Political Discussion
-
Upload
sebastian-valenzuela -
Category
News & Politics
-
view
1.200 -
download
2
description
Transcript of Political Discussion
1menu
Informal Political Conversations, Social Networks and Participation in Public Life
Sebastián Valenzuela
School of Journalism
Jesse Jones Fellowship Presentation
October 2008
2menu
Talk is good for democracy
3menu
New approach to an old idea…
Gabriel Tarde (1890s)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1830s)
Paul Lazarsfeld (1940s)
Jurgen Habermas (1960s)
4menu
“With talk we can invent alternative futures, create mutual purposes, and construct competing visions
of community”
--Benjamim Barber (1983/2003, p. 177)
5menu
But what kind of talk?
• Formal vs. Informal
• Interpersonal vs. Computer-Mediated
• Family vs. Strangers
• Public issues vs. Private issues
6menu
What I study
• The effects of informal conversations about public affairs between non-elite members of a political community on their knowledge, efficacy and participation
• Online and offline public talk
• Public talk within social networks
7menu
And the news media???
8menu
My Research
1. Talk as moderator of news use effects
2. New online platforms for talk
3. Social network attributes (e.g., diversity, ties)
9menu
Talk as Moderator
• Moderator: A variable that changes the impact of one variable on another.
10menu
Previous Research
• Talking amplifies the positive effects of news use– Compensates for news shortcomings (cognitive)– Provides mobilizing information (behavioral gaps)
• Talking can be detrimental to the positive effects of news use:– Interference or distortion (cognitive)
11menu
Purpose and method
• Test if talk moderates news effects on attitudes
• Which attributes interact with news use:– Is it talking more often?– Talking with politically sophisticated people?– Talking with people who share (or don’t) my political
preferences?
• Secondary analysis, NES survey, 2000
12menu
OPTIMISTIC VIEW:
People who don’t follow the news can learn from discussion with others
OR
PESSIMISTIC VIEW:
For people who follow the news, discussing too much can hinder their political learning
Political Knowledge
13menu
Network disagreement strengthens the positive relationship between news and political self-efficacy, particularly among those who discuss frequently.
SO
Talkative news junkies with heterogeneous networks have extremely high political efficacy!
Self-Efficacy
14menu
New online platforms for talk
• Virtual forums
• E-mail threads
• Blogs
• Chatrooms
• IM
• Social network sites
15menu
and civic/political life
• Not SNS per se, but specific uses what matter
• Informational vs. recreational uses of SNS
• Own online survey, college students, 2007
16menu
Life satisfaction +15% (±2%)
Social trust + 5% (±1%)
Civic participation +16% (±4%)
FB Groups +10% (±4%)
Political participation +2% (±4%)
FB Groups +27% (±5%)
Heavy vs Light Users
17menu
• Informational uses are more related to participation than recreational uses.
Civic Political
Social interaction -1% +2%
Entertainment -1% +1%
Self-status seeking +1% +2%
Information seeking +4% +3%
Testing our Assumptions
18menu
Social Network Attributes
• Unique contribution of F2F and CMC on offline and online participation
• Specific attributes:• Ties: strong, weak• Heterogeneity: disagreement, diversity• Quality: expertise, reasoning
• CJCR online survey, adult sample, 2009
19menu
Network Variables
• Network size online/offline• Strong ties: family, friends• Weak ties: strangers, demographic
diversity• Network disagreement: ratio of “safe” to
“dangerous” discussion• Reasoning: argumentation, issue-based
discussion
20menu
Results
21menu
Some lessons…
• Talk is good for democracy
• Talk and news: a complex relationship
• Cyberoptimism AND cyberpessimism
• We’re only starting to scratch the surface!
22menu
Future Research
• Theoretical synthesis– Connection to existing theories– From deliberation to communication
• Methodological challenges– Experiments– Observations
23menu
Thanks to…
• My co-authors: Homero Gil de Zúñiga, Kerk Kee, Namsu Park and Yonghwan Kim
• All my colleagues at the
• Maxwell McCombs, Talia Stroud, Sharon Strover, Teresa Correa and all the other people who directly or indirectly contributed to my research
• The J-School and the College of Comm for the $$$!