Gender Differences and Political Deliberations on Social Media

Social media has emerged as an arena for political deliberation. Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp are major platforms where political debates/deliberation take place. This study was undertaken to investigate if attitude and perception towards these online platforms for political deliberation differs for male and female. For this purpose, a quantitative study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among 400 students of a private university. The finding suggests that males are more likely to be involved on political deliberation on social media than their female counterparts. Also male students value social media as an arena for political deliberation more than their female students

Free Speech and the Internet

This is a two-part project on freedom of speech and the internet. The first analyzes methodological approaches to the free speech debate. John Stuart Mill’s theory of free speech outlined in his book, On Liberty, is summarized. After establishing his idea of the “marketplace of ideas,” several objections to Mill’s theory are explored, focusing on various types of speech that undermine the principles of truth-seeking. The part concludes that, despite these objections, an open dialogue where actors seek truth is a worthy goal and limiting the effects of the objections presented should be pursued The second part analyzes contemporary issues of free speech on the internet. Several examples of the types of speech undermining truth-seeking are put in the context of the internet. Afterwards, the paper seeks a policy solution that boosts productive discussion on the web. Having considered problems with internet regulation, including critical media literacy in primary and secondary school curriculum is advocated

Social Media in Political Campaigning Around the World: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges

This is a manuscript of an article published as Dimitrova, Daniela V., and Jörg Matthes. "Social Media in Political Campaigning Around the World: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 95, no. 2 (2018): 333-342. DOI: 10.1177/1077699018770437. Posted with permission.</p

Utilization of Online Media in the 2020 Simultaneous Regional Head Election Campaign in Semarang

This article aims to highlight how the use of online media as a campaign tool in the midst of Corona Virus Disease 19 pandemic in the Simultaneous Election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Semarang in 2020. The problem was focused on how the challenges faced by General Election organizers and Candidate Pairs in organizing campaigns through online media. To approach this problem, Rogers and Storey's campaign theory references were used. The campaign is one of the crucial stages of the election, but during the pandemic the mass mobilization that is typical of the campaign is limited and prioritized through online media. Data were collected through observation, survey questionnaires and document literacy and analyzed qualitatively. This study concludes that the team successfully played a campaign strategy through the internet during this pandemic, especially online media and social media. Online media in this campaign also assisted General Election Supervisory Agency Election organizers as a supervisory function in the implementation of the campaign. However, in campaigning efforts through online media, it is necessary to encourage various parties to create good political education in the community

Utilization of Online Media in the 2020 Simultaneous Regional Head Election Campaign in Semarang

This article aims to highlight how the use of online media as a campaign tool in the midst of Corona Virus Disease 19 pandemic in the Simultaneous Election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Semarang in 2020. The problem was focused on how the challenges faced by General Election organizers and Candidate Pairs in organizing campaigns through online media. To approach this problem, Rogers and Storey's campaign theory references were used. The campaign is one of the crucial stages of the election, but during the pandemic the mass mobilization that is typical of the campaign is limited and prioritized through online media. Data were collected through observation, survey questionnaires and document literacy and analyzed qualitatively. This study concludes that the team successfully played a campaign strategy through the internet during this pandemic, especially online media and social media. Online media in this campaign also assisted General Election Supervisory Agency Election organizers as a supervisory function in the implementation of the campaign. However, in campaigning efforts through online media, it is necessary to encourage various parties to create good political education in the community

Facebook Profile of the Macedonian Voter

The world’s upward trend of increasingly intense involvement and use of modern Web 2.0-based services, aimed at addressing politics and political campaigns, has been definitely manifested in the Republic of Macedonia recently. The Internet and social media have exhibited a gradually greater impact on Macedonian politics and political marketing than ever before. During the last presidential and parliamentary elections held in April 2014, Facebook, being a social network with a leading role in the country, has promoted itself as an extremely important arena for intensive political activism. The majority of Macedonian voters have shared both politicians’ and political parties’ posts through this social medium. This phenomenon can be considered a definite confirmation of the great role Facebook has in the country, not only regarding the dissemination of political ideas among the electorate, but also in the process of mobilizing potential voters, including the act of making a voting decision, especially regarding the politically undecided citizens. To the best of our knowledge, the paper presents a first attempt to describe the typical Facebook profile of a Macedonian voter, the level of his/her political engagement or indifference, as well as the most important features of his/her online behaviour during election campaigns, in correlation with his/her demographic and socio-economic characteristics. This profile is built up based on the results of an online survey being carried out during a time period of one month among Macedonian Facebook users, in the dawn of the 2014 political elections. The research has undoubtedly affirmed the fact that the virtual support Macedonian Facebook users give to individual politicians and political options during political campaigns can not only be strongly felt, but can also significantly affect the election outcomes, regardless of Macedonian Facebook users’ ‘alleged’ indifference towards political Facebook posts and numerous contradictions held within the survey answers.Keywords: Facebook profile, voter, political campaigns, political marketing, Republic of Macedoni

Media Choice and Political Behavior

Government-sponsored sources of information are the main source of news for many Chinese citizens due to the strict government control of news and information. In a democratic country such as The Netherlands, there are public and private options for news sources that are all freely available. This makes the private news sources have to compete for viewership and customers by selling negative stories that are sensational, which could affect the readers’ inclination to participate in politics negatively, while those living in China do not have the same level of access to commercial sources. Because of this, it is expected that only those who have a desire to do the work to seek out private sources of information will do so due to the fact that they are harder to find in that country

Kontrol Media Tiongkok di Era Xi Jinping sebagai Upaya Tiongkok menjadi Kekuatan Global

In the era of globalization, media is omnipresent as well as gaining more influence and importance. With the rise of digital platform, the role of media as an information provider is enhanced and could prevail people’s political life. It is then clear that media is one of the pathways to become a Global Power due to its capability to direct public opinion. China in Xi Jinping’s era, fully recognizing the media’s potential, is continuing its effort on maintaining control over the media to be able to secure its prominence and level up its position in the international system. Using the concept of agenda setting and Uighurbiz website case as the example, this paper seeks to understand China’s control over its media in order to ease their way to becoming a global power