Brave new world? Political participation and new media

This paper intends to highlight the role played by new social media upon citizens’ political participation, their challenges and inequalities, like what has been thoroughly studied for traditional media. New media, also called social networks, like Twitter or Facebook, have been glorified as the universal public sphere, a promising new "café". This paper intends to discuss, in a more realistic and reflexive way, the use of some internet platforms, contradicting the excessive optimism that always arises whenever a new ICT (information and communication technology) emerges. We intend to reposition the social conditions that impact on digital political participations, namely the historical context, the social inequalities and the role of traditional media on political participation. Acknowledging the theoretical proposition stating that political participation (both in real or digital worlds) is stratified, this paper states that there is also a stratification of social media, regarding different levels of uses and goals, and that participation skills needed before social media ever existed are still necessary to participate via new media, an undervalued issue in new media studies. Similarly to other tools, Facebook and Twitter do not change the political situation by themselves. Although this transformation can be enabled by those tools, it all depends on the social, political and historical contexts. Finally, it is recognized that traditional media are also important to make political participation through social networks relevant in the real world

Do consumo à apropriação dos MMORPGs

This article seeks to identify and characterize some of the major changes that have led to the need to (re)think the role of the player regarding video games such as the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Based on the criticism of the magic circle concept and on several theoretical contributions pointing out the MMORPGs as a space of negotiation that draws producers and consumers together (Jenkins, 2006; Steinkuehler, 2006; Klevjer, 2008; Consalvo, 2009; among others), we intend to demonstrate the molding to which this type of games are subjected, particularly in the video game World of Warcraft. A discussion forum of World of Warcraft was analyzed in order to highlight situations in which the negotiation of the game’s reality is present. Finally, we systematize the theoretical contributions and discuss the process underlying the molding of MMORPGs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fahrenheit 451 ou “a new café”? Velhas e novas questões sobre participação política

A e-participação promove, ou não, a participação política dos cidadãos? Dar uma resposta a esta questão implica identificar contextos de mudança e/ou de reprodução social e, no caso de existir mudança, identificar que direção toma. Quando se trata da e-participação é necessário destacar se há elementos de continuidade em relação à participação política offline e se novos aspetos associados a esta participação desafiam as sociedades democráticas. Rompendo com o otimismo e o pessimismo no campo da e-participação, neste artigo, o nosso objetivo é apresentar uma reflexão sobre questões cruciais que têm consequências na participação política digital: as desigualdades sociais na participação política; a vigilância e a ameaça que se coloca a escolhas políticas livres; o modo como a participação política (informada) dos cidadãos e a esfera pública podem ser desafiadas através do uso de algoritmos, do aumento de notícias falsas e da propaganda e manipulação políticas sem escrutínio público.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The place of political columnist in current journalism

This paper discusses the place the “opinion” fits in the media field, in political field, in the “world of readers” and in the hierarchy of professions. On the other hand, we intend to characterize both professionally and socially the actors who sign the opinion columns and how their legitimacy is built. This paper intends to be a contribution to a conceptual framework of this “activity” and its main argument is that the place of the columnists is best understood as a subfield at the crossroads of both the media and the political fields

Media, Política e Opinião: uma tríade complexa. Uma abordagem à opinião publicada em Portugal.

A dissertação intitulada “Media, Política e Opinião: uma tríade complexa – uma abordagem à opinião publicada em Portugal”, visa explorar teórica e empiricamente a imprensa dita de referência, enquanto veículo e suporte das colunas de opinião que abordem a política nacional. Pretende perceber qual é a importância dos artigos de opinião no campo dos media, concretamente, questionar o seu papel na construção das representações sobre a política nacional; como é percepcionada a opinião por quem a emite; e qual a receptividade que a opinião obtém por parte dos leitores. Metodologicamente, foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: entrevistas a colunistas; inquérito aos leitores dos jornais estudados (Público, Diário de Notícias, Expresso e Independente); e análise de conteúdo de um corpus empiricus constituído por uma amostra de colunas de opinião e de editoriais publicados nesses jornais, durante o período Outubro de 2001 a Março de 2002 – altura em que se realizaram em Portugal eleições autárquicas e eleições legislativas antecipadas. Numa tentativa de cumprir a inter e transdicisplinar a dissertação, ainda que inscrevendo-se na área científica da sociologia, recorre a outras áreas do saber conexas, particularmente às “ciências da comunicação”.This thesis entitled "Media, Politics and Opinion: a complex triade - an approach to the more representative opinion articles published in the Portuguese press", aims to examine the quality press, which is the reference for such articles, from both the theoretical and empirical point of view. It attempts to define the importance of opinion articles within the ambit of the media. More specifically it attempts: 1. to assess the role of such articles 2. to see how opinion is viewed by the very people who give it 3. to determinate how receptive readers are to that opinion. As far as methodology is concerned, the following instruments were used: 1. interviews with columnists; 2. a survey among readers of the newspapers studied (Público, Diário de Notícias, Expresso e Independente) and 3. an analysis of the content of a corpus empiricus consisting of a sample of opinion columns and editorials published in those newspapers from October 2001 to March 2002- the date when regional elections and an early general election took place. Although classified under Sociology, the thesis given its intra and transdisciplinaryt nature also draws on other related areas of knowledge, in particular the "Science of Communication"