The paper describes how the fields of politics and social media intertwine in Georgia and raises a question whether the politics governs media or the media govern politics in the Georgian reality. It is believed that ...The paper describes how the fields of politics and social media intertwine in Georgia and raises a question whether the politics governs media or the media govern politics in the Georgian reality. It is believed that in the conditions of the social media boom and the accompanying citizen journalism, the media possess a real potential to govern politics, and the scholars talk about the epoch of mediocracy that is the ＂colonization of politics by media logic＂. What about the Georgian reality？ Based on the in-depth interviews with the media experts in Georgia, it has been revealed that in the Georgian reality we encounter the colonization of media, including the social media, by politics and not the other way around. However, this colonization is performed not in an aggressive way--via direct censorship, but in a ＂soft＂ manner, e.g., by coaxing the bloggers. According to the experts＇ narratives, the politicians in Georgia use their power to prevent the social media intrusion from the ＂front region＂ to the ＂back region＂, which is assessed as one of the main distinctions in the interaction of politics and media in Georgia vs. the Western democracies. The findings of the representative survey of the internet user segment nationwide resonate with the ones of in-depth interviews with the media experts.展开更多
文摘The paper describes how the fields of politics and social media intertwine in Georgia and raises a question whether the politics governs media or the media govern politics in the Georgian reality. It is believed that in the conditions of the social media boom and the accompanying citizen journalism, the media possess a real potential to govern politics, and the scholars talk about the epoch of mediocracy that is the ＂colonization of politics by media logic＂. What about the Georgian reality？ Based on the in-depth interviews with the media experts in Georgia, it has been revealed that in the Georgian reality we encounter the colonization of media, including the social media, by politics and not the other way around. However, this colonization is performed not in an aggressive way--via direct censorship, but in a ＂soft＂ manner, e.g., by coaxing the bloggers. According to the experts＇ narratives, the politicians in Georgia use their power to prevent the social media intrusion from the ＂front region＂ to the ＂back region＂, which is assessed as one of the main distinctions in the interaction of politics and media in Georgia vs. the Western democracies. The findings of the representative survey of the internet user segment nationwide resonate with the ones of in-depth interviews with the media experts.
