Social cohesion in platformized public spheres: toward a conceptual framework

IF 4.7 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Communication Theory Pub Date : 2023-06-22 DOI:10.1093/ct/qtad002

Pascal Schneiders, Daniel Stegmann, Birgit Stark

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Social cohesion is crucial for democratic societies since it unites individuals who do not have a direct relationship with each other. By representing social heterogeneity and enabling public debate, the public sphere is vital for fostering social cohesion. However, platformization—that is, the establishment of social media platforms as an infrastructure for public communication—challenges the constitution of publics and thus raises the question of whether the public sphere is still able to fulfill its cohesive function. Expanding on this question, our article systematically theorizes how platformization at the meso-level induces the emergence of a platformized public sphere at the macro-level. The article presents a framework that allows us to analyze: (1) which actors constitute publics in the age of platformization; (2) the logics according to which this happens; and (3) to what extent these logics, consisting of social media affordances and algorithms, contribute to the cohesive performance of platformized publics.

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平台化公共领域的社会凝聚力:走向概念框架

社会凝聚力对民主社会至关重要，因为它将彼此之间没有直接关系的个人团结在一起。公共领域通过代表社会异质性和促进公共辩论，对促进社会凝聚力至关重要。然而，平台化——即建立社交媒体平台作为公共传播的基础设施——挑战了公众的构成，从而提出了公共领域是否仍然能够履行其凝聚力功能的问题。在这个问题上展开，我们的文章系统地理论化了中观层面的平台化是如何导致宏观层面的平台化公共领域的出现的。本文提出了一个框架，使我们能够分析:(1)在平台化时代，哪些行为者构成了公众;(2)发生这种情况的逻辑;(3)这些由社交媒体支持和算法组成的逻辑在多大程度上有助于平台化公众的内聚表现。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Communication Theory COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

9.00

自引率

2.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Communication Theory is an international forum publishing high quality, original research into the theoretical development of communication from across a wide array of disciplines, such as communication studies, sociology, psychology, political science, cultural and gender studies, philosophy, linguistics, and literature. A journal of the International Communication Association, Communication Theory especially welcomes work in the following areas of research, all of them components of ICA: Communication and Technology, Communication Law and Policy, Ethnicity and Race in Communication, Feminist Scholarship, Global Communication and Social Change, Health Communication, Information Systems, Instructional/Developmental Communication, Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Journalism Studies, Language and Social Interaction, Mass Communication, Organizational Communication, Philosophy of Communication, Political Communication, Popular Communication, Public Relations, Visual Communication Studies, Children, Adolescents and the Media, Communication History, Game Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, and Intergroup Communication. The journal aims to be inclusive in theoretical approaches insofar as these pertain to communication theory.