Political Communication, Citizen Journalism and Cyber-Societies: A Faster Way towards Democracy?

Authors : Ekmel GEÇER

Pages : 125-142

View : 20 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2017-12-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Normal 0 21 false false false TR X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normal Tablo"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Having a quick look at the literature review, it is possible to state that political communication, citizen journalism, and democracy concepts have usually been used in collaboration with each other especially after the long and sometimes complex new media theories take the core place in the debates. While some scholars, within the context of citizen journalism and political relation, highlights the role of social media and other new media courses in democratisation and more active political participation, some other debates that although the new media technologies give political communication campaigns a better, cheaper and more interactive formation, it seems quite difficult to extend this “good formation” to a greater democracy as the complexity of cultural attitudes, socio-political structure of a society and historical dynamics do not let new media channels and their active practise by the citizens to have the same influence at any locations. Therefore, this article, based on an extensive literature review, while giving insights regarding the long deliberation at the background of citizen journalism and political communication it aims to examine (a) the role of social media and other new media courses in political communication, (b) the influence of citizen journalism in democratisation, (c) the new and traditional way of news production regarding political communication and (d) lastly, questioning the reality of the recently emerged “we’re all journalists now”   expression, aims to understand if civic contribution, through citizen journalism, into political communication breaks the taboos between politics and the society and so shortens the long way towards democratisation.
Keywords : Citizen journalism, democracy, political communication, public sphere, new media