Digitization of Socio-Political Interaction: Mobilization of Real and Virtual Communication

Abstract

Digital communication allows almost every subject of social and political interaction to act as a communicator, interpreter, and broadcaster of information. Online users can also act as petitioners, appealing to the authorities, other citizens, opinion leaders, experts, etc. Government representatives are interpreters and administrators of political decisions. Digital communication gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their social positions, citizenship, solidarity, and attitudes. And this is where the following contradiction arrives. On the one hand, the authorities need to mobilize real and virtual communication. On the other hand, they perceive mobilized population as a threat: to be controlled, organized social communities require resources, as well as complex and expensive measures. The authors reviewed publications that featured socio-political interaction. The review revealed that the mobilization of civic participation remains understudied. Digitalization increases the importance and relevance of network practices of social activism. Traditional forms of interaction between community members and authorities are gradually being replaced by networked, flexible, and participatory ones. Constructive and destructive forms of mobilization transform socio-political relations. The review provided a diversification of constructive and destructive practices of public participation in decision-making at federal, regional, local, and company levels. Digital forms and methods of socio-political interaction increase in number, and theri measurement indicators keep changing.