Presentation of paper at the International conference on theory and practice of electronic governance (ICEGOV)

1. Genres of communication in
activist eParticipation:
A comparison of new and old
media
Marius Rohde Johannessen
Department of Information Systems
University of Agder, Norway
ICEGOV 2012 | Albany, NY 22-25 October

2. Outline
• Numbers on Norwegian newspapers
• Case description
• Activism in local urban planning
• Research approach
• Genre analysis
• Case findings
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3. Newspapers in Norway
•5 million people, 233 newspapers in 177 locations
• Readership in decline, but 73% (over 12 y.o.)
still reads at least one paper each day.
• Local newspapers have stable readership
• Case municipality:
• 43.000 people
• 62.000 readers of local newspaper (print) 25.000 (web)
• 88% of municipality’s inhabitants reads either print or web
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4. Case description
• Contested piece of seaside land – only place left
• 30 years of various plans
• Past five years two opposing sides:
• Land owner: development. Activists: park
• Communication activities:
• Public workshops, surveys
• Newspaper – online and offline editions
• Social media – mostly Facebook
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5. Research approach
• Content analysis comparing newspaper editorial
column and Facebook group communication genres
(old vs. New media)
• Analyzedusing 5W1H framework
(where, why, when, who, what, how)
• Purpose: examine maturity of online communication
examine public sphere outcome of debate
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6. Case findings: Genres in old media
Genre Opinion, formal Opinion, informal
Convince others through Convince others through appeals to
Why
presenting facts emotions
Presents a view, followed by
supporting facts and Presents a view, supported by emotional
What
arguments statements or unsupported views
Genre Poem Personal attacks
Gain attention through an
Why discredit opponent’s opinion
unusual genre
Short rhymes, aimed at Points to previous letter or quote and
What
touching people’s emotions argues against it. Often in a harsh tone
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7. Case findings: Genres in new media
Genre Opinion, formal Opinion, informal
Convince others through Present short opinion on
Why
presenting facts something
Presents a view, w/supporting Presents a view, supported by
What facts and arguments. links, emotional statements. Sometimes
pictures, video with links, pictures, video
Genre Call to action Personal attacks
Get people to act on
Why Discredit opponents
Something
Invites people to demonstrations,
What unprovoked short comments
contact politicians etc
Genre Links Greetings/cheers
Inform others about content Congratulate each other after
Why
posted elsewhere victories, raise morale
Links to other online spaces, often Positive comments about a recent
What
multimedia content event, or about the activists’’ work
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8. Case findings: Public sphere outcomes
Concept Case observations Concept Case observations
Deliberative participants are not Deliberative Discourse is more one-way and
criteria attempting to understand the criteria less argument-based than in
others’ perspective. the old media, as there are
Debate is fairly rational and mainly activists taking part in
reflective these groups.
community Readers and writers all Community There is a sense of shared
belong to the same local objectives and common
community, some have interest in the groups, which
regular contact outside of help create a sense of
editorial columns community.
Type of PS Discourse-based (after some Type of PS Political protest. There are
time more towards political very few posts disagreeing
protest) with the activists.
Old media
New media
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9. New vs old & contribution to democracy
• Genres:
• New genres emerging in social media (greetings, linking)
• Social media taking advantage of multimedia and network
• Social media posts shorter, less fact-based/improvised
• Old media posts provides better insight/argument
• Public sphere
• Old media better at deliberation and rational discourse
• New media more a meeting place for like-minded people
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10. Thank you for listening!
QA
&
marius.johannessen@uia.no
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