ECREA16-Abstract

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Thursday, November 10

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Political Discussions on Social Media Accounts of Ukrainian News Websites: Facebook vs. Vkontakte

A. Litvinenko

Freie Universitaet Berlin, Media and Communication Studies, Berlin, Germany

The Post-Soviet space currently represents a worldwide unique case of a highly competitive social networking market with several dominant platforms,

such as Facebook, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki that gravitate to different social milieus (Brand Analytics 2015). The previous research on social networks in

Russia (Bodrunova&Litvinenko 2013) shows significant difference in the average user profiles of the users of Facebook and Vkontakte, in features of dom‑

inant discourses, and in the general perception of these SNS among the Internet audience in Russia. Our research aims at comparison of two major SNS in

the post-war Ukraine, where the Russia-based VK remains the leading SNS with more than 27 Mio users (Yandex 2014), despite of a major‘migration’of us‑

ers fromVK to Facebook since Maidan protests.We analyze accounts of 10 leading Ukrainian news media in Facebook andVkontakte, comparing the content

and discussions in the comment sections of the same media in different SNS. The methods of research include qualitative content analysis, focus-groups

with users of the two platforms and semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts. The results show high level of platform dependence in terms of how

the same media organize their content and moderate discussions in SNS, with pro-Russian media being more active in VK and pro-government outlets

closing their comment sections in this SNS. The comment sections in most of the cases may be considered as part of transnational multilingual (Russian

and Ukrainian) public sphere (Fraser 2014), with tendency to a high level of polarization of discourse, especially on VK. The presentation will highlight

the correlation between the functional possibilities of the two networks, their audience profiles in Ukraine, and the features of discussions on political news

in VK and Facebook.

PP 275

Continuity and Transformation of the Freedom of Communication Discourse in Online Technologyjournalism: (Re‐)Claiming Internet

Freedom

S. Sell

Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Berlin, Germany

Using Kelty's (2008) public sphere theory of the Recursive Public, this study analyzes German and English language ICT platforms' contributions to the ongo‑

ing public negotiation of the freedom of communication principle. Focusing on argumentation patterns in the debate over Internet Freedom in journalism

specialized on communications technology, it determines the process of a (re-)construction of the meaning of this principle in a digitally networked media

environment.Technology journalism is an especially relevant discursive segment within this discourse because it represents a constitutive part of the Recur‑

sive Public – a public "concerned with the ability to build, control, modify, and maintain the infrastructure that allows them to come into being in the first

place and which, in turn, constitutes their everyday practical commitments and the identities of the participants as creative and autonomous individuals"

(Kelty 2008: 7). This study asks: How is Internet Freedom defined and negotiated in this segment of the Recursive Public? Which argumentation patterns

of the classical liberal freedom of communication debate are revitalized and which new patterns emerge in this context? The methodology of the Discourse

Semantic Analysis of Argumentation Topoi, as developed and practiced e.g. by Wengeler (2003, 2013), Eilders (2005) and Tereick (2013), is adapted to

answer these questions. First a larger discursive segment of 274 articles in total is compiled and structured according to key topics, within which Internet

Freedom is defined and discussed, in their temporal development, as well as references to other dimensions of freedom of communication that are used

to define the meaning of this new dimension. The articles are retrieved from the open archives of heise online and netzpolitik.org (influential German

language ICT media), wired.com and boingboing.net (influential English language ICT media). This is followed by the argumentation analysis of 60 highly

argumentative articles from authors who are prominent in the respective topic field. The analyzed time period starts with the first mentioning of the term

"Internet Freedom" in 1997 and ends 04/2015. Eight out of ten identified argumentation topoi are revitalizing already existing elements of the liberal

freedom of communication discourse, two bring in new patterns that are strongly related to the ICT environment. Internet Freedom is generally perceived as

an extension of established dimensions of freedom of communication. Works Cited: *Eilders, Christiane (2005): "Amis brauchen Umerziehung" – Erkennt‑

nisse und Argumentationsmuster der deutschen Medienkritik im dritten Golfkrieg. In: M&K 53 (2‐3), 333‐351. *Kelty, Christopher (2008): Two bits: The cul‑

tural significance of free software. Experimental futures. Durham: Duke University Press. *Tereick, Jana (2013): Die "Klimalüge" auf YouTube: Eine korpus‑

gestützte Diskursanalyse der Aushandlung subversive Positionen in der partizipatorischen Kultur. In: Fraas, Claudia/ Meier, Stefan/ Pentzold, Christian (Hg.):

Online‐Diskurse. Köln: von HalemVerlag, 226‐257. *Wengeler, Martin (2003): Topos und Diskurs. Begründung einer argumentationsanalytischen Methode

und ihre Anwendung auf den Migrationsdiskurs (1960‐1985). Tübingen: Niemeyer. *Wengeler, Martin (2013): Historische Diskurssemantik als Analyse von

Argumentationstopoi. In: Busse, Dietrich/ Teubert Wolfgang (Hg.): Linguistische Diskursanalyse: neue Perspektiven. Wiesbaden: Springer, 189‐215.

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How Journalists Perceive Digital Surveillance. A Comparative Analysis in Europe, China and South Korea

P. Di Salvo

, G. Negro

Università della Svizzera italiana, Istituto Media e Giornalismo - IMEG, Lugano, Switzerland

In 2015, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution stating that digital surveillance endangers fundamental human rights

such as the right to privacy, freedom of information and expression. The Snowden revelations represented a watershed and a moment of discontinuity in

the way citizens inhabit the Internet and in the definition of the current digital media environment. Moreover, the 2013 NSA surveillance scandal sparked

also a lively debate around digital surveillance as a threat for journalists, their work and their sources.The discussion is taking place not only in the US but

also in Europe, China and South Korea, where instances of digital surveillance targeting journalists are a concrete threat against journalists’ safety and

the practice of news-making. In order to analyze different contexts and territories, this paper compares how European, Chinese and South Korean journalists

define surveillance and how they perceive it in the activities of their work, focusing also on the practices and technologies they adopt in order to protect

themselves from potential threats. As a first layer of analysis, the paper investigates surveillance, in the analyzed countries, on a theoretical level, both