Beyond digital political communication: platforms, algorithm and automation

Convegno dell’Associazione Italiana di Comunicazione Politica (AssoComPol)

Torino, 8-10 Giugno 2023

Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società | Università di Torino

La comunicazione politica attraversa una fase di profonda trasformazione. La digitalizzazione degli ambienti comunicativi può dirsi ormai compiuta e il nuovo paradigma porta con sé nuove sfide. La piattaformizzazione della società e del web attraverso i suoi elementi  costitutivi – dati, algoritmi, automazioni e interfacce (Van Dijk et al., 2018) – ha toccato il valore pubblico della comunicazione e dell’informazione.

La datificazione investe diversi campi della società e incide sempre più sia sulla produzione che sulla comunicazione delle politiche pubbliche, modificando il rapporto tra gli attori e i processi. Il parallelo sviluppo delle tecnologie informatiche ha consentito  l’applicazione di nuove metodologie analitiche per l’investigazione dei fenomeni sociali attraverso il monitoraggio di comportamenti e azioni che altrimenti sarebbe stato difficile rilevare (Theocharis & Jungherr, 2020). Spesso, però, i dati prodotti da cittadini/utenti e  dalle loro interazioni, non sono facilmente e/o completamente accessibili soprattutto a causa della convergenza tra la logica proprietaria delle piattaforme e la tutela della privacy, che, insieme, hanno portato ulteriori restrizioni all’accesso anche per le istituzioni accademiche (Persily & Tucker, 2020).

Se i dati sono ciò che alimenta le piattaforme, gli algoritmi sono ciò che ne consente e regola il funzionamento. Nel campo della comunicazione, gli algoritmi rappresentano la manifestazione e gli esiti della media logic e di come questa viene percepita e interpretata dai  soggetti che contribuiscono allo sviluppo e alla messa in opera degli algoritmi (Klinger & Svensson, 2018). In questo contesto, lo sviluppo di tecnologie generative sempre più avanzate come Chat GPT pone interrogativi, sia da un punto di vista etico, sia rispetto  agli usi delle piattaforme in relazione alle tecnologie di intelligenza artificiale.

L’azione degli algoritmi ha da sempre suscitato l’attenzione della ricerca sociale sui rischi e sulle possibili conseguenze, come ad esempio la polarizzazione e la radicalizzazione del dibattito pubblico. Attualmente, però, concetti di successo come echo chambers (Sunstein, 2002) e filter bubble (Pariser, 2011) sembrano essere sempre meno adeguati alla spiegazione della complessità dell’interconnessione tra piattaforme e utenti. I processi di polarizzazione, infatti, appaiono maggiormente legati alla eterogeneità delle opinioni  incontrate sulle piattaforme piuttosto che all’azione di camere dell’eco (Tucker et al., 2018). Inoltre, l’azione delle piattaforme sembra ampliare il range di fonti informative a cui i cittadini/utenti sono esposti (Barberá, 2020) contrariamente a “rinchiuderli” in bolle  informative. Alla luce di queste considerazioni, il successo di Tik Tok, basato sulla logica algoritmica di selezione dei “Per te” (Newman, 2022) pone nuovi e ulteriori interrogativi per i principali attori della comunicazione politica.

Collegate alle dinamiche di  polarizzazione sono anche le manifestazioni di intolleranza, odio e inciviltà (Mason, 2018) che ripropongono e amplificano disuguaglianze strutturali e bias di genere, religiosi, etnici, ecc. Questi processi appaiono sempre più presenti nel dibattito pubblico online, soprattutto in corrispondenza di specifici eventi politici e policy controverse (Theocharis et al., 2022). In questo caso il ruolo principale delle piattaforme sembra essere quello di amplificarne la visibilità, ma anche le possibilità di rilevazione e  analisi grazie all’utilizzo di metodi computazionali (Theocharis & Jungherr, 2020).

Anche la diffusione di mis/dis-informazione è spesso collegata all’uso delle piattaforme, per quanto, tra le cause principali vi è il modo in cui questa viene “confezionata” (Vosoughi & Aral, 2018) oltre che il supporto di campagne coordinate online (Keller et al., 2019). La capacità di influenzare attitudini e comportamenti, inoltre, dipende soprattutto dall’allineamento a convinzioni politiche, morali, etc. preesistenti (Freelon & Wells, 2020) e dal grado di partisanship (Druckman et al., 2021). All’interno dell’ecosistema ibrido non risultano immuni da questi processi neanche i media tradizionali, spesso costretti a rincorrere un flusso informativo sempre più veloce e difficilmente verificabile.

Il processo di piattaformizzazione della comunicazione ha inciso anche sulla produzione informativa e sulla professione giornalistica. La predominanza delle piattaforme, infatti, ha modificato le modalità attraverso le quali gli utenti ricevono l’informazione (Nielsen & Fletcher, 2020). Le notizie condivise sulle piattaforme social, però, sono ritenute generalmente meno credibili, andando a incidere a lungo termine sulla fiducia nei media (Karlsen & Aalberg, 2021). Inoltre, i processi di adattamento dell’informazione alle logiche  algoritmiche hanno un ruolo rilevante nella crescente news avoidance (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2019) e stanno modificando sempre più il newsmaking e l’editoria, anche in relazione ai media tradizionali nel tentativo di rimanere competitivi (Newman, 2023).

Infine, tutti questi processi si svolgono in uno scenario radicalmente modificato da eventi drammatici quali la pandemia e la guerra in Ucraina. Le portata di tali eventi, da un lato ha accelerato enormemente la digitalizzazione dell’ecosistema informativo (Newman,  2022), dall’altro ha offerto la possibilità ad attori outsider e nuovi canali informativi di competere con le élite tradizionali mettendo ulteriormente in discussione ruoli e rapporti di potere (Van Aelst & Blumler, 2022).

A partire da questo framework la call for papers  ricerca contributi che indaghino l’impatto dei processi di piattaformizzazione sui campi della comunicazione politica, del giornalismo e di tutte le altre forme di comunicazione. Sono ritenute d’interesse indagini che  abbiano ad oggetto fenomeni e forme comunicative native digitali, ma anche quelle tradizionali con relative modalità di adattamento ai nuovi ambienti digitali piattaformizzati. Sono benvenuti paper di analisi teorica ed empirica, con disegni di ricerca e metodologie  qualitative, quantitative e mixed methods.

Sono temi significativi, benché non di interesse esclusivo:

• i cambiamenti intervenuti e i nuovi scenari della comunicazione nel sempre più stretto e complesso rapporto tra comunicazione politica e piattaforme;
• strategie di comunicazione politica e di governo, campagne elettorali e voto in contesti nazionali e internazionali;
• il ruolo dei dati, delle piattaforme, degli algoritmi e delle automazioni (IA, bot, ecc.) nei processi di comunicazione politica e di informazione giornalistica da parte di attori istituzionali ed extraistituzionali;
• le policy di accesso ai dati a fini di ricerca, di campagna elettorale, di profilazione del messaggio comunicativo; la trasparenza delle piattaforme e le relative tensioni con il paradigma della privacy;
• le tendenze emerse negli stili di comunicazione di leadership e partiti in un ecosistema comunicativo ibrido e piattaformizzato;
• l’infrastrutturazione tecnologica della partecipazione politica (partiti digitali, reti, influencer, meme, ugc);
• l’emergere di nuovi repertori di comunicazione politica extra-istituzionale legati a proteste, movimenti sociali e attori della società civile;
• le trasformazioni e la controversialità del dibattito pubblico con riferimento ai processi di polarizzazione ideologica e affettiva, inciviltà e alle forme di discriminazione online e offline;
• le trasformazioni e le crisi del giornalismo contemporaneo, con particolare attenzione alla crescita del fenomeno di news avoidance;
• tecniche di (computational) propaganda e mis/dis-informazione negli scenari di conflitto e trasformazioni delle coperture giornalistiche nei contesti di guerra
• proposte metodologiche ed elaborazioni teoriche per affrontare le trasformazioni della comunicazione politica generatesi nell’intersezione tra uso delle piattaforme e datificazione della comunicazione.

• Le proposte di paper devono includere: Titolo, Nome degli autori/autrici, Affiliazione con email, extended abstract di 600/800 parole esclusa bibliografia, bibliografia, 3 parole-chiave.
• Termine per l’invio delle proposte: 4 aprile all’indirizzo: call-for-abstracts-convegno-2023
• Notificazione di accettazione: 27 aprile 
• I paper completi dovranno essere inviati entro il 1 giugno nella paper room del convegno (accessibile previo login)

Beyond digital political communication: platforms, algorithm and automation

Conference of the Italian Association of Political Communication (AssoComPol)

Torino, 8-10 June 2023

Department of Cultures, Politics and Society – University of Torino

Political communication is going through a phase of deep transformation. Communicative environments have reached full digitalization, and this new paradigm brings new challenges. The platformization of society and the web through its constitutive elements – data, algorithms, automations, and interfaces (Van Dijk et al., 2018) – has affected the public value of communication and information.

Datafication affects different areas of society, and it is becoming increasingly relevant for both the production and communication of public policies. It changes the relationship between actors and processes. The development of information technologies has enabled the application of new analytical methodologies for investigating social phenomena by monitoring behaviours that would otherwise be difficult to detect (Theocharis & Jungherr, 2020). However, data produced by citizens/users and their interactions are not easily and/or fully accessible, mainly due to the convergence of proprietary platform logic and privacy protection. Access to these data have become increasingly difficult, even for academic institutions (Persily & Tucker, 2020).

While data fuel platforms, algorithms allow and rule their functioning. From a communication point of view, algorithms represent the manifestations and outcomes of media logic and how subjects perceive and interpret the latter, contributing to the development and deployment of algorithms (Klinger & Svensson, 2018). In this context, the development of increasingly advanced generative technologies such as Chat GPT raises questions from an ethical perspective and regarding the uses of platforms in relation to AI technologies as well.

Algorithms have consistently raised the attention of social research on risks and possible consequences, such as the polarization and radicalization of public debate. However, successful concepts such as echo chambers (Sunstein, 2002) and filter bubbles (Pariser, 2011) seem fewer adequate to explain the complexity of the relationship between platforms and users. Indeed, polarization dynamics appear to be more related to the heterogeneity of opinions encountered on platforms than to the action of echo chambers (Tucker et al., 2018). Moreover, platforms driven by algorithms seem to widen the range of information sources to which citizens/users are exposed (Barberá, 2020) instead of “locking them up” in self-referential bubbles. Against this background, the success of Tik Tok, based on the algorithmic logic of #foryou selection (Newman, 2022), raises new and additional questions for main actors in political communication.

Linked to polarization dynamics are also expressions of intolerance, hate, and incivility (Mason, 2018) that reinforce dimensions such as structural inequalities and biases based on gender, religion, ethnicity. These processes appear increasingly present in online public debate, especially during specific political events and controversial policies (Theocharis et al., 2022). In this case, the prominent role of platforms contributes to amplifying their visibility, but also the possibilities for detection and analysis through the use of computational methods (Theocharis & Jungherr, 2020).

The spread of mis/disinformation is also often linked to the centrality assumed by platforms although, among its main causes is the way this is “packaged” (Vosoughi & Aral, 2018) beyond the support of coordinated online campaigns (Keller et al., 2019). Moreover, the ability to influence attitudes and behaviors depends primarily on alignment with pre-existing political, moral, beliefs (Freelon & Wells, 2020) and the citizens’/users’ level of partisanship (Druckman et al., 2021). Within the hybrid media ecosystem, even legacy media are not immune to these processes, considering that they are often forced to chase an increasingly faster flow of information that is difficult to verify.

Platformization of communication has also affected information production and the journalistic profession. The dominance of platforms, in fact, has changed the ways through which users find information (Nielsen & Fletcher, 2020). However, news shared on social media are generally considered less credible, affecting trust in the media in the long run (Karlsen & Aalberg, 2021). Furthermore, the processes of adapting information to algorithmic logic play a relevant role in growing news avoidance (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2019) and are increasingly changing newsmaking and publishing, including legacy media trying to remain competitive (Newman, 2023).

Finally, all these processes take place in a scenario that has radically changed due to recent dramatic events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The scale of these events, on the one hand, has accelerated the digitization of the information ecosystem (Newman, 2022). On the other hand, it has provided the opportunity for outsider actors and new information channels to compete with traditional elites by further challenging roles and power relations (Van Aelst & Blumler, 2022).

Starting from this framework, we encourage the submission of papers investigating the impact of platformization processes on the fields of political communication, journalism, and all other forms of communication. Research that focuses on digital native phenomena and forms of communication, but also on traditional ones and their adaptation to the new platformed environments, are welcome. We are interested in both theoretical essays and empirical studies, and we welcome different methodological approaches and research designs (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods). Issues of interest include (but are not limited to):

• new communication scenarios in the increasingly close and complex relationship between political communication and platforms;
• political and government communication strategies, election campaigns, and voting in national and international contexts;
• the role of data, platforms, algorithms, and automation (AI, bots, etc.) in the processes of political communication and news reporting by institutional and non-institutional actors;
• data access policies for purposes of research, campaigning, and profiling of the communication message; transparency of platforms and related tensions with the privacy paradigm;
• the trends that have emerged in the communication styles of leaders and parties in a hybrid and platformized communication ecosystem;
• the technological infrastructure of political participation (digital parties, networks, influencers, memes, UGC);
• new repertoires of extra-institutional political communication related to protests, social movements, and civil society actors;
• the transformations and controversies of public debate concerning processes of ideological and affective polarization, incivility, and online and offline forms of discrimination;
• changes  in contemporary journalism, with a particular focus on the growth of the phenomenon of news avoidance;
• techniques of (computational) propaganda and mis/dis-information in conflict scenarios and transformations of news coverage in war contexts;
• methodological proposals and theoretical elaborations to approach the transformations of political communication generated in the intersection of platform use and communication datafication.

• Paper proposals must include: Title, Name of authors, Affiliation with email, extended abstract of 600/800 words excluding bibliography, 3 keywords, and bibliograhpical references.
• Deadline for submission of proposals: April 4 to call-for-abstracts-convegno-2023
• Notification of acceptance: April 27
• Full papers must be submitted by June 1 in the conference paper room (accessible by login)

Abstract Instructions

 Read the Call for abstracts accurately. In particular, pay attention to the word limit (600/800 words) and take note of the abstract submission deadline (April 4, 2023): you have to respect these key requirements.

>Abstracts submission form<

Note: only the first author will be notified of the successful submission of the abstract.

1. Indications

You have few lines to convince the conference committee that your work is interesting, that it makes a fresh contribution to scholarship, and that your argument stands up. In order to fulfil this objective, organise your abstract in the following section:

1. What the problem is and why people should care: Introduce the context of your study, including the particular issue or question your study responds to. Use this section to set up the context of your study and demonstrate that your question or issue is interesting and worth answering.
2. How do you assess the problem: Indicate the purpose and objective of your research, and eventually the hypotheses that you have tested.
3. Which method do you follow: Outline your project, explain the theoretical or practical techniques you employed, describe the data you used (e.g. study population, study period, data collection process) and the methods of analysis followed in order to answer the questions you have outlined in the previous section. If your paper is an argument, remember to establish the steps you go through to get to the final point.
4. What are your results: present as clearly and in as much detail as possible the findings / outcome of your study. Please summarize any specific results.
5. How does your work affect the discipline (and why people should listen to you): explain the significance of your findings / outcomes, discuss briefly the future implications of the results. In this section you need to convince the reader that your research is significant and that you deserve the time to present it.

Pay attention to include all this information by respecting the word limits! Ignoring the word limit makes it look as if you don’t have any respect for the conference organisers and the guidelines they have set, and that’s not a good impression to make. At the same time, use the all the words allowed! Do not write an abstract much shorter than what you can: it won’t stand up well against other abstracts that are using all the words at their disposal to make a convincing argument.

2. The proposal’s Must Haves

An abstract proposal consists of:

• Title
• Author list (please indicate the affiliation and the institutional mail address of each author)
• The abstract text (600/800 words)
• Bibliographical references
• 3 keywords

 3. The title: be short, be informative!

A good abstract title is short, specific, representative and informative. The title should summarize your abstract without going into excessive details. Describe the topic clearly, including, for example, the country and issue of the research.

A good title helps the reviewers categorize your abstract, and if accepted, it may help conference delegates find your session.

4. Ongoing research? Submit or not submit, that is the question

Abstracts are intended to present scientific studies, research, programs, policies, etc. highlighting both the methods or description and results or recommendations. If you are describing a study that is still in the planning stage, it would not be suitable for an abstract submission, unless the method that you will use is, for instance, of particular scientific interest. However, if your study is currently ongoing and you only have preliminary data, but it seems relevant or significant, please submit the abstract.

5. Last but not least: the selection procedure

All submitted abstracts will go through a blind peer-review process carried out by an international review committee. Each abstract will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. The Scientific Committee makes the final selection of abstracts to be included in the conference program.

>Abstracts submission form<

Ulrike Klinger (European University Viadrina – Frankfurt)

Ulrike Klinger is Professor for Digital Democracy at the European New School for Digital Studies at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and Associated Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin. She obtained her PhD at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Best Dissertation Award by the German Political Science Association DVPW in 2012). She was a Postdoc researcher at the University of Zurich (CH), an Assistant Professor for Digital Communication at Freie Universität Berlin and visiting scholar at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on political communication, the transformation of digital publics, and the role of technologies in democratic societies.

Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società (Università di Torino)

Aula ​Magna, Sala Lauree Rossa e Sala Lauree Blu

Campus Luigi Einaudi – Lungo Dora Siena, 100, 10153 Torino TO, Italia

More info on Campus Luigi Einaudi here: https://www.unito.it/ateneo/strutture-e-sedi/sedi/sedi-metropolitane-torino-e-provincia/come-raggiungerci/cle

Suggested Accommodations

The following accommodations are not affiliated with the conference.

• Hotel NH Santo Stefano ****, via Porta Palatina 19, Torino https://www.nh-hotels.it/hotel/nh-collection-torino-santo-stefano
• Hotel NH Collection Torino Piazza Carlina ****, piazza Carlo Emanuele II 15, Torino https://www.nh-collection.com/it/hotel/nh-collection-torino-piazza-carlina
• Hotel Chelsea ***, via XX Settembre 79/E, Torino https://www.hotelchelsea.it/
• Hotel Amadeus E Teatro ***, via Principe Amedeo 41 Bis, Torino http://www.hotelamadeustorino.com/
• Hotel Antica Dogana ***, via Corte d’Appello 4, Torino https://hotelanticadogana.it/it/camere.html
• Le Petit Hotel ***, via San Francesco d’Assisi 21, Torino https://www.lepetithotel.it/
• Hotel dei Pittori ***, corso Regina Margherita, 57, Torino https://www.hoteldeipittori.it/hotel/
• Hotel Alpi Resort ***, Via A. Bonafous 5, Torino http://hotelalpiresort.it/
• Albergo San Giors **, via Borgo Dora 3/A, Torino https://www.sangiors.it/
• Combo, ostello, corso Regina Margherita, 128 Torino https://thisiscombo.com/it/location/combo-torino/
• Hotel San Maurizio *, corso San Maurizio 31, Torino https://albergosanmaurizio.it/
• Residenza Universitaria Olimpia, Lungodora Siena 104, Torino https://www.edisu.piemonte.it/it/servizi/abitare/residenze-universitarie/residenza-universitaria-olimpia  
• Residenza Universitaria Cappel Verde, via Cappel Verde 4, Torino https://www.edisu.piemonte.it/it/servizi/abitare/residenze-universitarie/residenza-universitaria-cappel-verde
• •  

Non-soci – Non-members

L’iscrizione al convegno annuale 2023 per coloro che non sono soci dell’Associazione, o che non hanno rinnovato l’iscrizione per il 2023,  ha un costo di 40 euro che si può saldare utilizzando PayPal.  L’iscrizione deve effettuarsi entro il 25 maggio.

The registration fee for non-members of the Association (or that have not renewed their yearly membership yet) is Euro 40.  (There is time to pay for the 2022 membership until the 25th of May).
The non-members are kindly requested to register here:

[available soon…]

Soci – Members

I soci in regola con l’iscrizione 2023 possono registrarsi al convegno cliccando sul seguente pulsante e inserendo le proprie credenziali MyComPol entro il 25 maggio.

The regular members are kindly requested to register here until the 25th of May:

[available soon…]

Cena sociale (social dinner) – Registration required

[available soon…]

Coming soon…

Award for “Best paper by a junior researcher” at the AssoComPol conference

The award for “Best Paper by Junior Researcher” is given to the best paper presented at the Italian Political Communication Association Annual Convention (by members and non-members).

Committee

The judging committee will consist of three scholars relevant to the field appointed by the association’s Board of Directors. The committee will make comments to direct the construction of the paper and, in the case of meritorious contributions, may send it to the attention of the journal ComPol.

Criteria for application:

• Original paper accepted and presented at the annual conference of the Association;
• Author or co-author must be a junior researcher (Ph.D. student or up to 6 years post-doctoral).

Application must be received within two months after the end of the conference at the association’s e-mail address (segreteria[at]compol[dot]it) and must contain:

• A title page with Title, abstract, 5 keywords, last name, first name, affiliation of author*, link to institutional profile or doctoral thesis (if already discussed);
• Anonymized paper (max 7000 words including bibliography);
• Url to institutional profile or doctoral dissertation.

Prize

The prize will be awarded on the days of the conference in the year following the paper presentation. The prize consists of:

• A plaque “Best paper by junior researcher” year XXXX
• One-year membership in the Italian Political Communication Association
• Bonus books from il Mulino worth 200 euros.

The winner will be announced on the Association’s website www.compol.it and its social media accounts.