Social network sites as arenas for public discourse : - perception, participation and experience

Abstract

Social network sites (SNS) and Facebook, in particular, are often discussed and referred to as public spaces in popular discourse, by politicians and the media and are often theorised as such in the research literature. Still, the general user experience of such spaces as potentially public is thus far under-theorised. By using an audience-centric approach, this thesis challenges assumptions and theories around SNS as public spaces. The project aims to advance our understanding of the everyday user experience of publicness in SNS. Its main research question is: ‛How are social network sites experienced as spaces for public discourse in Norway?’. This research question is investigated through qualitative and quantitative methods, with an overall mixed-method research design. Two rounds of interviews and an online survey were deployed to contribute new insights to the research field. The combination of methods was considered necessary to match the complexity of the phenomenon investigated. The thesis addresses the general experience of SNS, and more particularly, women’s experience of Facebook. Drawing public sphere theory as a sensitising framework or starting point which offers core dimensions, language and concepts, the Norwegian and gendered experience of SNS as spaces for public discourse is explored. Research on SNS as public spaces frequently becomes a question of participation, although we have known for over a decade now that only a small proportion of SNS users take part in observable forms of participation, such as commenting, sharing or posting about public issues. Media and communication scholars still primarily focus on observable participation, and active involvement that is not visible for others has received little attention. This study addresses the general, everyday experience of SNS, regardless of observable activity, which is thus far under-theorised. Besides, the concept of the public sphere is unpacked by drawing on varied explanatory frameworks or theoretical approaches, such as looking at the use of emotion or experience of inhibition. The main empirical contribution of the thesis is that publicness in SNS is experienced as tension between risk and obligation, rationality and emotions, assumptions of publicness and everyday use, folk theories and own experience, and participation and inhibition. SNS can be, and frequently is, considered in two entirely different ways. One is the self-evident publicness that popular discourse refers to. The other is everyday use, which is mainly oriented around personal and social information and activity. The thesis also addresses the implicit and everyday use of the concept of the public sphere in Norway, which involves assumptions and deliberative ideals for public discourse on Facebook, despite the limited role issues of public relevance has in their everyday use of this platform. For these informants, such ideals include feeling like they should participate and take responsibility for discourse that is considered too emotional or not deliberative enough. They also express feeling guilty as they rarely visibly participate. A shared and pervasive narrative of SNS and Facebook as particularly hostile and dangerous spaces for voicing opinions was found, although the expectation of risk involved seemed to stem from popular discourse and rarely from direct personal experience. While there was extensive experience of inhibition in this material, there is little evidence to suggest that these SNS users are passive or do not care. A theoretical contribution of this thesis is to sensitise the concept of inhibition and extend the conceptual framework to go beyond participation or non-participation and instead offer a more precise way of theorising the intent behind apparent passivity.