Understanding Political Participation in Media Discourse: A Social Representations Approach

  • Terri Mannarini Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
  • Luke Joseph Buhagiar University of Malta, Msida, Malta
  • Alessia Rochira Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
  • Evrinomy Avdi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Ifigeneia Koutri Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Anna Mylona Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Gordon Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta
  • Sergio Salvatore Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Keywords: political participation, social representations, Southern Europe, media analysis, populism

Abstract

Various forms of political participation are found in democratic societies, and these are diversifying at a steady pace. Scholarly literature presents us with an array of typologies of participation, some of which were conceived theoretically, and others derived from empirical research. This paper studies how political participation surfaces in media discourse in Italy and Greece. Specifically, it seeks to understand the social representations of political participation in both countries between 2000 and 2015, and to see which typologies of political participation are reflected in such representations. A media analysis was carried out on a sizeable corpus of newspaper articles in both countries. Data were analysed using a combination of correspondence and cluster analysis. The results indicate higher internal differentiation and gradualness characterising the social representations of political participation in the Italian corpus. In Greece, there was the presence of more radical ideological alternatives to electoral participation. Moreover, results indicate temporal stability in the themes pertaining to political participation over the years. The main  contribution of this paper lies in showing that content pertaining to various typologies of political participation (e.g., relating to influence, in/formality and protest) features in the social representations of political participation in newspaper media. Findings are discussed in view of the temporal distribution of representational content, and by comparing countryspecific typologies (for Italy and Greece) with those present in the literature.

Author Biographies

Terri Mannarini, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy

TERRI MANNARINI is full professor in social psychology at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and editor-in-chief of the international journal Community Psychology in Global Perspective. Her research interests cover political, social, and community psychology, and focus specifically on sense of community, community participation, collective action, and acculturation processes. Email: terri.mannarini@unisalento.it

Luke Joseph Buhagiar, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

LUKE JOSEPH BUHAGIAR is a PhD student in social psychology at the University of Malta. His research interests concern methodology, argumentation, social representations theory and coalitional psychology. Specifically, his main interest lies in developing better methods for studying intergroup polarisation. His PhD work focuses on the social representations of the integration of Arabs in Malta. Email: luke.buhagiar@um.edu.mt

Alessia Rochira, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy

ALESSIA ROCHIRA is assistant researcher in social psychology at the University of Salento – Lecce, Department of History, Society and Human Studies. Her research interests cover several topics at the crossroads between social and community psychology, such as interethnic relations, acculturation, sense of community, community resilience, social representations, common sense justice and legal compliance. Email: alessia.rochira@unisalento.it

Evrinomy Avdi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

EVRINOMY AVDI is associate professor in clinical psychology at the School of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is a clinical psychologist, psychodynamic psychotherapist and dramatherapist. Her research interests lie in applying discursive and narrative research to the study of the process of psychotherapy, as well as the experience of serious illness. She is particularly interested in exploring the links between deconstructive research and actual clinical practice. Email: avdie@psy.auth.gr

Ifigeneia Koutri, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

IFIGENEIA KOUTRI holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her main scientific interests are narrative psychology, meaning making, illness narratives, narrative identity, understanding experiences of illness, trauma and other disruptive life events, and social identity change in time of crisis in Europe. Email: ifikoutri@yahoo.gr

Anna Mylona, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

ANNA MYLONA is a clinical psychologist. She holds a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social clinical psychology both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is PhD candidate of Psychology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-School of Psychology. Her main research interests concern the study of psychotherapy change processes through qualitative method. She has worked as a research associate in two European funded research projects (“Relational Mind in events of change in multi-actor therapeutic dialogues” and “ReCriRe-Between the representation of the crisis and crisis of representation”). Currently, she is working as a clinical psychologist in private practice in Thessaloniki, Greece. Email:  annamylona@psy.auth.gr

Gordon Sammut, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

GORDON SAMMUT is associate professor in social psychology at the University of Malta and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His interests concern intercultural and intergroup relations, the theory of social representations, modalities of social influence and issues relating to divergent perspectives in social relations. He is chiefeditor of Cultural Encounters and Social Solidarity (special issue: Papers on Social Representations), The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations (Cambridge University Press), Understanding Self and Others: Explorations in Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity (Routledge) and Methods of Psychological Intervention: Yearbook of Idiographic Science Vol. VII (Information Age Publishing). Email: gordon.sammut@um.edu.mt

Sergio Salvatore, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

SERGIO SALVATORE is full professor in dynamic psychology at “La Sapienza” University of Rome. President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field dependent dynamics. He is also interested in the theory and analysis of psychological intervention in the clinical, educational, organisational, and social fields. On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g., Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works. Email: sergio.salvatore@uniroma1.it

Published
2020-06-10