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Abstract:
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This master’s thesis explores the emergence of new socio-technological constructions of the
political that become evident through politicians’ use of social network utilities on the web.
The research raises the question of how these new political formations can be observed as
symptomatic of a more wide-ranging transformation of political communication. To
investigate this issue I turn to Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) and Susan Leigh
Star and Geoffrey C. Bowker’s theory on Classifications.
The thesis is based on an empirical investigation of Danish politicians’ opinions on,
and use of, the network utility Facebook. Specifically, the analysis first explores the
politicians’ explanations of how and why they use the network utility, secondly observes how
they use the utility, and finally, presents a specification of when and how new political forms
can be said to emerge.
The politicians refer in their explanations to traditional classifications for politics and
to a line of dichotomies e.g. serious vs. unserious, and the virtual vs. the real. These
dichotomies and explanations construct a discursive purification that suggests that new
political forms do not emerge. However, my observations regarding politicians’ specific use
of Facebook suggest that the multiple user-generated technologies within the utility contribute
to the construction of three new socio-technological emerging political forms. The first form
emerges when the politicians accept a symmetrical position in the network that does not allow
mandatory benefits entailed by their position as designated officials. The symmetry allows
them to informally enrol in group formations representing political controversies that are not
initiated by partisan politics, but by NGOs or citizens. The second form emerges when
“virtual” connections become a way to create “real” connections, which may be more real
than the abstract concept of a politician’s “backers”. In this view certain technologies become
boundary objects that function as a barometer for citizen initiated issue politics, for the
politician. The third form emerges, when the politician through technology-based games and
entertainment reveals the “person” behind the politician and when these elements of personal
information become a part of the political issues communicated.
The thesis concludes that the politicians are extremely flexible in their approach to
social network utilities on the web, and that the specific combination of technologies in the
utilities therefore is highly likely to have great influence on the specific emergence in the
socio-technological construction of political forms. |
