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New Media as a Tool for Political Participation: The Debating
Europe CaseStrati MariaVitopoulos George
January 2014
Bridge the communication gap between policy-makers and
experts.Raise awareness about the operations of the EU
institutions.Spark the active civic participation by giving a voice
to the citizens.
1We chose to study the Debating Europe because the European
Elections are fast approc2The administrative team of Debating
Europe chooses a debate. A brief video from a policy-maker or
expert, which explains directly and in simple words the topic, is
presented and then the participants start commenting.
3Citizens can also post questions which are forwarded directly
to a policy-maker or an expert and then a brief, direct and
straight forward reply is presented by a video.4Could the new media
technologies be a tool for active civic participation and bridging
the communication gap between citizens and politicians within the
EU?Research QuestionCould the new media technologies be a tool for
active civic participation by raising awareness about the European
Union, engaging citizens in the decision-making process and
bridging the communication gap between citizens and
politicians.
5Investigate the role of new media technologies in defining the
political debate online and offline.Investigate the role of new
media technologies as a medium for active civic
participation.Define the profile of the people who participate in
the online debates.Define the role of public, private and civil
society stakeholders focusing on Debating Europe case.
Research GoalsSocial media democracyA private
sphereUser-generated democracy
Theoretical Background(N)ethnography: participate actively in
the facebook page of the Debating Europe project from the 6th of
December 2013 until the 3rd of January 2014.Conduct four
synchronous facebook-chat interviews with four active community
members.A detailed Skype interview with Protesilaos Stavrou, an
employee of the European Parliament and an ex-active member of the
European blogosphere.METHODOLOGYProtesilaos works as an assistant
of the MEP Luis Tavares.8Development of another kind of
market.9ConclusionsThe Debating Europe project highlights the role
of new media in endorsing the active civic participation and
bridging the communication gap between citizens and
policy-makers.The new media technologies could also influence the
political debate online and offline. Citizens does not influence
directly the political discourse and the decision-making
process.The participants of the project do not represent the
ordinary European citizen.New media technologies do not guarantee
the political participation of the citizens but they could function
as the medium for active civic participation.Before the development
of web 2.0 applications, the traditional media, i.e. TV, radio and
press, were among the main stakeholders that used to shape the
political debate due to the fact they controlled the broadcasted
information./ Presence of gate-keepersIn the digital era, in which
each individual may produce and consume content so it has been
developed a two-way and decentralized communication./ having
gate-keepers is not affordable.Mainstream media migrate
online.Citizens does not influence directly the political discourse
and the decision-making process: The policy-makers are aware of the
citizens concerns.The participants of the project do not represent
the ordinary European citizen: either politically engaged, people
who have strong opinions, either positive or negative, tend to
participate more./ a research focused on the online political
discourse of specific groups of peopleshould be developed (people
with a certain political orientation, minorities, activists
etc).
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