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The Rhetoric of Networked Publics by Studying the Practices and Experiences of Expert Citizens on Twitter and Facebook in Norway

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The Rhetoric of Networked Publics by Studying the Practices and Experiences of Expert Citizens on Twitter and Facebook in Norway 7KH5KHWRULFRI1HWZRUNHG3XEOLFV 6WXG\LQJ6RFLDO1HWZRUN6LWHVDV5KHWRULFDO$UHQDVIRU6WXG\LQJ6RFLDO1HWZRUN6LWHVDV5KHWRULFDO$UHQDVIRU 3ROLWLFDO 7DON (LULN9DWQ¡\ Avhandling for graden philosophiae doctor (ph.d. ) ved Universitetet i Bergen 'DWRIRUGLVSXWDV Abstract As social network sites have become a central part of the modern media landscape, they have also become important arenas for political talk between citizens. The possibilities these new arenas offer for social interaction and public participation have generated what social theorists describe as a restructuring of publics into “networked publics”. Numerous studies and theories suggest how the emergence of networked publics influences political participation and democracy. Still, we know little about the nature of discourse in these arenas and how they shape rhetorical practice. This dissertation explores the rhetoric of networked publics by studying the practices and experiences of expert citizens on Twitter and Facebook in Norway. It asks: What characterizes social network sites as rhetorical arenas? And what characterizes political rhetoric on social network sites? The dissertation adds to the growing research literature on vernacular rhetoric and political talk in everyday settings, and offers new ways to explore these perspectives in qualitative studies of online political discourse. Theoretically, it combines perspectives from the fields of rhetoric, political communication and sociology in a new framework designed to analyse and describe how changes in technological and social circumstances affect rhetorical action. The main empirical contribution is a series of 32 in-depth interviews with “expert citizens”. The informants are identified through a snowball sampling process as central actors in a network of well-established voices from the media, politics and academia that use Twitter and Facebook as arenas for political talk and public debate. An analysis of these interviews yields the users’ own experiences that bring new dimensions to our understandings of rhetorical practice in these arenas and to how they shape political talk. Through four thematically separate chapters the analysis of the interviews demonstrates how: 1) the informants see themselves as part of socially and discursively distinguishable networked publics described as the “tweetocracy” and the “Facebook-public”; 2) these networked publics are believed to sustain local argument cultures that separate them from both formal political processes and “ordinary” citizens; 3) these networked publics facilitate a particular kind of individualization of political debate, as they promote strong connections between people’s identities and political convictions; 4) these networked publics are preoccupied with “social media- friendly issues” that are easy to personalize and bring attention to political identities and values. The empirical study is concluded with an analysis of the viral spread of the hashtag #ihaveexperienced on Twitter in the spring of 2015. Here, text analysis is used to explore topical and discursive structures that are suggested in the interviews. The analysis illustrates how the particular kind of individualization that social network sites facilitate plays out in a situation revolving around a typical social media-friendly issue. It thus exemplifies how insights gathered from interviews can inform and inspire rhetorical text analyses. Drawing on basic insights from theories of structuration, the dissertation outlines how social network sites can be studied as “rhetorical arenas” and analysed as practice on the meso-level. This represents an alternative to analyses of rhetorical genre and rhetorical community. By paying more attention to social and technological conditions for rhetorical practice, this approach is better suited for studies of environments in which situational circumstances are fragmented and continuously changing. The dissertation also offers a new understanding of political rhetoric that includes the different forms of political and civic behaviour found in online environments as well as more traditional forms of political engagement. This understanding of political rhetoric includes perspectives on deliberation, framing and agenda-setting, and epideictic rhetoric, within the same conceptual framework, and opens new ways to understand the political potential of participatory media. Acknowledgements A lot of people have made this project possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor and good friend, Jens. E. Kjeldsen, for introducing me to the field of rhetoric over ten years ago, for creating a great research environment for rhetoric in Bergen, and for being a critical, constructive and supportive mentor throughout the research and writing process. This project would not have been possible without him. Secondly, I would like to thank my co-advisor, Hallvard Moe, for guiding me safely through the field of social media research and for helping me see the strengths in the data and in the project. I would also like to thank Barry Brummet and the rest of the faculty and the grad- students at the Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, for a wonderful and inspirational year as a visiting researcher, and the Fulbright Foundation for founding this stay. The group at the 2015 ECREA summer school has given me valuable feedback at a critical stage of the project. In particular, I would like to thank Risto Konelius at the University of Tampere for giving me comments on my book chapter that also turned out to be of great importance to the dissertation as a whole, and to Dawn Wheatley at the University of Dublin for inspiring discussions, proofreading, and beers. I would like to thank Jan Svennevig at the University of Oslo for reading a late draft of the dissertation and for great cooperation on other projects during this period. A special thanks goes to Magnus Hoem Iversen and Erik Knudsen for hours and hours of relevant and not so relevant discussions during these four years, and to the rest of my fantastic colleagues in the rhetoric research group at the University of Bergen – Trygve Svendsson, Ida Andersen, Marit Bjøntegaard, Torgeir Uberg Nærland, John Magnus Ragnhildson Dahl and Anders Johansen – for making these four years not only incredibly educational but also a lot of fun. Thanks to my soon-to-be wife, Christine, for being the most optimistic and patient girlfriend anyone could ask for and for helping me keep track on what’s important in life. I cannot wait for us to finally spend the weekends together! Finally, I would like to thank all the informants who have invited me into their homes and offices. They have all offered me more time and more insightful comments than I could imagine. To meet all these fascinating people have definitely been the most enriching part of the project. Bergen, August 2017 Contents Chapter 1: Networked Publics as New Rhetorical Arenas ....................................... 1 The Research Questions .............................................................................................. 4 The Challenges of Social Network Sites to Rhetorical Studies .................................. 6 Background: Digital political communication and digital rhetoric ........................... 10 Defining Terms: Rhetoric, Social Network Sites, Expert Citizens ........................... 20 Outline of the Chapters .............................................................................................. 27 Chapter 2: Decision-Making, Salience and Collectivisation ................................... 30 Political Rhetoric as Collective Decision-Making .................................................... 34 The Primacy of Decision-Making in Political Rhetoric ............................................ 37 Ideal and Democratic Views of Political Rhetoric .................................................... 39 Agenda-Setting and Framing as Political Rhetoric ................................................... 46 Processes of Creating Salience in the Public Domain: Agenda-Setting ................... 50 Processes of Creating Salience in the Public Domain: Framing ............................... 52 Joint Interests: Framing and Rhetoric in Political Communication Studies ............. 57 Summary: Agenda-Setting and Framing as Political Rhetoric ................................. 60 Epideictic rhetoric as political rhetoric...................................................................... 61 Constitutive Rhetoric and Constructions of “The People” ........................................ 65 Summary: Epideictic Rhetoric as Political Rhetoric ................................................. 67 Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 3: Meso-Level Analysis of Rhetorical Practice ......................................... 73 The Limits of Genre .................................................................................................. 74 New Perspectives on Rhetorical Community ............................................................ 78 Carolyn Miller’s Descriptions of Rhetorical Community ......................................... 81 Local Discursive Arenas ............................................................................................ 84 Elements of the Theory of Structuration ................................................................... 89 Strong Structuration and Rhetoric ............................................................................
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