Liberal Individualist, Communitarian, or Deliberative? Analyzing Political Discussion on Facebook Based on Three Notions of Democracy

Authors

  • Lidia Valera-Ordaz University of Valencia

Keywords:

Facebook, public discussion, democracy, public sphere, content analysis

Abstract

This study explores the democratic value of political discussion on Facebook using theory triangulation and operationalizing three models of democracy. It aims to determine which democratic model offers the best account of the benefits of Facebook discussions and to explore whether this varies according to the ideology and history of the political party hosting them. An analysis of 2,800 comments published on the Facebook websites of four Spanish political parties reveals that the discussions generally serve communitarian and deliberative purposes and, to a much smaller extent, liberal individualist goals. Results highlight significant differences related to the parties’ ideology and history. Discussions on right-wing websites lean more liberal individualist, whereas those on left-wing parties’ sites favor a more communitarian dynamic. Moreover, conversations hosted by new political parties are more communitarian and civil in tone than those hosted by traditional parties. 

Author Biography

Lidia Valera-Ordaz, University of Valencia

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Theory of Languages and Communication Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain 

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Published

2019-03-14

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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