A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs

Deliberative democracies are based on the principle of citizens’ participation. However, election turnouts and citizens’ alienation are signs of a political disengagement that could endanger the foundations of democratic systems. The spaces in which political debate and rational argumentation between equals may take place have diminished, yet new digital technologies have brought up potentialities in the promotion of online, horizontal and deliberative communication. Political blogs have been one of the most studied platforms, as they allow citizens engaged in political discussion and argumentation to establish a public sphere in which matters of public concern are debated. Nonetheless, issues of political polarization, fragmentation and non-rational debate have also been pointed out to limit the most optimistic perspectives over political blogs. By using the social network analysis, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Portuguese political blogs, by assessing its level of deliberation.

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Main Author: Silva,Elsa Costa e
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: OberCom 2014
Online Access:http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1646-59542014000400012
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spelling oai:scielo:S1646-595420140004000122015-02-17A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogsSilva,Elsa Costa e Political blogs deliberation participation public sphere hyperlinks Social Network Analysis Deliberative democracies are based on the principle of citizens’ participation. However, election turnouts and citizens’ alienation are signs of a political disengagement that could endanger the foundations of democratic systems. The spaces in which political debate and rational argumentation between equals may take place have diminished, yet new digital technologies have brought up potentialities in the promotion of online, horizontal and deliberative communication. Political blogs have been one of the most studied platforms, as they allow citizens engaged in political discussion and argumentation to establish a public sphere in which matters of public concern are debated. Nonetheless, issues of political polarization, fragmentation and non-rational debate have also been pointed out to limit the most optimistic perspectives over political blogs. By using the social network analysis, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Portuguese political blogs, by assessing its level of deliberation.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessOberComObservatorio (OBS*) v.8 n.4 20142014-12-01info:eu-repo/semantics/articletext/htmlhttp://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1646-59542014000400012en
institution SCIELO
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country Portugal
countrycode PT
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libraryname SciELO
language English
format Digital
author Silva,Elsa Costa e
spellingShingle Silva,Elsa Costa e
A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
author_facet Silva,Elsa Costa e
author_sort Silva,Elsa Costa e
title A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
title_short A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
title_full A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
title_fullStr A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
title_full_unstemmed A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs
title_sort deliberative public sphere? picturing portuguese political blogs
description Deliberative democracies are based on the principle of citizens’ participation. However, election turnouts and citizens’ alienation are signs of a political disengagement that could endanger the foundations of democratic systems. The spaces in which political debate and rational argumentation between equals may take place have diminished, yet new digital technologies have brought up potentialities in the promotion of online, horizontal and deliberative communication. Political blogs have been one of the most studied platforms, as they allow citizens engaged in political discussion and argumentation to establish a public sphere in which matters of public concern are debated. Nonetheless, issues of political polarization, fragmentation and non-rational debate have also been pointed out to limit the most optimistic perspectives over political blogs. By using the social network analysis, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Portuguese political blogs, by assessing its level of deliberation.
publisher OberCom
publishDate 2014
url http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1646-59542014000400012
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