ABSTRACT
While social media platforms have been praised for their capacity to facilitate civic engagement, they are increasingly also criticized for their commercial interests. In this chapter we suggest an analytical framework for examining the role of social media platforms’ commercial interests in relation to civic engagement. Rather than assuming particular tensions, our aim is to provide a framework that captures the specifics of the possibilities and constraints of social media platforms to civic engagement, paying attention to the materiality of social media platforms. The chapter is largely theoretical in scope and develops an analytical approach that considers technological, structural, discursive and practice-oriented dimensions of the intersection of civic engagement and social media. It goes beyond a focus on platforms to consider the wider power structures in which they are embedded as well as interrelations with offline conditions. Theoretically, we draw on notions of platforms (van Dijck & Poell 2013), infostructures (Flyverbom & Murray forthcoming), media practice (Couldry 2012), and discourse (Chouliaraki & Vestergaard 2019). Throughout the chapter, we illustrate the application of our framework with examples from volunteering initiatives to assist migrants arriving in Sweden at the height of the so-called refugee crisis in 2015.
