Online Communities And Crowds In The Rise Of The Five Star Movement

Description

This book reflects on the political capacity of citizen users to impact politics, explaining the danger in assuming that mass online participation has unconditionally democratising effects. Focusing on the case of Italy's Five Star Movement, the book argues that Internet participation is naturally unequal and, without normative and strong design efforts, Internet platforms can generate noisy, undemocratic crowds instead of self-reflexive, norm-bounded communities. The depiction of a democratising Internet can be easily exploited by those who manage these platforms to sell crowds as deliberating publics. As the Internet, almost everywhere, turns into the primary medium for political engagement, it also becomes the symbol of what is wrong with politics. Internet users experience unprecedented, instantaneous and personalised access to information and communication and, by comparison, they feel a much stronger level of irrelevance in the existing political system. Acknowledgements......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 List of Tables......Page 13 Chapter 1: Introduction......Page 14 Why Italy, Why the M5S......Page 15 What Does the Internet Change for Political Participation?......Page 16 What Does the Internet Change for Political Organisation?......Page 17 What Does the Internet Change for Political Deliberation?......Page 18 Citizen Users, Communities and Crowds......Page 19 References......Page 20 Chapter 2: The Emergence of the Citizen User......Page 22 What Is Trust and Why We Should Care......Page 24 Political Trust in Italy......Page 26 Beppe Grillo Internet Operation to Weaken Trust......Page 35 Internet and Mobile Technologies......Page 46 Users: Mobilising and Organising......Page 49 Internet-Mediated Citizenship......Page 52 References......Page 59 Chapter 3: Mobilisation and Elections......Page 65 Beppe Grillo Before beppegrillo.it......Page 67 Blog......Page 70 Meetup......Page 71 V-Day......Page 77 Municipal Lists......Page 78 To the Five Star Movement......Page 81 Why the 2013 Result Was Unexpected......Page 84 The Diffusion of Meetups and the M5S Electoral Trajectory......Page 87 Two-Layered Architecture for Mobilisation and Communication......Page 90 Legacy Media in the 1994 and 2013 Campaigns......Page 97 The Left–Right Dimension and the Anti-Establishment Dimension in Italy......Page 107 The Electoral Programs of the M5S......Page 110 The M5S Ontology and Parent Ideology......Page 115 References......Page 120 ICTs Diffusion in Italy......Page 127 Blog as Medium and Message......Page 129 From Blog to Community......Page 131 The Media System......Page 133 Everyday Political Talk of Networked Users......Page 137 Measuring the Online Activity Within the M5S Community......Page 139 Where Users Enter the Media System......Page 141 Users’ Copresence Across Platforms......Page 143 The Role of Gender......Page 145 Users’ Permanence and Frequency of Activity......Page 147 References......Page 151 Chapter 5: Online Discussion Within the M5S Community......Page 155 Issues, Topics and Style on the Forum......Page 156 Coding of Issues......Page 157 Coding of Topics......Page 159 Coding of Style and Expression of Opinion......Page 163 Evolution of Topics and Users’ Interest......Page 164 Discussion Networks......Page 169 The Shape of Discussion Networks......Page 170 The Discussion Network of the M5S......Page 177 Discussion Network on Immigration......Page 180 Discussion Network on 2013 Confidence Vote......Page 184 Discussion Network on Exiting the Common Currency......Page 189 The Everywhere Political Talk......Page 191 References......Page 193 Chapter 6: The M5S Community and Citizen’s Income......Page 196 Mapping Documents in the Concept Space......Page 198 The Concept Space......Page 199 Term Frequency Analysis......Page 201 The Semantic Interpretation Vector......Page 202 The GMI Public Debate in Italy......Page 203 The GMI Debate Within the M5S......Page 208 Discussion Forum: 2009–2011......Page 211 Discussion Forum and Blog: 2011–2012......Page 217 Discussion Forum, Blog and Parliament: 2012–2015......Page 221 The Influence of Online Deliberation Within the M5S Community......Page 223 References......Page 228 Internet-Enabled Organisation Beyond the M5S and Italy......Page 232 Asymmetric Online Deliberation......Page 238 Citizen User and Democracy......Page 242 Crowd-Mediated Politics......Page 247 References......Page 252 Index......Page 255