ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in more detail the concept of political culture in regard to the debate about understanding the mediation of civic participation through social media. It discusses the active formation of civic agency and how communication and symbolic meaning feature in the ways that people relate to each other in civic life. This includes various forms of communication and media usage that raise questions about moral practices in how people relate to each other as they engage and participate in civic and political culture. Political culture features in the shaping of political communication because it involves values, affinities, conflicts, networks and knowledge, which all frame the practices of communication and types of discussion within the civic realm. In order to understand the types of interaction that shape particular political cultures, we need to pay attention to the socio-cultural fabric in which individuals gain their sense of political astuteness, good interpretive and communication abilities.
