Suchergebnisse

This dissertation analyzes the interactions of netizens and environmental protection bureaus (EPB) in China as a case of authoritarian deliberation. To do so the characteristics setting social media apart from traditional ones are elaborated to show their unprecedented potential for deliberative practices and how they changed the nexus of state-society-media relations. Against this backdrop an analysis of collected conversations from the social media platform Sina Weibo using a mixed methods approach is conducted. The mixed methods approach relies on descriptive statistics to assess the scope and depths of EPBs activities on the platform in general and in comparison with other state agencies. It is one of the first systematic assessments that allow to gauge the impact of state-society relation taking place on social media. The findings suggest that deliberative practices are already taking place to a significant degree on social media between state agencies and citizens, but only to a marginal degree in the field of environmental protection. This deviates from the original research assumptions which were based the gravity of issues related to environmental protection and the comparatively high levels of interaction in other policy fields. Based on the insights gained by the quantitative assessment a region in China exhibiting high levels of activity in the field of environmental protection was selected for the second part of the mixed methods approach. This part uses qualitative content analysis to examine in detail the interactions of a group of selected EBPs representing the prefecture level city of Jiaxing. The qualitative evaluation uses a framework developed to assess local e-government services. The findings suggest that at least in this area deliberation between EPBs and netizens occurs regularly. The state agencies are responsive to societal input and can to some extent be pressurized to take action. The most dominant aspects brought into the interactions from the societal sphere can be related to the tasks of public service provision and transparency. This study complements the existing scholarly insights on social media and state-society relations by showing not only the extent to which authoritarian deliberation is already taking place in China's social media platforms but also by carving out its effects on state-society relations. The observed deliberative practices suggest that social media can contribute to enhance the responsiveness of local governments, increase the quality of local governance and serve as a multidirectional communication platform crossing - not only - the state-society divide. ; Diese Dissertation analysiert die Interaktionen von Internetnutzern und Umweltschutzbüros (EPB) in China als Fall von autoritärer Deliberation. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Charakteristika herausgearbeitet, die soziale Medien von traditionellen unterscheiden, um ihr Potenzial für deliberative Praktiken aufzuzeigen und um herauszuarbeiten, wie sie die Interdependenz zwischen Staat, Gesellschaft und Medien verändert haben. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird eine Analyse von gesammelten Interaktionen der social-media Plattform Sina Weibo mit Hilfe eines mixed-methods Ansatz durchgeführt. Dieser Ansatz verfolgt ein off-set Design und stützt sich einerseits auf deskriptive Statistiken, um den Umfang und die Tiefe der Aktivitäten der EPBs auf der Plattform im Allgemeinen und im Vergleich zu anderen staatlichen Agenturen zu bewerten. Dies ist einer der ersten systematischen Erfassungen dieser Interaktionen, die es ermöglicht, die Implikationen auf die Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft durch sozialen Medien in dieser Hinsicht zu messen. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Beratungsprozesse in den sozialen Medien zwischen staatlichen Stellen und Bürgern bereits in erheblichem Maße stattfinden, im Bereich des Umweltschutzes jedoch nur marginal. Dies weicht von den etablierten Forschungsannahmen ab, die darauf beruhen insbesondere Umweltschutz als sensitives Politikfeld zu sehen. Zudem weisen andere Politikbereiche in sozialen Medien einen vergleichsweise hohen Grad an Interaktion auf. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen der quantitativen Bewertung wurde für den zweiten Teil des mixed-methods Ansatzes eine Region in China ausgewählt, die eine hohe Aktivität zwischen Netizens und EPBs im Bereich des Umweltschutzes aufweist. Dieser Teil der Arbeit verwendet qualitative Inhaltsanalyse, um die Interaktionen einer Gruppe ausgewählter EBPs, die die bezirksfreie Stadt Jiaxing repräsentieren, im Detail zu untersuchen. Die qualitative Bewertung greift dabei auf einen Analyserahmen zurück, der entwickelt wurde, um lokale E-Government-Dienste zu bewerten. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass zumindest in dieser Region regelmäßig Interaktionen im Sinne deliberativer Praktiken zwischen EPBs und Netizens stattfinden. Die staatlichen Stellen reagieren auf den gesellschaftlichen Input und können unter, in gewissen Grenzen, unter Druck gesetzt werden, Maßnahmen zu ergreifen. Die dominierendsten Aspekte, die in die Interaktionen von den Bürgern eingebracht werden, lassen sich auf die Analysekategorien der Erbringung öffentlicher Dienstleistungserbringung und der Transparenz zurückführen. Diese Studie ergänzt die vorhandenen wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse zu sozialen Medien und zu den Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft in autoritären System wie China, indem sie nicht nur das Ausmaß autoritärer Deliberation anhand von Chinas Sina Weibo Plattform aufzeigt, sondern auch deren Auswirkungen auf die Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft herausgearbeitet. Die beobachteten deliberativen Praktiken legen nahe, dass soziale Medien dazu beitragen können, die Reaktionsfähigkeit lokaler Regierungen zu verbessern, die Qualität lokaler Governance zu verbessern und als multidirektionale Kommunikationsplattform zu dienen, die nicht nur die Kluft zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft überschreitet.

Social scientists and international relations scholars are increasingly analyzing data collected from Twitter or Facebook to examine political processes in which social media are used. The sheer amount of web 2.0 data and its heterogeneity (including text, photos, and videos), however, pose challenges which analysts frequently seek to overcome through a mixed method approach relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods. This article discusses the advantages and limits of using mixed methods for analyzing social media. We show how the shortcomings of quantitative methods such as sentiment analysis and data mining can be remediated by qualitative content methods in a study of the Twitter activity of private military and security companies (PMSCs).

Private military and security companies (PMSCs) have an image problem. They are frequently called 'mercenaries' or 'dogs of war', due to recurring scandals involving some of these companies, such as human rights violations, fraud and waste. Scholars have analysed the strategies that PMSCs use to distance themselves from such negative labels and to boost their image by studying the companies' websites and advertisements. What is missing so far, however, is an analysis of how PMSCs use social media networking sites in order to present themselves in a positive light. In this article, the authors contribute to filling this gap. Based on assumptions generated with the help of literature on PMSCs, on the one hand, and on business communication and social media, on the other, they analysed the Twitter accounts of 58 PMSCs by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Their findings suggest that PMSCs use Twitter similar to more generic companies: (1) to promote their own services and products, and (2) to monitor what others say about them. However, Twitter also serves a further purpose for PMSCs not acknowledged thus far. It helps to distract from what these companies are actually doing. Rather than engaging in more or less similar strategies as the literature on corporations' social media use conveys, the functions of different platforms appear to vary across industries. In the case of PMSCs, their particular use of Twitter can be attributed to the sensitive nature of the security services they provide.

Private military and security companies (PMSCs) play an increasingly important role in the provision of security-related services. In their attempts to win new clients and find suitable personnel, they take on different identities by presenting themselves as conventional businesses, military actors, and humanitarians. In this article, we examine how PMSCs deploy these identities when they recruit new personnel through social media. Our computer-assisted content analysis of Twitter messages posted by two major United States-based companies—CACI and DynCorp International—shows that while both PMSCs amplify their business and military identities to attract the most talented personnel, they construct and communicate these identities in different ways with CACI branding itself as a sophisticated, modern, and patriotic business and DynCorp as a home-grown, traditional military provider. In addition, our analysis lends force to scholars suggesting that state militaries and the private security sector compete increasingly for prospective employees using similar strategies. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.