New media technology has brought heated debate about its power to transform existing structures and relations in national and international communications. It is expected to either democratize or reproduce current political communication processes. At the same time, new media technology raises concerns that it may promote a global convergence of communication cultures to the American model. Political blogging, online personal publishing of observations and comments about news and politics with frequent links to other Web sources, provides a useful ground to test these competing theses since political blogging emerged as a citizen-based, alternative media in the U.S. and has subsequently been diffused internationally. This dissertation compares political blogs in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany to investigate how national political systems and communication cultures shape the structures and practices of political blogging across the three countries. Based on the media’s relative power in the public sphere and communication processes, political communication culture is distinguished as a mediatized culture in the U.S., a politicized culture in Germany, and a culture-in-between in the U.K. Different systems and cultures are predicted not only to foster political blogging to varying degrees but also to shape different fabrics of relations among political bloggers and other participants in political communication in each country. Using the rankings of political blogs in the three countries, the 106 top political blogospheres and linking patterns of individual political blogs to various websites in the countries. Findings from this dissertation reveal both cross-national commonalities rooted in general human tendencies and national particularities emerging from different structural factors internal to the three countries. Across the three countries, bloggers make more communicative ties to politically like-minded blogs and websites than to those with opposing perspectives. Blogging networks of the three countries represent very unequal spaces, with a few blogs having a disproportional number of incoming links. Also, blogs are highly insulated geographically with bloggers making links mostly to other bloggers and sites within their own countries. There are also notable cross-national differences in network structures and linking patterns. The U.S. blogging network has more dense interconnections among its members compared with British and German networks. Also, America’s mediatized culture increases the probability that political blogs choose to link more to news media sites compared to British and German bloggers. On the other hand, British and German blogs in politicized cultures make links to government websites more frequently than do American blogs. Additionally, the U.S. political blogosphere shows greater segregation between blogs of competing political perspectives, compared with U.K. and German blogospheres. Findings are discussed in light of two key questions about the nature of political blogging (1) as a new technology-enabled medium facilitating cross-national convergence in communication practice, and (2) as a revolutionary venue revitalizing the public sphere and democracy. / text

Given the novelty of political campaigning on social networking sites in Lithuania and the critique, it has received from social media experts, the object of the master thesis encompasses mediatization of Lithuanian politics on Facebook, when social media logic becomes adapted in political campaigning and integrated into the political agenda. Accordingly, the MA thesis developed its aim to define in what ways mediatization of Lithuanian politics manifests on Facebook and if public-relations oriented Lithuanian political communication culture, characteristic to political communication on mass media, and negativity, as its culture-specific aspect, are transported to the platform. The research was carried out in several stages. Firstly, using secondary data analysis the study aimed at determining social media logic. Accordingly, the requirements for successful exploitation of social media logic in political campaigning on Facebook were identified – popularity building, connectivity, personalization and interactivity. Thirdly, aiming to determine if the politicians complied with social media logic and transported public-relations oriented political communication culture and negativity to the platform, the research used quantitative and qualitative content analyses. It covered a two-weeks period (from April 02 to April 15, 2014) political campaigning on Facebook run by the seven candidates' to Lithuanian President’s Office. Fourthly, using the obtained empirical data the study... [to full text] / Nors Lietuvos politinė komunikacija socialiniuose tinkluose yra gana naujas reiškinys, jis jau sulaukė socialinių medijų ekspertų kritikos. Šio magistro baigiamojo darbo tyrimo objektu pasirinkta Lietuvos politikos mediatizacija socialiniame tinkle Facebook, kuomet politinių kampanijų metu politikai adaptuoja socialinių medijų logiką ir ją integruoja į savo politinę dienotvarkę. Darbe siekta nustatyti, kokiais būdais Lietuvos politikos mediatizacija pasireiškia internetiniame socialiniame tinkle Facebook. Taip pat buvo svarbu išsiaiškinti, ar Lietuvos viešųjų ryšių (ang. Public-relations oriented) politinės komunikacijos kultūra, ugdoma masinėje žiniasklaidoje, ir jai būdingas negatyvumas perkeliami į Facebook platformą. Tyrimas atliktas keliais etapais. Pirmojo etapo metu, naudojant antrinių duomenų analizę, buvo įvardyta socialinių medijų logika. Tokiu pat būdu nustatyti reikalavimai, leidžiantys išnaudoti socialinių medijų logiką politinių kampanijų metu, t. y., populiarumo didinimas, socialinių ryšių išnaudojimas, personalizacija ir interaktyvumas. Trečiojo etapo metu, siekiant atskleisti Lietuvos politikų komunikacijos atitikimą socialinių medijų logikai ir galimą viešųjų ryšių politinės komunikacijos kultūros bei negatyvumo perkėlimą į Facebook platformą, tyrime naudojama kiekybinė ir kokybinė turinio analizė. Ištirtos septynių kandidatų į 2014 metų Lietuvos Prezidento postą dviejų savaičių laikotarpio (balandžio 02–15 dienomis) politinės kampanijos socialiniame... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]