Two provocations for the study of digital politics in time

ABSTRACT

This article confronts some of the difficulties that temporality poses for the study of digital politics. Where previous articles have discussed the unique methodological challenges for digital politics research – centrally, that we face ceteris paribus problems when attempting to study how people use a medium that is itself still being developed – this article addresses the underlying subject of temporality itself. It offers two distinct provocations. First, it discusses what we are ignoring when we discuss Internet politics in terms of an overarching “digital age” or “digital era.” Conceptualizing a uniform digital age in contraposition to previous media regimes is an easy heuristic crutch, but it comes at the cost of rendering key features of the sociotechnical system invisible. Second, the article distinguishes temporal rhythm from the more common concepts of linear and cyclical time. Particularly in the areas of contentious politics and media politics – areas that are central to the topics covered in this special issue – some of the core changes in institutional processes can be understood as a breakdown of routinized temporal processes. The article then offers suggestions for how digital politics scholars can better incorporate temporal concepts into our research.

KEYWORDS:

• Historical institutionalism
• online political advocacy
• online political activism
• digital politics

Notes

1. There are three exceptions to this rule. (1) Automated Spam-filtering technology can put the organizations messages in the rarely-visited spam folder. (2) Spam-lists maintained by Spamhaus can render organizational e-mails undeliverable. (3) Gmails “promotions” tab can also effectively decrease visibility. It is noteworthy that all three of these exceptions arise as technical solutions to the exploitation of e-mails unique affordances.

2. In The Political Value of Time: Citizenship, Duration, and Democratic Justice, Elizabeth F. Cohen argues that “scientifically-measured, durational time” – what Skowronek calls secular time – is itself deeply political (Cohen, 2018).

3. In the time that I have worked on this essay, I have participated in several panels that made reference to “the digital age.” I even helped name a few of them. Heuristic crutches can be useful time-saving devices.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Karpf

David Karpf is an associate professor in the George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs. He teaches and conducts research on digital politics.