Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority
Social media has created new public spheres that provide alternative sources of social and political authority. Such “digital authority” has conventionally been interpreted in metric terms, without qualitative distinctions. Based on Twitter data from four different Swedish state agencies during the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Political Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.946985/full |
| _version_ | 1797989954746318848 |
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| author | Jaakko Turunen Steffen Werther Walid Al-Saqaf |
| author_facet | Jaakko Turunen Steffen Werther Walid Al-Saqaf |
| author_sort | Jaakko Turunen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Social media has created new public spheres that provide alternative sources of social and political authority. Such “digital authority” has conventionally been interpreted in metric terms, without qualitative distinctions. Based on Twitter data from four different Swedish state agencies during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 crisis, this paper looks at the different kinds of modes of interaction Twitter enables and their impact on state agencies digital authority. Theoretically this paper applies Valentin Voloshinov's classical theory on reported speech, developed in the 1920s, to the concept of digital authority in the Twitter-sphere of the 2020s. Besides these theoretical contributions to media and communication studies, the main findings are that retweets are generally used to affirm and spread information thus strengthening the digital authority of the origin of the tweet whilst replies and quote-tweets are used to undermine the credibility of the sender and the content of the original tweet, often by resorting to irony. As the COVID-19 crisis prolongs, we observe increasing share of critical commentary and diminishing overall attention to government actors in Sweden. The roles of different state agencies are mirrored by the type of interaction they generate. This article also shows the usefulness of qualitative study of social media interaction in order to reveal the dynamics of digital authority construed in social media. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T08:27:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4211fef29a6b48ea9160c00102aecc15 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-3145 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T08:27:48Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Political Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-4211fef29a6b48ea9160c00102aecc152022-12-22T04:34:39ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Political Science2673-31452022-10-01410.3389/fpos.2022.946985946985Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authorityJaakko Turunen0Steffen Werther1Walid Al-Saqaf2School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Huddinge, SwedenInstitute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University, Huddinge, SwedenSchool of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Huddinge, SwedenSocial media has created new public spheres that provide alternative sources of social and political authority. Such “digital authority” has conventionally been interpreted in metric terms, without qualitative distinctions. Based on Twitter data from four different Swedish state agencies during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 crisis, this paper looks at the different kinds of modes of interaction Twitter enables and their impact on state agencies digital authority. Theoretically this paper applies Valentin Voloshinov's classical theory on reported speech, developed in the 1920s, to the concept of digital authority in the Twitter-sphere of the 2020s. Besides these theoretical contributions to media and communication studies, the main findings are that retweets are generally used to affirm and spread information thus strengthening the digital authority of the origin of the tweet whilst replies and quote-tweets are used to undermine the credibility of the sender and the content of the original tweet, often by resorting to irony. As the COVID-19 crisis prolongs, we observe increasing share of critical commentary and diminishing overall attention to government actors in Sweden. The roles of different state agencies are mirrored by the type of interaction they generate. This article also shows the usefulness of qualitative study of social media interaction in order to reveal the dynamics of digital authority construed in social media.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.946985/fullCOVIDcrisis communicationdigital authoritySwedenTwitterVoloshinov |
| spellingShingle | Jaakko Turunen Steffen Werther Walid Al-Saqaf Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority Frontiers in Political Science COVID crisis communication digital authority Sweden Voloshinov |
| title | Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| title_full | Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| title_fullStr | Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| title_full_unstemmed | Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| title_short | Performing control in the Swedish Twitter sphere or: How a 1920s' Russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| title_sort | performing control in the swedish twitter sphere or how a 1920s russian linguist helps us understand dynamics of digital authority |
| topic | COVID crisis communication digital authority Sweden Voloshinov |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.946985/full |
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