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Digital politics is the ways internet technologies have transformed interactions between political pursuance and political behaviour of public.
Smartphones have become a crucial component in enhancing digital politics due to its easy accessibility[1]. Social media is a recent development that has resulted from the development of a variety of application that create chat rooms where political opinions and issues can be discussed within a group[2]. Applications such as Twitter and WhatsApp have become the leading tools for increasing participation and communication of political affairs in the community[3][4]. In fact, mobile phones are being viewed as voting devices that can be employed in voting. Social media is the new frontier as it enables people to have access to the statements and policies of various politicians and provide a platform where there is a direct interaction between the politicians and citizens[5][6]. Additionally, more people are able to communicate their political opinions to a global audience aided by the internet[7].
Mobilisation, Engagement and Participation
[edit]Mobilisation
[edit]Researchers have explored online political interactions from the early 90s, with some of them paying interest in how digital technologies provide a broad platform of mobilisation[8]. Digital technologies, especially those with social interaction platforms, allow a form of political engagement among people. Civic engagement through social media can lead to citizen mobilisation which may result in some types of civil unrest. There are various arguments regarding political participation through the social media with some studies disputing it as a form of adverse influence and lacking moral significance while others propose that civic engagement through social platforms should be seen as a multidimensional practice including several activities[9].
The activities are those taking place in the digital platform domain where there is sharing of ideas and opinions, gaining of understandings, the building of alliances, with the influence exerted vertically and horizontally and by so realising the collective and partially deliberate decision making.
Engagement and Participation
[edit]Over time research has established that the situations for and circumstances of political participation are encouraging. There has been a rapid diversion from the electoral politics towards an idea-based public engagement[8]. Online technologies can enhance acquisition of knowledge, encourage voter turnout, connect the public with the politicians, foster establishment of online communities, encourage several reforms to occur.
Parties or persons seeking votes rarely exploit the full potential of online tools or win an election to a political office. Alternatively, it is widespread that regulated interactivity is typical in electoral civic engagement with minimal chance for influence. The citizens that are left to passive, receptive positions of electoral and state political communications resort to social platforms to build networks to critique built political elites and processes. In this regard, a gap exists between the offline and online environments paving the way for a probable redefinition of standard engagement terms.
Types of Civic Prompted Behaviours
[edit]Bruce Bimber[10] offers three viable theoretical discussions of public political behaviour with regards to the changing media context.
- The organisation-prompted behaviour which entails ancient forms of participation that are modified by adaption of arranged and formally formatted initiatives to digital platforms.
- Theory of socially prompted practice explains civic behaviour as based on the awareness that other people are engaged in similar events.
- Theory of self-prompted behaviour entails actions centred on personal initiatives due to familiarity with information rather than direct motivations from users or organisations. Many authors have utilised these theories to expound on online engagement and participation by citizens[10].
Achieving an improved engagement in digital Politics
[edit]The critical element of gaining increased and enhanced participation of online citizens is to analyse the link between the utility of digital communication by political stakeholders and the degree to which their domination of the social platform improves engagement and participation[8]. The internet use, especially the properties associated with the second digital wave of online social platforms may help enhance engagement with electoral politics and raising engagement levels with non-electoral, issue politics.
Some scholars argue that the ability of citizens to access polarised information, interact with texts and other users may make them contribute to actions deemed to be political. Scholars have extended academic comprehension of concluded theoretical debates regarding the forthcoming representative democracy to create a new grasp, applications and establishment of theory to help us understand how the widespread use of digital technology affects democratic processes.
Self-determination Theory
[edit]The theory is used to create a model to illustrate that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations fuel schemes of political participation whether offline and online and reconciled by the mobilisation mechanisms, campaign arrangements and peer by social media [10].The extrinsic motivations to are a compelling force to civic actions in the offline and online environs. Political participation is a social experience as opposed to a private activity. Campaign-based message reaching citizens via social media have a powerful mobilising effect, emphasising a shift to an issue based on civic culture[11].
Effects of External Stimuli
[edit]Online mobilisation has a strong influence on one to be politically active regardless of other factors, especially to those who remain passive to politics. Therefore a strong influence from digital mobilisation for democratic participation, especially among passive citizens remains crucial [13].. Democracy remains the voice of the people. People come together to find remedies to common problems or by electing representatives who solve problems for the betterment of the societies. The extent to which these systems are a challenge in the digital era determines the activeness of the citizens[12].
Criticism
[edit]Digital tools such as social sites have been utilized by government to sabotage dissidence, gather personal and private data, threaten journalists and activist and manufacture consent without the permission of their citizens. The communication devices that have been viewed as tools for engancing democracy have been turned into weapons to target certain individuals where algorism have been developed to track “bid data” that contain personal data which is then used to repress and control individuals or groups. The United States is an example of a government that employs its intelligence agencies to conduct mass surveillance and collection of both voice and text messages which leads to unfair targeting as a threat when ones views are against the government[1].
- ^ a b Zeynep, Tufekci (2017). Twitter and tear gas : the power and fragility of networked protest. New Haven. ISBN 9780300215120. OCLC 961312425.
- ^ Earl, Jennifer; Kimport, Katrina (2011). Digitally enabled social change : activism in the Internet age. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262015103. OCLC 639573767.
- ^ Boulianne, Shelly (2015). "Social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of current research". Information, Communication & Society. 18 (5): 524–538. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2015.1008542.
- ^ Parmelee, John; Bichard, Shannon (2012). Politics and the Twitter revolution: how tweets influence the relationship between political leaders and the public. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 1. ISBN 9780739165010.
- ^ David. Bollier, (2008). Viral spiral: how the commoners built a digital republic of their own. New York: New Press. ISBN 978-1595583963. OCLC 227016731.
- ^ Shirky, Clay (2011). "The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change". Foreign Affairs. 90 (1): 28–41. JSTOR 25800379.
- ^ Kahne, Joseph; Bowyer, Benjamin (2018). "The Political Significance of Social Media Activity and Social Networks". Political Communication. 35 (3): 470–493. doi:10.1080/10584609.2018.1426662.
- ^ a b c Bimber, B. Digital media in the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012: Adaptation to the personalised political communication environment. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 11(2), 130–150. 2014. Print
- ^ Boulianne, Shelly (2015). "Social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of current research". Information, Communication & Society. 18 (5): 524–538. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2015.1008542.
- ^ a b Bimber, B. Three prompts for collective action in the context of digital media. Political Communication, 34(1), 6–20. 2017. Print
- ^ Lilleker, D., & Koc-Michalska, K. What drives political participation? Motivations and mobilisation in a digital age. Political Communication, 34(1), 21–43.2017. Print
- ^ Vaccari, C. Online mobilisation in comparative perspective: Digital appeals and political engagement in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Political Communication, 34(1), 69–88. 2017. Print