Platform Civics: Facebook in the Local Information Infrastructure

An Examination of Affiliate and Network Television Channels’ Facebook Use for Addressing Audiences’ Critical Information Needs

“…Overall, this study contributes to understanding audience engagement with critical information news topics on Facebook provided by different local television channels serving different communities. Our findings, similar to previous research, show that Facebook has emerged as an information vehicle that people use for all kinds of information, including news (Mudliar & Raval, 2018; Thorson et al, 2020). Thus, news outlets must not only look at engagement metrics but also listen to the communities to which they broadcast to better serve their localism function and provide their audiences with relevant news and information.…”

“…Some refer to Facebook groups for answers to all kinds of queries and say they represent “real people,” lived experiences, and help form offline friendships (Mudliar & Raval, 2018, p. 2062). In small towns and communities where news infrastructure is weak, Facebook is used by not just community members but also non-profits, political and civic actors and institutions, thus elevating its importance in the local information sphere (Thorson et al, 2020). There are newsrooms that lack a clear strategy, however, for engaging their audiences on social media.…”

“…Social media platforms have the potential to fulfill that need; Not only individuals from all backgrounds, private and public institutions, corporate and unorganized groups, have a presence on the sites, but the platforms aid the dissemination of a wide variety of information produced formally (such as by news and public relations organizations, other media professionals) and informally (user-generated content). Social media especially perform the duty of providing news and information to communities (Thorson et al, 2020) that have become news deserts due to decreasing local coverage and closure of several newspapers (Abernathy, 2020).…”

Advancing Research into Dark Participation

“…A recent article has developed and introduced the concept of local political information infrastructure for a study of platform civics and Facebook. The concept suggest we should broaden our perspectives when it comes to actors producing local news and local information beyond traditional news media, and account for the role of networked media logics (Thorson et al, 2020).…”

La plataformización de la comunicación política institucional. El uso de WhatsApp por parte de las administraciones locales

“…Por un lado, Facebook se ha posicionado como una plataforma práctica para crear comunidad y aumentar los niveles de compromiso de los ciudadanos con el gobierno local, especialmente cuando éste promueve acciones y publicaciones lanzadas por la ciudadanía (Reddick, et al, 2017;Bonsón, et al, 2015). En este sentido, Facebook se ha convertido en una plataforma importante en la infraestructura de información política local ya que, gracias a su mediación, los gobiernos locales están llegando directamente al público, evitando la dependencia de los medios de comunicación locales (Thorson, et al, 2020). Por otro lado, Twitter resulta un espacio útil para difundir y actualizar información de forma inmediata e, incluso, para extraer el sentimiento y la reacción del público en torno a eventos y decisiones políticas (Thelwall et al 2011, Waters & Williams 2011.…”