The Liquefaction of Publicness: Communication, Democracy and the Public Sphere in the Internet Age, Vol. 25 - 2018, No. 1

Revisiting Digital News Audiences with a Political Magnifying Glass

Josiane Jouët, pages: 119-126

This paper argues that the emergence of digital audiences as members of the Polis have to be readdressed. First, it summarises the results of quantitative surveys and calls for more qualitative studies placing the social uses of news in a wider social context. Second, it hypothesises that the evolution of social classes plays a major role in the appropriation of news and in the digital participatory devices. Third, it examines paradoxes in the digital pubic sphere at a time when populist voices infiltrate the political debate. The article finally advocates interdisciplinary research and the practice approach as means to better understand social factors shaping these trends.

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