Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics
This study analyzes how platform affordances, their appropriation by movement actors, and these actors’ leveraging of information ecosystems—in combination—helped form a digital counterpublic during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on public communication data sent by more than 300 Telegram channels...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Social Media + Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231199430 |
| _version_ | 1797674377747103744 |
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| author | Kilian Buehling Annett Heft |
| author_facet | Kilian Buehling Annett Heft |
| author_sort | Kilian Buehling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study analyzes how platform affordances, their appropriation by movement actors, and these actors’ leveraging of information ecosystems—in combination—helped form a digital counterpublic during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on public communication data sent by more than 300 Telegram channels and group chats affiliated with the Querdenken movement over a 2-year period, and combines automated and manual text classification with network analysis. The study demonstrates how Telegram afforded connective and collective action in distinct ways that reflected the movement’s organizational structure and aims, as well as the impact of individual information-sharing on the process of movement-building itself. Accounting for time-dependent dynamics, the study also found that different parts of the counterpublic latched onto and sustained distinct information ecosystems to articulate their claims and mobilize contentious action. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:59:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f2a89e7f8aa04d529373dfb62fa559e4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-3051 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:59:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Media + Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-f2a89e7f8aa04d529373dfb62fa559e42023-09-25T17:33:22ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512023-09-01910.1177/20563051231199430Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital CounterpublicsKilian Buehling0Annett Heft1Freie Universität Berlin, GermanyFreie Universität Berlin, GermanyThis study analyzes how platform affordances, their appropriation by movement actors, and these actors’ leveraging of information ecosystems—in combination—helped form a digital counterpublic during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on public communication data sent by more than 300 Telegram channels and group chats affiliated with the Querdenken movement over a 2-year period, and combines automated and manual text classification with network analysis. The study demonstrates how Telegram afforded connective and collective action in distinct ways that reflected the movement’s organizational structure and aims, as well as the impact of individual information-sharing on the process of movement-building itself. Accounting for time-dependent dynamics, the study also found that different parts of the counterpublic latched onto and sustained distinct information ecosystems to articulate their claims and mobilize contentious action.https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231199430 |
| spellingShingle | Kilian Buehling Annett Heft Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics Social Media + Society |
| title | Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics |
| title_full | Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics |
| title_fullStr | Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics |
| title_short | Pandemic Protesters on Telegram: How Platform Affordances and Information Ecosystems Shape Digital Counterpublics |
| title_sort | pandemic protesters on telegram how platform affordances and information ecosystems shape digital counterpublics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231199430 |
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