Coordination
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krotz
ZeMKI, University of Bremen

Deutsch | English

Projects

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Political Deliberation on the Internet: Forms and Functions of Digital Discourse Based on the Microblogging System Twitter

Project leader: Prof. Dr. Caja Thimm

Project assistants: Mario Anastasiadis, Jessica Einspänner-Pflock

The main objectives of the third phase of the project focus on the interdependencies between the political context and the deliberative practices ("transmedia extensions") enabled by the Twitter media logic. Twitter will be conceptionalized as public "stage" for political deliberation on the internet.

The mediatization of politics, which is the focal point of the research project, is reflected on Twitter through discursive practices which are realized by individual users adopting specific communicative options intrinsically tied to the media logic of Twitter. Based on the model of Twitter as a discoursive network, which was developed during the first two research phases (2010-2014), a further precision of the model by including transmedia extensions is planned. The empirical analysis is based on the extensive dataset of tweets from politicians, citizens and media, which was collected during German state elections in the years 2010-2014, during the German national elections in 2013, and which will be expanded by documenting the upcoming elections of 2014-2016.

Aim of the planned analysis is to further elaborate the concept of online-deliberation by focusing on the processes of deliberation during negotiations of selected political issues. More specifically, we will look at the ad-hoc formation of "mini-publics" and their role for political discourse on the internet, as a particular manifestation of the mediatization of politics.

Website

Research field: Networks

Publications

Anastasiadis, Mario/Thimm, Caja (Eds.) (2011): Social Media: Theorie und Praxis digitaler Sozialität. (Bonner Beiträge zur Medienwissenschaft Bd. 11). Frankfurt/Main, New York: Peter Lang.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja (2013): Kontextualisierung durch Hashtags. Die Mediatisierung des politischen Sprachgebrauchs im Internet. In: Diekmannshenke, Hajo/Niehr, Thomas (Eds.): Öffentliche Wörter. Perspektiven Germanistischer Linguistik (PGL). Stuttgart: ibidem, pp. 137-159.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja (2013): Die Macht der Algorithmen – Selektive Distribution in Twitter. In: Emmer, Martin/Filipovic, Alexander/Schmidt, Jan-Hinrik/Stapf, Ingrid (Eds.): Echtheit, Wahrheit, Ehrlichkeit. Authentizität in der computervermittelten Kommunikation. (Kommunikations- und Medienethik Bd. 2). Weinheim: Juventa, pp. 74-87.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja (2013): Mediatisierung und Medialität in Social Media: Das Diskurssystem "Twitter". In: Schwarz-Friesel, Monika/Marx, Konstanze (Eds.): Sprache und Kommunikation im technischen Zeitalter. Wieviel Technik (v)erträgt unsere Gesellschaft? Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 86-91.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica/Anastasiadis, Mario/Thimm, Caja (2015): Ad hoc mini-publics on Twitter: Citizen participation or political communication? Examples from the German National Election 2013. In: Frame, Alex/Brachotte, Gilles (Eds.): Citizen Participation and Political Communication in a Digital World. London: Routledge, forthcoming.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark/Thimm, Caja (2014): Digitale Gesellschaft - Partizipationskulturen im Netz. In: Thimm, Caja (Eds.): Bonner Beiträge zur Onlineforschung, Bd. 4. Münster: Lit.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica/Reichmann, Werner (2014): "Digitale Sozialität" und die "synthetische Situation" - Konzeptionen mediatisierter Interaktion. In: Krotz, Friedrich/Despotović, Cathrin/Kruse, Merle-Marie (Hrsg.): Die Mediatisierung sozialer Welten: Synergien empirischer Forschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 53-72.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark/Thimm, Caja (2013): Computer-assisted content analysis of Twitter data. In: Bruns, Axel/Weller, Katrin/Burgess, Jean/Mahrt, Merja/Puschmann, Cornelius (Eds.): Twitter and Society. New York, NY: Peter Lang, pp. 97-108.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark/Bürger, Tobias (2012): Digitale Diskurse. Neue Formen von Öffentlichkeit in Online-Medien. Interview in: merz medien + erziehung, 56 (1), pp. 59-66.

Scheffer, Thomas/Dang-Anh, Mark/Laube, Stefan/Thimm, Caja (2014): Repräsentierendes Debattieren. Zur Mediatisierung von innerparteilicher Demokratie. In: Krotz, Friedrich/Despotović, Cathrin/Kruse, Merle-Marie (Hrsg.) (2014): Die Mediatisierung sozialer Welten. Synergien empirischer Forschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 215-234.

Thimm, Caja (2015): The mediatization of politics and the digital public sphere: the dynamics of mini-publics. In: Frame, Alex/Brachotte, Gilles (Eds.): Citizen Participation and Political Communication in a Digital World. London: Routledge, forthcoming.

Thimm, Caja/Frame, Alex/Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica/Leclercq, Eric/Anastasiadis, Mario (2015): The EU-Election on Twitter: Comparison of German and French Candidates' Tweeting styles. In: Holtz-Bacha, Christina (Eds.): Europawahl 2014: Die Massenmedien im Europawahlkampf. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag,forthcoming.

Thimm, Caja/Anastasiadis, Mario/Bürger, Tobias/Einspänner, Jessica (2014): #Gehwählen: Der Bundestagswahlkampf 2013 auf Twitter. Publikationsreihe der Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre angewandter Politik (BAPP), Bonn. Online at: www.bapp-bonn.de/publikationen.

Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica (2014): Mediatized politics – Structures and strategies of discursive participation and online deliberation on Twitter. In: Hepp, Andreas/Krotz, Friedrich (Eds.): Mediatized worlds: culture and society in a media age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 253–270.

Thimm, Caja/Bürger, Tobias (2013): Digitale Partizipation im politischen Kontext – "Wutbürger" online. In: Friedrichsen, Mike/Kohn, Roland A. (Eds.): Digitale Politikvermittlung – Chancen und Risiken interaktiver Medien, Wiesbaden: Springer VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 285-304.

Thimm, Caja (2012): Digitale Citoyens. Gastbeitrag In: The European. URL: www.theeuropean.de/caja-thimm/12037-globale-buergerschaften-im-netz (Retrieved 2013-09-26).

Thimm, Caja (2012): Political conflict, microblogging and the changing role of the citizens: examples from Germany, Tunesia and China. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Mobile Media for Development, pp. 388-398.

Thimm, Caja (2012): WikiLeaks und die digitale Bürgerschaft. Neue Optionen für Zivilgesellschaft? In: Filipovic, Alexander/Jäckel, Michael/Schicha, Christian (Eds.): Medien- und Zivilgesellschaft. Weinheim: Juventa, pp. 132-144.

Thimm, Caja/Bürger, Tobias (2012): Digitale Citoyens - politische Partizipation in Zeiten von Social Media. BAPP, Bonn.

Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica (2012): Mehr Zivilgesellschaft durch Social Media? Medienethische Perspektiven auf Twitter als Diskursmedium. In: Filipovic, Alexander/Jäckel, Michael/Schicha, Christian (Eds.): Medien- und Zivilgesellschaft. (Kommunikations- und Medienethik Bd. 1). Weinheim: Juventa, pp. 200-211.

Thimm, Caja/Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark (2012): Twitter als Wahlkampfmedium. In: Publizistik 57 (3), pp. 293-313. doi: 10.1007/s11616-012-0156-7.

Thimm, Caja/Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark (2012): Politische Deliberation online. Twitter als Element des politischen Diskurses. In: Krotz, Friedrich/Hepp, Andreas (Eds.): Mediatisierte Welten: Forschungsfelder und Beschreibungsansätze. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 283-305.

Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica (2011): Diskurssystem Twitter: Semiotische und handlungstheoretische Perspektiven. In: Anastasiadis, Mario/Thimm, Caja (Eds.): Social Media – Theorie und Praxis digitaler Sozialität. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, pp. 265-286.

Presentations

Anastasiadis, Mario/Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica: Twitter-Diskurspraktiken im Rahmen politischer Second Screen-Kommunikation. Presentation at the workshop "Ko-Orientierung in der Medienrezeption: Praktiken der Second-Screen-Nutzung". Zeppelin University, 2015-06-12 until 2015-06-13 in Friedrichshafen, held 2015-06-13.

Anastasiadis, Mario: Political Participation and Social media: User perceptions on the mediatization of politics. Presentation at European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Conference: 'Communication for Empowerment: Citizens, Markets, Innovations', 2014-11-12 until 2014-11-15 in Lisbon, held 2014-11-13.

Anastasiadis, Mario/Bürger, Tobias: Digitale Öffentlichkeiten, Partizipation und politische Kommunikation am Beispiel Twitter und der Europawahl 2014. Presentation at the workshop of summerschool "Europäischer Dialog", Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, 2014-06-02 until 2014-06-04 in Bonn.

Anastasiadis, Mario/Thimm, Caja: The Mediatization of the Public Sphere - Conceptualising the 'Digital Citoyen'. Presentation at the World Social Science Forum 2013, 2013-10-13 until 2013-10-15 in Montreal, held 2013-10-14.

Bürger, Tobias/Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja: Interpersonale Kommunikation im Wandel: Twittergespräche. Presentation at the workshop „Mediatisierungsprozesse in der Empirie: Methodendesigns zur Analyse von ‚Wandel’“, 2013-09-19 until 2013-09-20 at the University Münster, held 2013-09-20.

Bürger, Tobias: Online-Inhaltsanalyse von Twitter-Diskursen. Ein Mixed-Methods-Ansatz zur Erschließung von Themen, Sprechhandlungen und Argumentationsmustern. Presentation at the workshop "Qualitative Rezeptionsforschung, Ethnografie, Panel", 2011-07-01 until 2011-07-02 at the Leuphana University Lüneburg, held 2011-07-02.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Twitterdiscourse – Methodical Apporaches and Challenges, 5th working days at the  Empirikom at the University Hamburg, 2013-04-25 until 2013-04-26.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Conceptualising Twitter as a Discourse System: Discursive Practices in Political Online Communication, LUtwit: „Twitter and Microblogging. Political, Professional and Personal Practices“ in Lancaster, 2013-04-10 until 2013-04-12.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Medien in der politischen Kommunikation: Twitter als Diskursraum, annual meeting of the DGPuK group Mediensprache und Mediendiskurse „Die Entgrenzung der Mediendiskurse im Internet“ in Trier, held 2013-02-22.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Wörter in der politischen Online-Kommunikation: Praktiken der Bezugnahme über Hashtags in Twitter, GAL congress „Wörter – Wissen – Wörterbücher“ in Erlangen, held 2012-09-20.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Selective Distribution in Twitter: How Algorithms Shape our Digital Reality, iCS-Conference „The Co-Production of Knowledge: Social Media, STS and …“ in York, held 2012-07-19.

Dang-Anh, Mark: Measuring Political Deliberation on Twitter: Forms and Functions of Digital Interaction through Micro-Blogging. Presentation at "GOR 2011" (General Online Research), 2011-03-14 until 2011-03-16 in Düsseldorf, held 2011-03-16.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica: Twitter as a Discourse Universe: a Mixed-Methods Approach Towards the Analysis of Semiotics and Speech Acts in Tweets”. Presentation at the "DIATA11. Düsseldorf Workshop on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twitter Analysis", 2011-09-14 until 2011-09-15 in Düsseldorf, held 2011-09-15.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica/Bürger, Tobias: Twitter: Semiotische und sprechhandlungstheoretische Analyseebenen. Presentation at the Vortragsreihe Linguistik des Linguistischen Forums, 2011-06-06 at the University Bonn.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Thimm, Caja: Transmediale Kommunikation in Microblogs - Interaktion und Argumentation im Diskursuniversum Twitter. Presentation at the Annual Conference of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft (SGKM), 2011-04-08 until 2011-04-09 in Basel, held 2011-04-09.

Dang-Anh, Mark/Thimm, Caja: Mehr Zivilgesellschaft durch Soziale Netzwerke? Twitter als Element des deliberativen Diskurses. Presentation at the DGPuK Fachgruppenjahrestagung "Medien- und Zivilgesellschaft", 2011-02-17 until 2011-02-18 in Munich, held 2011-02-17.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica: Generational Perceptions on Being Private in a Mediatized World. Presentation at conference "Communciation across the lifespan" ICA, SPP-Panel "Aging in a Mediatized Society: Lifespan Perspectives on Digital Technologies", 2015-05-21 until 2015-05-25 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, held 2015-05-25.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica: German political communication on Twitter during the 2014 European Elections. Presentation at symposium "Twitter at the European Elections 2014″, University Metz, 2015-02-05 until 2015-02-06 in Metz, held 2015-02-05.

Einspänner-Pflock, Jessica: #btw13 - Get out and vote. An Analysis of the German Parliamentary Election 2013 on Twitter. Presentation at Politics and Social Media Conference, Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, 2014-11-06 until 2014-11-07.

Einspänner, Jessica: Kreative Diskurspraktiken in der politischen Online-Kommunikation: Joint Digital Storytelling auf Twitter. Presentation at the conference "Diskurs - Medien - Praxis" at Goethe-University Frankfurt, 2014-04-02 until 2014-04-03.

Einspänner, Jessica: Computergestützte Inhaltsanalyse von politischen Diskursen auf Twitter. Ein Multi-Methoden-Ansatz zur Erschließung von Themen, Sprechakten und Argumentationsmustern. Presentation at the annual conference of the DGPuK-Sebtion Computervermittelte Kommunikation "Digital Methods", Vienna 2013.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: Joint digital storytelling on Twitter - New modes of deliberation online. Presentation at the Workshop of the ECREA-Section Digital Culture & Communication, Bonn 2013.

Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja: Communicative Strategies in the Mediatization of Politics – Digital Storytelling on Twitter, Presentation at the workshop of the ECREA TWG Mediatization „Mediatization and New Media“, University of Copenhagen, 2013-03-15 until 2013-03-16.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: The Global Digital Citoyen: Social Media and the changing Role of the Citizens. ECREA 2012, Digital Culture and Communication section at the 4th European Communication Conference in Istanbul, held 2012-10-26.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: Aspekte digitaler Partizipation am Beispiel von Twitter, Workshop „Partizipation und Vernetzung in mediatisierten Welten“ of the Priority Program „Mediatisierte Welten“ in Bremen, held 2012-09-12.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: Über die Grenzen und Möglichkeiten registrierender und rekonstruktiver Methoden in der Twitterforschung. Workshop in context with the Priority Program „Mediatisierte Welten“: „Registrierende vs. rekonstruierende (Mediatisierungs-)Forschung“ in Karlsruhe, held 2012-04-04.

Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: Die Macht der Algorithmen - Social Media als Kontrolleure und Manipulateure digitaler Wirklichkeiten. Presentation at the annual conference of the DGPuK-Section "Medienethik" on "Echtheit, Wahrheit, Ehrlichkeit - Die ethische Frage nach 'Authentizität' in der computervermittelten Kommunikation", Munich 2012.

Einspänner, Jessica & Thimm, Caja: The Linguistics of Political Deliberation on the Internet: The Case of Twitter. Presentation at the "GURT 2011" (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics), 10.03.2011 - 13.03.2011 in Washington, D.C., held 2011-03-12.

Einspänner, Jessica/Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark: Deliberation, Transparenz und Sozialität im Netz: Twitter als Wahlkampfmedium. Presentation at the "56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (DGPuK) 'Theoretisch praktisch!?'", 2011-06-01 until 2011-06-03 in Dortmund, held 2011-06-02.

Thimm, Caja: The EU-elections of Twitter in Germany: Anti European Voices on Twitter. Presentation at "Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research" IAMCR, 2015-07-12 until 2015-07-16 in Montreal, held 2015-07-13.

Thimm, Caja: Collective Actions on Twitter: Digital Storytelling as a Resistance Strategy. Presentation at "Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research" IAMCR,  2015-07-12 until 2015-07-16 in Montreal, held 2015-07-15.  

Thimm, Caja: Mediatized Practices of Older Adults online: From Email to online Romance. Presentation at ICA 65th "Communciation across the lifespan"; SPP-Panel "Aging in a Mediatized Society: Lifespan Perspectives on Digital Technologies".2015-05-21 until 2015-05-25 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, held 2015-05-25.

Thimm, Caja: Digital Firestorms: New Challenges for Crisis Communication. Presentation at "The International Crisis and Risk Communication" (ICRC) conference Orlando, held 2015-03-04.

Thimm, Caja/Frame, Alex: Towards a Digital Public Sphere in Europe? Twitter at the European Parliamentary Elections 2014. A comparison between France and Germany. Presentation at 13th Annual International Conference on Communication and Mass Media, 2015-05-11 until 2015-05-14 in Athens, held 2015-05-11.

Thimm, Caja: Digital Firestorms: New challenges for crisis communication and reputation management. Presentation at European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Conference: 'Communication for Empowerment: Citizens, Markets, Innovations', 2014-11-12 until 2014-11-15 in Lisbon, held 2014-11-13.

Thimm, Caja: Twitter in journalism - forms, functions and journalistic practices. Presentation at "International Journalism Week", University Abat Oliba CEU in Barcelona, 2014-03-03 until 2014-03-07.

Thimm, Caja: Zwischen Twitter-Häme und Merkel-Raute: Der Online Wahlkampf 2013. Presentation at the Dies Academicus of the University Bonn, held December 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Online Audiences: Immerged or Converged? A critical Perspective on Convergence. Keynote at the conference "Deconstructing Convergence" in Salzburg, held November 2013.

Thimm, Caja: (Digitale)Gesellschaft und Öffentlichkeit - Neues Bürgerbewusstsein? Presentation at the "Bitburger Gespräche" in Mainz, held February 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Erregungskampagnen in Politik und Wirtschaft - digitale Öffentlichkeit zwischen Candy- und Shitstorms. Presentation at the Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre angewandter Politik, held October 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Netzbasierte Partizipationskulturen - Möglichkeiten und Risiken digitaler Beteiligungsformen. Presentation at Landtag des Landes Thüringen in Erfurt, held 2013-03-07.

Thimm, Caja: Political Conflict, Microblogging and the changing Role of the Citizen: Examples from Germany. Presentation at the Colloque de la Récherche at the Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, held December 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Joint Digital Storytelling on Twitter: Creative Appropriation in Online Deliberations. IR 14, Denver 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Political Crisis on Twitter - How local citizens' participation shapes national political decision making. Presentation at the IAMCR Conference, Dublin University, 2013.

Thimm, Caja: Digitale Citoyens- Politische Partizipation in Zeiten von Social Media. Presentation at the Dies Academicus of the University Bonn, held 2012-12-05.

Thimm, Caja: Digitale Citoyens - Politik, Partizipation und Sprache in Zeiten von Social Media. Presentation at the Koblenzer Kolloquium für Kulturwissenschaft, held 2012-12-12.

Thimm, Caja: Twitter in Political Discourse During German State Elections: Forms, Functions and Strategies. Presentation at the ICA Regional Conference, Lille 2012.

Thimm, Caja: Political Conflicts and the Digital Citoyen: How New Media Shape Local Political Protest and Decision Making Processes. Presentation at the Local Politics-Global Effect: International Conference on Global Perspectives on Political Change, Paris 2012.

Thimm, Caja: Digitale Citoyens: Demokratie und Mediatisierung in Zeiten von Social Media. Presentation at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien, Hedi-Lamarr-Lecture, held November 2012.

Thimm, Caja: Online Protest and Digital Cultures. Presentation at the conference "New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Democracy Promotion", Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, Bonn 2012.

Thimm, Caja/Einspänner, Jessica/Dang-Anh, Mark: Medien im sozialen Nahraum: Twitternde Bürgerschaft(en). Presentation at the 57th annual meeting of DGPuK „MediaPolis – Kommunikation zwischen Boulevard und Parlament“, 2012-05-16 until 2012-05-18 at the Freie Universität Berlin, held 2012-05-17.

Thimm, Caja: Mobile Medien – Mobile Politik? Twitternde Bürgerschaft(en) und die mobile Stadt. Presentation at the Jahrestagung der DGPuK-Fachgruppe „Soziologie der Medienkommunikation“ zum Thema “Medienkommunikation in Bewegung: Mobilisierung – Mobile Medien – Kommunikative Mobilität“, 2011-12-01 until 2011-12-03 in Erfurt, held 2011-12-03.

Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark: Diskursuniversum Twitter: Semiotische und handlungstheoretische Perspektiven auf Microblogging. Presentation at the Workshop „Sprache und Kommunikation im technischen Zeitalter“, 2011-07-21 at the TU Berlin.

Thimm, Caja: Mehr Partizipation durch soziale Netzwerke? Presentation at the conference „Revolution im Netz. Das Internet verändert die politische Kommunikation“ of the Akademie für politische Bildung Tutzing (APB), 2011-07-01 until 2011-07-03 in Tutzing, held 2011-07-02.

Thimm, Caja: Mehr Zivilgesellschaft durch Mobile Medien? Twitter als Element des deliberativen Diskurses. Presentation at the Medienforum Ilmenau 2011, 2011-06-24 at the TU Ilmenau.

Thimm, Caja/Dang-Anh, Mark/Einspänner, Jessica: Mediatized politics: Forms and Functions of Civic Participation through Micro Blogging. Presentation at the international conference "Mediatized Worlds: Culture and Society in a Media Age", 2011-04-13 until 2011-04-15 in Bremen, held 2011-04-15.