ABSTRACT

A path of exploration could come from an inductive turn where the adoption of a ‘cultural-diagnostic approach’ allows a temporary suspension of normative judgments while sharpening the comprehension of the cultural and sociological preconditions of the phenomenon. This chapter aims at working exactly through the discussion of a set of theoretical and empirical resources that can help to understand some of the fundamental dynamics that are involved in the relationship between political participation and online media. It draws on a circumscribed overview of most recent literature to clarify what exactly is the kind of political participation that is taking place through and within social media. The first phase of analysis consisted of developing a description of each interviewed person where his/her modes of publicness and general conversational attitudes were contextualised within his/her path of political socialisation and previous civic experiences.