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2020 | Book | 1. edition

Communication in the Age of Twitter: The Nature of Online Deliberation Read chapter Read first chapter

Twitter, the Public Sphere, and the Chaos of Online Deliberation

Editors: Gwen Bouvier, Judith E. Rosenbaum

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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About this book

This volume provides a critical view of the nature and quality of political and civic communication on Twitter. The introduction lays out the current state of research, showing the continuum of views, from the more optimistic to more pessimistic, regarding the platform’s potential to facilitate civic conversations. The eleven empirical case studies in the book provide new insights, addressing a variety of topics through a diverse array of methodological approaches. Together, the chapters provide a counter position to recent studies that offer more celebratory assessments of Twitter’s potential. The book draws attention to the chaotic, insular, uncivil, and emotionally charged nature of debate and communication on Twitter.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Communication in the Age of Twitter: The Nature of Online Deliberation
Abstract
In the past decade, Twitter has become the space where politicians, activists, and regular citizens voice their opinions, seek out like-minded others, and spar with political opponents. The sociocultural impact of hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesmatter have led many scholars to take an optimistic approach regarding the nature and quality of communication that takes place on Twitter. At the same time, there is ample research that provides reason for caution when it comes to the role of Twitter in contemporary democracy. This book should be seen as a part of that scholarship. This chapter provides an overview of the various, often contradictory positions regarding Twitter’s potential for political communication, highlighting what questions still need answered to understand whether Twitter functions as a public sphere.
Gwen Bouvier, Judith E. Rosenbaum

Political Contention and Civic Engagement

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. Going “Rogue”: National Parks, Discourses of American Identity and Resistance on Twitter
Abstract
This chapter examines three ‘alternative’ national parks Twitter accounts created in response to censorship about climate change imposed by the Trump administration in 2017. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis and theory by Fairclough (Language and power. Longman, London, 1989), Tracy and Robles (Everyday talk: Building and reflecting identities. The Guilford Press, New York, 2013) and Foucault (The archaeology of knowledge. Pantheon, New York, 1972), this chapter finds that the tweets call upon ideas of US national identity through the use of themes like pristine wilderness, historic legacy and wisdom by past American leaders. The authors identify Twitter as a platform that allows a space for protest and collective resistance. The tweets engendered civic participation around a perspective counter to the official line, and in doing so, foregrounded a romanticized sense of national identity.
Joanne Marras Tate, Vincent Russell, Rachel Larsen, Ellie Busch
Chapter 3. Political Candidates’ Discussions on Twitter During Election Season: A Network Approach
Abstract
This chapter investigates how political candidates utilize Twitter to communicate with each other to better understand the role Twitter plays in facilitating public debate. Taking a communication network approach, Vergeer uses the 2012 Dutch national election to provide insight into how political candidates interact on Twitter and describe the structure of the candidates’ online communication network. Results regarding candidate interaction on Twitter are mixed: most candidates only tweet occasionally, and while reciprocity was observed it often only occurred between party members, especially incumbents. While Twitter thus provides political candidates with the opportunity to conduct interparty discussions, it appears that few do and that Twitter is mainly used as a broadcasting platform. As such, candidates do not use the full democratic potential of the platform.
Maurice Vergeer
Chapter 4. #PeoplesVoteMarch or #LosersVoteMarch? Tracing the Collective Identity of a Post-Brexit Referendum Movement on Twitter
Abstract
This chapter examines how, in a time of social and political upheaval, Twitter allows for the creation of a collective identity. Using Narrative Thematic Analysis to analyze responses to the 2018 People’s Vote March, this chapter seeks to understand how Twitter users collaborated to create meanings about the march, the Brexit referendum, and the future of the UK. Results show that Twitter’s affordances for cognitive and affective networking are widely used to create a sense of community and shared identity. However, these same affordances also create a space for an attack on this collective identity through abusive discourses. This reveals that the openness and connectivity that allows people to unite also opens them up to critique intended to destabilize their shared understandings.
Photini Vrikki

Inside Twitter Communities: Communication Strategies in Networked Publics

Frontmatter
Chapter 5. Civic Debate and Self-Care: Black Women’s Community Care Online
Abstract
The public sphere has historically structured some discourses and identities as highly visible, while backgrounding others. As a result, it can be very demanding for women of color to participate in online political dialogue. Using focus groups, this chapter examines the strategies of care that Black women who engage in online political debates employ for themselves and each other. Results show that when faced with dominant structures of oppression (such as erasure/invisibility and outright attacks), these women create safe spaces for discussion and mutual support. The chapter elaborates on how Black Twitter can be understood as a counter to the mainstream, how these women network to have their views asserted, and how they labor to support different Black identities.
Raven Maragh-Lloyd
Chapter 6. The Voices of Twitter: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial Discourses on Twitter Following the Alt-Right March on Charlottesville, Virginia
Abstract
This chapter takes a critical look at the belief that Twitter allows for the kind of dialogue essential to democracy by bringing together disparate voices. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, Dyer and Hakkola analyze Twitter responses to the 2017 Alt-right march held in Charlottesville, Virginia for signs of such dialogue. Results show that tweets either augmented or resisted the colorblind discourse that has dominated political discussions in the United States for the past decades. The divisions between the various sides of the debate lead the authors to conclude that discussions on Twitter might show the potential for the kind of dialogue needed for democracy but the lack of mutual engagement means that these interactions seem to only further divide the country.
Sarah J. V. Dyer, Leah Hakkola
Chapter 7. Covert Hate Speech: White Nationalists and Dog Whistle Communication on Twitter
Abstract
Dog whistling, a form of symbolic communication through seemingly innocuous terms is a common practice for members of far-right movements. This chapter examines how dog whistling was used on Twitter during the 2016 presidential election through a virtual ethnographic approach. Dog whistling serves to circumvent censorship by automated moderation, and adapts historical markers of the far-right as well as symbols used in other media to work within Twitter’s affordances. Thus, Twitter is employed as a channel to spread hate and signal belonging among far-right communities. In doing so, creative use is made of the platform’s technology, in the face of the site’s moderation techniques, to convey white supremacist ideas to a broader audience while staying under the radar of detection.
Prashanth Bhat, Ofra Klein

The Role and Nature of Affect in Twitter Interactions

Frontmatter
Chapter 8. Patterns of Emotional Tweets: The Case of Brexit After the Referendum Results
Abstract
With the public sphere conceptualized as consisting of rational, deliberate dialogue, affective responses are often excluded from any considerations of social media’s role in democracy. This chapter aims to extend our understanding of the role played by Twitter in contemporary democracy by considering it as a public space that allows emotion-laden expression to promote democratic progress. Using a quantitative content analysis combined with a text-based analysis of tweets centered on the outcome of the Brexit referendum, this chapter shows how Twitter serves as a public space that does not allow for true dialogue, with responses to the referendum often combining affect, appreciation, and judgment, thereby reflecting and augmenting political polarization.
Catherine Bouko, David Garcia
Chapter 9. An Exploratory Mixed-Method Analysis of Interpersonal Arguments on Twitter
Abstract
This chapter reflects on a particular kind of social interactivity on Twitter that is directly linked to the public sphere: rational argumentation. Using a mixed methods design, this study analyzed the nature of people’s online disagreements, examining users’ motivations, the degree to which users’ tendency to argue is informed by personality traits, and the stress experienced after such exchanges. Results show that personality traits predict argument goals as well as post-argument experience of stress. Argumentative exchanges on Twitter tend to be brief and remain underdeveloped, mainly because of users’ tendency to withdraw from most online conversations. This ‘switching off’ equally hinders any attempts at persuasion by the other party, while the use of verbal aggressiveness detracts attention from the topic at hand.
Amy Janan Johnson, Ioana A. Cionea

The Use of Humor and Popular Culture in Political Conversations on Twitter

Frontmatter
Chapter 10. Bros Before Donald Trump: Resisting and Replicating Hegemonic Ideologies in the #BROTUS Memes After the 2016 Election
Abstract
Carrying out a rhetorical analysis of the #BROTUS memes that circulated on Twitter after the 2016 presidential election, this chapter examines how these memes challenge and replicate extant ideologies, blurring the lines between information and entertainment as well as private and public spheres. Findings show that, in spite of their humorous and banal content, memes can allow for the expression of resistance and the channeling of affect. At the same time, the authors point out that while the memes challenge the ideologies embodied by the Trump campaign, they also replicate some of the same values and beliefs. The #BROTUS memes show how Twitter serves as a vernacular sphere of political engagement while their popularity in part still relies on the same dominant ideologies they aim to resist.
Roberta Chevrette, Christopher M. Duerringer
Chapter 11. #FamilyTravelHacks: Humor and Political Commentary in Hashtag Hijacking
Abstract
In 2018, The U.S. State Department used its Twitter account @TravelGov to create the #FamilyTravelHacks hashtag to inform people about tips for safe travel with children. The campaign started during the height of media coverage of Trump’s immigration family separation policy in 2018 and received a considerable backlash on Twitter. Using grounded theory, this chapter considers the nature of this online defiance. Results point to the formation of a counterpublic as well as the considerable amount of interaction generated by this collective resistance. However, due to the lack of critical rational discourse between participants, as well as the rogue accounts and people attacking it, this discussion performed like an echo chamber rather than a debate that allows a variety of critical perspectives.
Nathan J. Rodriguez
Chapter 12. Women in Horror, Social Activism, and Twitter: Asia Argento, Anna Biller, and the Soska Sisters
Abstract
This chapter examines the social media communities that have sprung up around cult horror film. Looking specifically at feminist communities centered around the Soska Sisters, Asia Argento, and Anna Biller, Mathijs investigates how these communities utilize cultural capital and social ties to engender social change. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis and interviews, Mathijs concludes that Twitter’s role as a potential public sphere primarily centers on its ability to draw attention to commonly ignored topics. While Twitter allows for the formation of large, fluctuating communities, the smaller online communities common to Facebook are better able to instigate social change because of tighter social bonds and focused conversations.
Ernest Mathijs
Chapter 13. Afterword: Twitter and the Democratization of Politics
Abstract
Reflecting on the research presented in this volume, this chapter considers the nature and quality of political communication on Twitter and what this reveals about the platform’s potential to serve as a public sphere. The chapter elaborates on the importance of extending current understandings of political communication to include the trivial and everyday conversations people often have, the role Twitter plays in forming communities and giving voice to marginalized groups, the nature of resistance on Twitter, as well as the quality of interactions between users. Concluding that Twitter usage is more about connections than engagement, the chapter argues that viewing Twitter as a public sphere does not reflect the reality of behaviors on Twitter, which can best be described as a wild public network instead.
Gwen Bouvier, Judith E. Rosenbaum
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Twitter, the Public Sphere, and the Chaos of Online Deliberation
Editors
Gwen Bouvier
Judith E. Rosenbaum
Copyright Year
2020
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-41421-4
Print ISBN
978-3-030-41420-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41421-4