The digital transformation of the public sphere

Tiago Santos, Jorge Louçã and Helder Coelho

Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2019, vol. 36, issue 6, 778-788

Abstract: In this paper, we study the relationship between social media and traditional media and their impact on democratic systems. We revisit the concepts of the public sphere and agenda‐setting and translate them into the current media landscape. Using topic‐modelling techniques, we then explore the effects of first level agenda‐setting in the Twitter debate on the Brexit referendum. Our results reveal a complex dynamic in the transmission of the media agenda to the public agenda. The traditional media dominated the debate, but not entirely, as alternative media played an important role in the campaign. The “Leave” campaign had more success in the transmission of its interpretative agenda, while the user‐generated content polarized the media's message. We conclude a list of recommendations to address the societal challenges posed by the transformation of the media environments.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2644

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:srbeha:v:36:y:2019:i:6:p:778-788

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1092-7026

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Systems Research and Behavioral Science from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().