mobile. Are politicians and journalist going digital and mobile, too?

• There is a new scenario for monitoring and new capabilities to challenge the media and politicians from the civil society.

• Thus, new power relations are being re/constructed.

Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity or genuineness, but in the style in which they are imagined.”

― Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (1991)

Thank you!

Pablo A. Rivero Morales

http://twitter.com/payorivero

http://on.fb.me/pabloarivero

payorivero@gmail.com

www.pabloarivero.com