Digitalization of the public sphere in Serbia: Online executive power pressure on the ombudsman and the reaction of the oppositional Twitter community

Abstract

This study examines the activity of Twitter users (twitter.com) who participated in the debate regarding the quality of service provided by Serbian ombudsman Saša Janković, which (having lasted from January to May of 2015) later developed into a discussion about his personal past. The research problem is to identify and compare online discourses, strategies and techniques used by pro and anti-government participants of digital debates in a political context such as that of contemporary Serbia, in which the public sphere is still mainly shaped by traditional media even though digital discourses are influential. The aim if the study is to a) examine online communication strategies utilized by the ruling parties in their attempt to maintain hegemony over public debates b) analyse the methods used by government opponents through which they attempt to mobilize public support online c) compare communication strategies of the opposing sides. The purpose of this study is to provide fresh empirical findings regarding the political role of new media in weak democracies, as previous works have mostly concentrated on the political role of social media in developed democracies and authoritarian regimes. The results confirm that ’networked authoritarianism’ is successful in hindering anti-government discourses and online activity, as it polarizes the ’digital public sphere’, but the findings also indicate that anti-government strategies of ’networking’ and ’raising awareness’ play an important role for opposing the government online.1