La partecipazione politica in internet e il rapporto con l'offline. Analisi dei repertori comunicativi nei social network attraverso lo studio di caso del movimento Viola

The research activity presented in this thesis is focused on three main subjects: first it has been investigated whether and how the Internet contributes to the reconfiguration of political participation, then it is explained the way this phenomenon is articulated on SNSs and finally, the relationship between online and offline political participation has been explored. An innovative mixed method research approach is hereafter proposed, based on the following techniques: data collection and analysis of the interactions of Italian movement Purple People official Facebook page, creation of an online questionnaire for participants, and in-depth interviews. The research starts presenting the changes in social and political action in late modernity: where political actions, individual and collectives, come through private and semi-public practices, arising from a reflexive and autonomous research of unconventional behaviors and it is carried out through self-selected network, beyond the traditional affiliations. The ideal support of this type of participation is the Internet, and an analysis of its deployment for political action in three main fields has been carried out, providing new tools for the production and the diffusion of the information, a multiplicity of platforms and repertoires of action, and opportunities to form and maintain social networks. Regarding the re-articulation of political participation on SNSs, the applications provided by Facebook to enhance political participation are analyzed, underlying the double feature of Facebook’s walls, private and public at the same time. It is then demonstrated how a “public” page, with hundreds of thousands of fans, is effective for the spread of information, (an high percentage of links send to online newspapers, and the reported analysis shows how Facebook is integrating - even not substituting - traditional information channels). Focusing on the dynamics of public debate, it has been found that Facebook is not effective for a collective elaboration of shared contents and materials: discussions are carried out by a small group of people, very fast and low deepens, polarized on the main vision of the group (low level of conflict). In this sense Facebook is more suitable for a kind of participation rather expressive (oriented to the reflection) than instrumental and it is used to communicate contents elaborated elsewhere. Most of the time effective political decisions are deliberate in a private way, as in mailing list, forum, chat and Facebook private groups or in the offline dimension. Three typologies (quantitative-qualitative) of participants have been created: offline, on the Internet and specifically on Facebook (from lurkers to engaged), leading to the discovery of a strong positive correlation between the two dimensions, even if there are some traditionally inactive categories of individuals that participate more in the online that in the offline dimension. It is finally proven that the online participation actually explains the offline one even better than socio-demographic variables.