Challenges and threats to digital democracy
in contemporary societies:
the Italian case
Alessia Bertolazzi
Assistant professor of Sociology
Department of Political Science and Communication - University of Macerata
Workshop: DIGITAL LOCAL PUBLIC SPHERE
University of Wroclaw – Journalism Department
14th of May 2019
Two dimensions of the public sphere
(Rasmussen, 2007; 2013; 2014)
Representational dimension
• It refers to the heterogeneity of topics, styles and groups that take part, and which
reflects culture and everyday life, only seen before in everyday conversations and
more or less peripheral social settings (clubs, parties, unions, therapy groups, etc.)
Presentational dimension
• It refers to the deliberation over common issues by central figures acting
as voices of the people. It presents a public agenda and an expression of
public opinion to politics as a resonance for rational decision-making
THREATS
COMPUTATIONAL PROPAGANDA
TINY POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
MISINFORMATION
COMPUTATIONAL
PROPAGANDA
i.e.: Russian attempts to influence the
outcome of Brexit and the US
Presidential Election in 2016
Lomas, N. (2017). “Study: Russian Twitter bots sent 45k Brexit
tweets close to vote,” TC, 15.11.2017, verified 26.06.2017:
https://techcrunch.
com/2017/11/15/study-russian-twitter-bots-sent-45k-brexittweetsclose-to-vote/
TINY POLITICAL
PARTICIPATION
(Margetts et al., 2016)
Privatized public sphere
(Dahlgren, 2018)
Political apathy
(De Luca 1995; O’Toole et
al., 2010)
MISINFORMATION
(O’Connor & Weatherall, 2019; Hendricks & Vestergaard, 2019
OVER-CONFIDENCE THESIS
(Motta et al., 2018)
Dunning-Kruger Effect (Kruger &
Dunning, 1999) «ignorance of
ignorance» e «meta-ignorance»
(Dunning, 2011; Ehrlinger, 2008).
CONFIRMATION BIAS
(del Vicario 2016; Quattrociocchi,
Vicini, 2016)
The human tendency to acquire
information adhering to one’s
system of beliefs
YESTERDAY FRONT PAGE
7 HEADLINES
5 ABOUT MIGRATION
10 Facebook posts
with more
engagement and
interaction
(from 2019-05-10 to
2019-05-13)
1 post
ATTACK ON THE POPE
4 posts
POLITICAL ATTACK ON
DEMOCRATIC PARTY,
5-STARS MOVEMENT,
FORZA ITALIA
3 posts
MIGRANTS’ NEWS
2 posts
SALVINI’S POLITICAL
STATEMENTS
Conclusion: QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
What persuasive strategies and what topics are likely to
be the focus of misinformation?
What audiences are likely to believe a fake news story?
How does cultural background effect whether an
audience believes fake news?
Which are the tools and actor that could be involved in
the reduction of misinformation?
Del Vicario M. , A. Bessi, F. Zollo, F. Petroni, A. Scala, G. Caldarelli, H. E. Stanley, and W. Quattrociocchi.
2016. “The spreading of misinformation online,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.
113, no. 3, pp. 554–559.
Margetts, Helen, Peter John, Scott Hale and Taha Yasseri. 2016. Political Turbulence: How Social
Media Shape Collective Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
O’Connor C. Weatherall J.O. 2019. The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread Yale Univ. Press,
Yale.
Rasmussen, Terje. 2009. ‘The Significance of Internet Communication in Public Deliberation.’ Javnost, The
Public 16(1): 17–33.
Rasmussen, Terje. 2013. ‘Internet-Based Media, Europe and the Political Public Sphere.’ Media, Culture &
Society 35(1): 97–104.
Grazie!
alessia.bertolazzi@unimc.it