Title: Public Opinion Formation in Convergence Culture
Abstract: Public Opinion Formation in Convergence Culture: As an external advisor to the Democracy Unit at the Ministry of Integration and Equality I have a general interest in e-democracy and is continuously updated/participate in discussions especially in the Swedish context. My own research work currently revolves around public opinion formation in convergence culture. Increasing digitalisation and globalisation transform society in many different ways. One of the most interesting changes is the new form of accessibility to the public sphere. Mass media has traditionally acted as gatekeepers concerning which issues to put on the agenda and how they should be framed. This is challenged when media become more global and digital. When more people publish themselves and their concerns on the Internet, mass media, citizens and organizations find them selves navigating in a new symbolic environment with a radically different architecture. This environment, where new and old media collide, constitute what Jenkins (2004, 2006) defines as Convergence Culture. This is characterised by the coming together of separate phenomena (Silverstone 2007: 20), such as for example news site audiences participating in the content and context production of news (Domingo et al. 2008; Greer & Mensing 2006), and the meeting of organised journalism and social media through linking practices on the Internet. How important are these new arena for public opinion formation? How is public opinion moulded here, and how do these arena intersect with old media practices on old media arenas? Traditionally researchers within journalism focus on media, public relations on organisations, audience researchers on users as recipients of information, and within citizenship studies the focus is on the possibilities of exercising rights and duties. All these traditions have observed the influence of Internet and its possibilities, but done so within their own research traditions. However, each of these mentioned traditions are unsatisfactory for understanding the opinion moulding process today in convergence society, where mass media, social media, organizations and citizenship practices coincide and function together.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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