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Will social media save democracy?
Political leadership in the age of social media
An olistic approach?
The quality of democracy: a multidimensional model
The context of late western democracies
Exhausted democracies?
Global scale -> crisis of participation and rising of delegation
Sub-global scale -> self-building “casta”: politicians’ élites close themselves in a walled garden (for instance using electoral mechanisms).
Global scale -> Contamination of public sphere with gossip
Personalisation of politics
Leadership as a core element of the political purpose
Leader as a symbolic tool for party/coalition identity and for electoral campaign
Leader as a character of a symbolic narration where private and public topics are mixed (for instance: representation of leaders’ families as dinasties)
The rise of social networks
Development of social media as tools for
new collective identities and organized movements
new kind of parties centered on the strong use of internet tools
“political” or “prepolitical”, non continuous activities related to single facts or opinion campaigns
Traditional vs New?
Traditional model New model
Adult, professional politicians
One way media (newspapers, Tv)
Durable leadership, grounded on the apparatus
Young non professional politicians
Digital interactive media (internet, social networks)
Grassroots, dynamic leadership
Critical points
Forms of representation (often the same in traditional and social media)
Topics source (often the topics come from traditional media; they are only elaborated and shaped within the s.m.)
Political status is not indifferent in positioning subjects in the political media environment
Every form of leadership depends on the process of selection within different élites (s.m. èlites included)
Leadership and social visibility
According with Foucault, we can distinguish between two forms of power, characterized by different forms of visibility:
Power of sovereignity (visibility of the leader, invisibility of the subject)
Power of surveillance (visibility of the citizen, invisibility of the institutions)
Actual forms of visibility
New development of sovereignity visibility: the exibition of the leaders is continuous, enphasized, and symbolize political parties and coalitions.
The visibility of the citizen within the s.m. is often connected with new forms of social control or monitorizing.
The results are new forms of interaction between the two forms of power analyzed by Foucault
The new sovereignity model
Strong concentration of political/symbolic power
Overexposition in the traditional media
(sovereignity model)
Overesposition in social media
Surveillance model
Visibility as a weak point
Crisis of the sovereignity model
Crisis of the leadership
Traditional leader- building process
Personalisation and exposition
The Milan SpringSocial media and
local elections
Fausto Colombo
Università Cattolica di Milano
Italy
Time line of local elections 2011 in Italy
First ballot: may, 15th and 16th Second ballot: may, 22th and -23°
Referendum (june, 2nd) to abrogate laws about privatization of water, nuclear energy (laws approved by Berlusconi Government)…
Local elections: dimensions
1343 municipalities*
*(Among them some big towns/metropolies Torino, Milano, Napoli, Bologna, Cagliari)
11 provincial administrations*
*(In Italy’s system of local government, each province is made up of a group of neighbouring municipalities, the most important of which acts as the provincial capital. Each province is served by a provincial council, a committee, and a president)
Political (national) context
National government is formed by a right-wing coalition (PDL+LN). The premier is Silvio Berlusconi
The polls showed a lasting approval to the national government by the majority of citizens
Milan, in particular, is the core of the right-wing coalition (many mayors from right-wing parties since the early 90s)
Characteristics of the electoral mechanism
National and local elections have different rules: National elections: Italian electoral legislation
went from a proportional to a first-past-the-post system in 1993 but in 2005 the proportional system was restored, with a majority premium, single ballot, without preferential vote
Local elections present a first-past-the-post system, double ballot, with preferential vote.
Milan context
Right-wing candidate: the incumbent mayor Letizia Moratti (past president Rai, past minister of school and university)
Left-wing candidate: Giuliano Pisapia, famous lawer, past member of the Parliament as a representer of the extreme left
The primary election and Pisapia’s victory
Primary elections for the left-wing candidate: Pisapia is candidate by the civil society, against the candidate of the PD, Stefano Boeri
Pisapia win the primary election (14th November 2010: 45%, against Boeri’s 40%. Voters about 77.600).
PD endorses Pisapia as a candidate of the whole coalition
David vs Goliath
Electoral expenses Moratti electoral committee: 10 millions euros Pisapia electoral committee: 1.100.000 euros
Expenses per voter: Moratti: 287 euros Pisapia 0.60 euros
David vs Goliath 2
Moratti endorsements Institutions: National Government, Regional
Government, Provincial Government Media: main local Tv and Radio many
newspapers Pisapia endorsments
Lobbies Some newspaper (Repubblica f.i.) Social media
Polls
The electoral law in Italy does not allow publication of polls within the two weeks before the elections. At that point, the polls showed Moratti leading, althought Pisapia was rocovering.
After the limit, the polls continued to be published, with some trick:http://www.sondaggibidimedia.com/2011/05/corse-clandestine-le-ferrari-vincono.html
Campaign Key Issues
Moratti: Claiming for good results in government Self definition as a moderate Attack on Pisapia, as a friend of squatters, extremist,
past defender of terrorists... Pisapia:
Need for a change in Milan Attack on Moratti, as a conservative, unfit for innovation Need for a different politics, more participated by
citizens
Sky elections
Preliminary remarks: the “par condicio” law The Sky campaign: Sky News propose the
face-to-face formula as a democratic tool First face-to-face on Sky Pisapia Moratti and
Moratti attack (May 11th): http://tv.repubblica.it/edizione/milano/l-attacco-della-moratti-a-pisapia/68156?video=&pagefrom=1
Second ftf (May 26th): Pisapia is absent. Within the studio Moratti and an empty chair
The web strikes back
Mediatic effects after the Face-to-face Traditional media show Moratti lied Rumors about a U-turn in the polls Social media:
Facebook and Moratti Quotes Sucate Campaign Movies on Youtube Il favoloso mondo di Pisapia (The
Fabulous World of Pisapie)
Moratti Quotes on Facebook
Facebook collective campaign: people supporting Pisapia posted paradoxical negative sentences about him:
Pisapia has found the Holy Grail, but he uses it to put toothbrush and toothpaste.
Pisapia has stolen the van the A-Team. Pisapia sends spam emails with viagra. Pisapia sends letters without a stamp. If you listen to the contrary Pisapia hear the sound of the
devil. Pisapia is building the Death Star
The fabulous world of Pisapie
Source: Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, 2001 (english translation: Amélie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwDWrrW4cg8
Sucate
Complaint about an unauthorized mosque at the quarter named Sucate (wich doesn’t exist) sent to Moratti electoral committee
The committee replies assuming the real existence of Sucate and the mosque (!?)
Start of the countercampaign on the web
The Sucate countercampaign
Wikipedia Entries: Sucate and Giandomenico Puppa (name of the street of the hypothetical unauthorized mosque)
Fakes on the web
Election results
Pisapia won: First ballot: Pisapia 48,04%, Moratti 41,58% Second ballot: Pisapia 55,12%, Moratti 44,88%
The left-wing coalition won the elections in Italy (also in Naples, Turin, Bologna, Cagliari)
At the referendum (first time in 20 years) the voters reached the majority plus one, and the laws are abrogate
The role of social media
SM have been effective because people involved (as activists or receivers) in left-wing campaign are web-oriented in their approach to political information and communication (public sphere)
SM strenght is in inverse proportion to the capability of traditional media to get the trends in civil society
http://www.sondaggielettorali.it/
http://www.sondaggielettorali.it/
The role of social media 2
Communication mistakes made by the right-wing coalition (see the inflation of Moratti’s FB profiles) allowed the opposite coalition to use the web in a paradoxical and satyrical way
This kind of use is typical of the web and SMs, and enable them to be more and more effective in their communication (false vs fake)
The rise of indignation
Pisapia’s victory and the success of the referendum are a typical italian phenomenon
Social movements before the elections (women, jobless, students and teachers)
General crisis of so-called Berlusconism, from the point of view Of the political proposal Of the typical media mix (Tv centered)
The mechanism of the victory is the “building of social hero”
The rise of indignation 2
Pisapia’s victory and the success of the referendum are also part of a wider, global phenomenon (indignados in Spain, arabian riots and revolutions, riots in many countries)
And depends on general causes Economic Ideological/political Social
The importance of social media in electoral campaigns…
…depends on Weakness of traditional media Strong presence of social identities Political culture oriented towards participation
Political Mediatic Social
