Social Media and European Politics

Rethinking Power and Legitimacy in the Digital Era

Mauro Barisione, Asimina Michailidou, Mauro Barisione, Asimina Michailidou

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781137598899
• eBook ISBN: 9781137598905
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Digital Marketing
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume investigates the role of social media in European politics in changing the focus, frames and actors of public discourse around the EU decision-making process. Throughout the collection, the contributors test the hypothesis that the internet and social media are promoting a structural transformation of European public spheres which goes well beyond previously known processes of mediatisation  of EU politics. This transformation addresses more fundamental challenges in terms of changing power relations, through processes of active citizen empowerment and exertion of digitally networked counter-power by civil society, news media, and political actors, as well as rising contestation of representative legitimacy of the EU institutions. Social Media and European Politics offers a comprehensive approach to the analysis of political agency and social media in European Union politics, by bringing together scholarly works from the fields of public sphere theory, digital media, political networks, journalism studies, euroscepticism, political activism and social movements, political parties and election campaigning, public opinion and audience studies.

Table of contents

• Social Media and European Politics
• 1 Do We Need to Rethink EU Politics in the Social Media Era? An Introduction to the Volume
• 2 Social Media, Personalisation of News Reporting, and Media Systems’ Polarisation in Europe
• 3 Engaging with European Politics Through Twitter and Facebook: Participation Beyond the National?
• 4 A Digital Movement of Opinion? Contesting Austerity Through Social Media
• 5 Building Contention Word-by-Word: Social Media Usage in the European Stop ACTA Movement
• 6 Campaigning for Gender Equality Through Social Media: The European Women’s Lobby
• 7 A Framework for Evaluating European Social Media Publics: The Case of the European Parliament’s Facebook Page
• 8 Extreme Right, the Internet and European Politics in CEE Countries: The Cases of Slovakia and the Czech Republic
• 9 Social Media as Propaganda Tools: The Greek Conservative Party and National Elections
• 10 Mediated Frustration and Self-Legitimation
• 11 Twitter, Public Engagement and the Eurocrisis: More than an Echo Chamber?
• 12 Debating Responsibility on the Eurozone Crisis in Traditional Media Newspaper Reporting in Greece and Germany Under a Social Media Lens
• 13 Erratum to: Engaging with European Politics Through Twitter and Facebook: Participation Beyond the National?
• Index