1. The Non-Financial Crisis: Politics, Medi@, and Culture in the Present Economic Context
Europe, the “Crisis” and Online Media Towards a Transnational Web Sphere or Isolated Online Spaces?
Dennis Nguyen
PhD Candidate, University of Hull
MA (Coventry University,UK)
Magister Artium (University of Münster, Germany)
Date: 10/06/2013

2. Transnational Publicity and Online Media
Structure
The Internet and Political Communication
Web Spheres
The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
Methodological Approach
Research Outlook
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3. The Internet and Political Communication
Online Media’s Dual Function in Political Communication:
Web technologies are tools for public communication and networking
The Internet is a contested site for struggles of power, i.e. a communicative space that transforms public discourses (Karatzogianni 2006)
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4. Web Spheres (Schneider & Foot 2006) are:
The condensation of related online communication with a common reference (i.e. an event or societal debate, e.g. Hepp et al. 2012)
Extremely dynamic, erratic and (often but not always!) hard to predict
Intrinsically linked but also independent from “offline” (mass-)media discourses
Potentially global/transnational in scope
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5. Web Spheres
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6. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
…triggered communicative activity across the European cultural and political landscape
…exposed the degree on interconnection in European (political) economy and politics
…created an ambivalent situation: convergence and conflict/fragmentation go hand in hand
Political communicators and news media talked about largely the same issues but evaluated them quite differently (polarization; ideological conflict)
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7. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
Different readings of the crisis based on different political-cultural perspectives
Examples: Austerity/Anti-austerity debates, Eurobonds, integration, North-South divide etc.
EU crisis as a network of interconnected conflict areas spanning from crisis policies to the EU’s political framework and migration issues
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8. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
Research question 1: What discursive networks do political online platforms that focus on EU- and European issues form? Research question 2: Which structural and contextual factors determine whether online discourses reproduce transnational or rather nationally oriented discursive spaces? Research question 3: What identities and which affiliations (social, cultural, political) do speakers in online discourses communicate? Research question 4: How do different communicators frame and evaluate the EU, Europe, and individual nation-states?
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9. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
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10. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
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11. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
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12. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
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13. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
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14. The “EU Crisis” and Online Media
Different “intensities” of transnationalism in online media:
Indirect/weak (e.g. debates on EU in “culturally closed” forums)
Direct/strong (e.g. debates on EU in “culturally pluralistic” forums)
Context-dependent scale (not necessarily “either-or”)
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15. Methodological Approach
Empirical Analysis of the EU Crisis Web Sphere
Qualitative-quantitative content analysis of web articles
Frame analysis (Entman 1993; Matthes & Kohring 2008)
Network analysis of hyperlinks and cited political actors
Sample: 24 communicators in six categories; content published between March 2011 and March 2013
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16. Methodological Approach
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17. Outlook Three Main Goals
A diagnostic goal: The description of political web discourse, i.e. its structure and content, in a European context (what we can actually observe).
A prognostic goal: The analysis and explanation of discursive behaviour of participating communicators as well as expectable developments in the area (why participants do what they do).
A didactic goal: The proposition of recommendations for further research on the issue and outline of potential strategies for evaluating the political relevance of web spheres (how to understand and assess what we can observe).
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