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Article published In:
Re/constructing Politics Through Social & Online Media: Discourses, ideologies, and mediated political practices
Edited by Michał Krzyżanowski and Joshua A. Tucker
[Journal of Language and Politics 17:2] 2018
► pp. 155–172

The impact of ‘super-participants’ on everyday political talk

| University of Melbourne |

This article analyses the impact of “super-participants” – people who create lots of content, set the agenda, or moderate debates – on everyday online political talk in a non-political online discussion forum – or “third space”. The article finds that there was extensive evidence of super-participation in the forum, and that they did impact the nature of political talk.

Keywords: political talk, online deliberation, political communication, online community, third space, super-participants
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Third space and political talk
  • 3.Super-participation
    • 3.1Super-posters (SP1s)
    • 3.2Agenda-setters (SP2s)
    • 3.3Moderators and facilitators (SP3s)
    • 3.4Strategic manipulators (SP4s)
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.The extent and impact of super-posters (SP1s)
  • 6.Agenda-setting (SP2s)
  • 7.Moderators and facilitators (SP3s)
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Bibliography
Published online: 30 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17033.wri
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