Comparative Politics

B19 - Media, Elections and Campaigns

Date: Jun 1 | Time: 01:30pm to 03:00pm | Location: Classroom - CL 305 Room ID:15734

Chair/Président/Présidente : Dominik Stecula (University of British Columbia)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Dominik Stecula (University of British Columbia)

Social Media in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: A Study of Facebook Effects on Party Politics in Singapore: Netina Tan (McMaster University)
Abstract: Social media is widely viewed as a form of liberalization technology in electoral authoritarian regimes. This paper examines this claim by studying the uses and impact of Facebook by four political parties in Singapore. Using web-scrapping and web analytical tools, I analyze the traffic and postings on Facebook posts between the last two general elections. In line with normalization theory, I find the increased informational communication flow to have a positive impact on political engagement via the following causal pathways. First, there was a reduction in the parties’ communication cost to supporters, especially to the youths and tech-savvy middle-class. Second, Facebook has increased the capacity of small, resource poor parties to raise funds and mobilize their bases. Third, Facebook also offers a channel for parties to alter public opinion towards political leaders through alternative framing and messaging. In sum, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) is found to be most dominant online compared to other three parties. Additionally, the evidence also suggests that Facebook use has increased the capacity of smaller parties to communicate and engage with their supporters, especially before in the 2015 GE. These findings lend support to the claim that increased social media use in electoral authoritarian regimes leads to increased political engagement. However, whether increased political engagement translates to more electoral competition requires more research.

The News Arm of the Law?: Bailey Gerrits (Queen's University)
Abstract: Local news coverage of crime often relies heavily on police information and this source-media relationship influences the discursive construction of crime, including gender-based crimes such as domestic violence. Previous research suggests that police-media relations often asymmetrically favour the police, while the local media are still able to act as police watchdogs. The relationship, and potentially the news coverage of one pressing justice and public health issue in Canada (domestic violence), may be shifting as local newspapers are shrinking in many Canadian markets while police external communications are professionalizing, growing, and increasing their capacity to produce their own content. Pressing questions arise: has that healthy tension faded away in the shifting relative power of newspapers and police communicators? What are the specific implications of this shifting police-media relationship for news attention to domestic violence? Comparing four diverse Canadian media landscapes, this paper explores the how police try to influence the local newspaper reporting on domestic violence, shifting police-media relations, and its influence on local journalism crime reporting practices. This paper interweaves content and discourse analysis of news reports in a large sample of daily newspapers from 2014 to 2016 with semi-structured interviews with police communications officials, local news reporters, and editors in four diverse Canadian cities. Bringing together perspectives about police political communication, news content, and contemporary journalism practice, this paper explores how shifting police-media relations influence the coverage of domestic violence in Canada and its implications for anti-violence efforts.