New Forms of Political Participation: An Analysis of the Dynamic of a Political Campaign on the forum 4chan

Abstract

The focus of this work is the analysis and critical consideration of the political campaign from the forum 4chan’s – more specifically, from the subforum /pol/ (Politically Incorrect), in order to determine whether it represents a new form of political participation. By detailing major points of relevant literature on political participation, as well as through detailing the history, organization and conception of the forum 4chan, the author prepares a ground for the case study of a political campaign from /pol/. The main findings of the analysis of the selected political campaign show that it is collective, subversive, that it uses troll strategies in order to successfully realize conservative political goals and that the participation of the site’s users in them can be considered to represent a form of political participation, due to the politically motivated nature of such participation. Such a form of political participation can also be considered to be an inovative, new form of political participation, through its emphasis on the participation of a smaller number of people throughout the world, lack of an established organizational hierarchy, and its different use of social
media for content sharing.