Mediocracy or Politocracy？ The Case of Social Media in ia.pdf

munication,ISSN2160—6579 October2013,,,659-669 MediocracyorPolitocracy? ia LiaTsuladze TbilisiStateUniversity,Tbilisi,ia iaandraisesaquestionwhether panyingcitizenjournalism,themediapossessarealpotentialtogovern politics,andthescholarstalkabouttheepochofmediocracythatisthe“colonizationofpoliticsbymedialogic”. ianreality?Basedonthein-ia,ithasbeen ianrealityweencounterthecolonizationofmedia,includingthesocialmedia,bypolitics ,thiscolonizationisperformednotinanaggressiveway—_Viadirect censorship,butina“soft'’manner,.,’narratives,the iausetheirpowertopreventthesocialmediaintrusionfromthe“frontregion”tothe‘‘back region”, withtheonesofin—depthinterviewswiththemediaexperts. Keywords:socialmedia,mediocracy,ia,censorship,self-censorship Introduction 0neofthedeterminantsofthecurrentglobaltransformationsistheshiftfromtheindustrialtothe informationsociety,whichleadstotheemergenceoftheentirelynewprinciplesofthesocialandtechnological ,givingrise totheso—called“”(Merrin,2009,),whichischaracterizedbyabrandnewsystemof ,informationinthesocialmediais “controlled”byitsusers,ratherthantheproviders,whichisaprerequisitetodevelopingcitizenjournalism. , contextgivesrisetomediocracy,thatis,the“colonizationofpoliticsbymedialogic”(Meyer,2002,).A questionthatnaturallyfollowsiswhetherthesocialmedianowadayshasarealpotentialtocontrolthepolitics. Howdothepoliticalactorscopewiththissituation——dotheyemploythemethodsof“rationalizationof persuasion”(Mayhew,1997,)ampaigns,whichinturn enhancestheirprofessionalism(Negrine,2008),ordotheytrytodive~theaudience’sattentionawayfromthe routin